Home To Stay. Kate James

       CHAPTER FOUR

      SHANNON WAS BACK in the squad room early the next morning. She watched the flurry of activity around her and knew most of it had to do with Dylan Evans.

      The boy was still missing.

      She, Logan and Ariana hadn’t come up with any great revelations the evening before. Judging by the bustle around her, neither had the investigative team.

      She recognized the two FBI special agents who’d been assigned to the case—Leary and Wilson. Bigelow from the Special Response Team was there too, and she knew most of the other officers, who were from the SDPD. They were filing into the conference room.

      When she saw Logan enter the squad room, she hurried over to him.

      “I know I’m not needed actively on the case right now, but is it okay if I sit in on the briefing?”

      He looked at her sympathetically. “You have a heavy workload with Cal gone. Are you sure you have the time?”

      “It matters,” she said softly.

      Logan held her gaze, then slowly nodded. “Okay. Good training for you,” he said, making her feel less awkward about her personal interest in the case.

      She started toward the conference room, but he forestalled her with a hand on her arm.

      “If you need to leave anytime during the briefing, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

      She felt his comment was a discreet reference to her emotional state the evening before. It told Shannon that Logan realized she wanted in, not just because of Dylan but also because of Charlie. She was fortunate to have such an understanding boss. “Thanks,” she said with a grateful smile.

      She took a seat along the back wall, near the door rather than at the table. She was an observer, not a participant. And it would make for an unobtrusive exit should she need to leave.

      “First, to recap,” Bigelow began. “The missing boy is four-year-old Dylan Evans. Dylan’s been missing for over a day, and there’s been no ransom demand. No contact with his family or the police. Dylan’s father, Sawyer Evans, is a former high-profile prosecutor with the San Diego County District Attorney’s office and is now a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Evans says he stopped practicing law and became a professor shortly after a challenging case involving a young man, Stewart Rankin, from a rich and privileged family.” He swept his gaze around the room. “Many of you will remember that Rankin killed five people in a motor-vehicle accident while driving under the influence.”

      A hand went up and Bigelow pointed at the uniform.

      “That’s the guy who’d been out partying with his buddies. A stag before his wedding. Drove a high-end Porsche Carrera, right?”

      Bigelow nodded. “Yeah, that’s Rankin. Evans was the prosecutor. He won the case. Rankin was sentenced to twelve years in prison. His family has money and they threw a considerable amount at his defense team. Evans says the trial was brutal and his involvement, the effort and energy required, took a toll on his personal life. His wife, Jeannette Evans, left him and their one-year-old son shortly afterward, without discussion or warning. She didn’t return home from her fitness club one day. His workload had been an issue between them ever since Dylan’s arrival. Although the case was technically still open, since there was no indication of foul play, the assumption was that she’d had enough and left. There was some speculation that post-partum depression might have been a factor, but nothing conclusive was known in that regard.”

      That was news to Shannon. Sawyer must have been heartbroken and reeling from his wife’s desertion. She raised her hand. “Is Jeannette a possible suspect?” she asked when Bigelow signaled to her to speak.

      “I was just getting to that. I checked the case file. She simply disappeared. Vanished without a trace. Her car was in the club’s parking lot. There was nothing captured on the facility’s security cameras. Subsequent to her disappearance, there was no use of credit cards, accessing of bank accounts or contact with anyone she’d known. Ultimately and on that basis, the detectives concluded she was more than likely deceased. This is where the question of post-partum depression arose. As I said, the case remains open, but since there was no evidence of a struggle or any indication to the contrary, foul play was ruled out.”

      He got up to walk around the room. “I spoke to the detective who had the lead. She said Evans hired a private investigator to look for his wife. It was his call, although the detective had cautioned that it was highly unlikely the PI would find anything we hadn’t. She said Evans was highly distraught. Understandably. He had a new kid and had lost his wife. Said they’d been together since high school.” He shrugged. “As expected, the PI didn’t turn up anything new. There were no clues as to where she’d gone or what had happened to her.

      “The only thing that kept Evans functioning, according to the detective, was his kid. His son’s welfare became Evans’s priority. He changed jobs to be able to spend as much time with the kid as possible. As is standard procedure in cases like this, Evans was looked at as a possible suspect but cleared.”

      Bigelow was known to be a tough cop, but Shannon could see that even he was moved.

      “How could the guy have foreseen that taking his son on a family vacation would turn into a parent’s worst nightmare?” He shook his head. “Speaking of nightmares, Evans said his kid had them from the time his mother left, and only now are they becoming less frequent. Let’s get this kid back to his father as soon as we can. Special Agent Leary will cover what we’ve got so far.”

      Bigelow switched places with Leary. “Sadly, not much,” Leary began. “Yesterday we went over all the possibilities with Evans. His acquaintances and neighbors, his current and past colleagues and, going further back to his tenure as an assistant district attorney, any and all people he’d prosecuted. The DA’s office is reviewing their files, too. We haven’t hit on anything, but the most likely suspects—operating on the assumption that he or she is known to Evans—are people he’d prosecuted as an assistant DA.”

      Leary held up his hands when murmurs broke out across the room. “I know that takes us back three years or more, but we can’t ignore it. We’re paying particular attention to the people who’d been convicted. Especially those who received long sentences, as well as their family members. We also looked at associates—in and out of prison—where applicable. Anyone who’d been recently released. Five made it to the top of our list. First up is Stewart Rankin, whom Detective Bigelow just mentioned. He’s serving twelve years in the George F. Bailey Detention Facility. Next is Donna Thompson, convicted of being a drug mule for one of the Mexican cartels, serving a seven-year sentence. With her, there could be a cartel angle, depending on how integrated she was with the organization.”

      “You should talk to Rick Vasquez about that,” Logan interjected. “Rick and his narcotics-detection dog, Sniff, were instrumental in taking her down. Rumor had it she was personally involved with one of the Sinaloa cartel’s lieutenants. Although we didn’t get any of the cartel’s key operatives, the takedown was significant because of the size of the seizure and, perhaps more importantly, the closing down of one of their most lucrative smuggling routes.”

      Leary