Page 52 of Child In Jeopardy

But where?

“Let’s go with them,” Duncan instructed, taking out his phone. “We still need that warrant, because anything we find here might not be admissible without it.”

True, and it could mean a killer could walk. No way did they want that to happen. Not when they had perhaps finally found Alicia’s body.

While they kept watch around them and started back toward the parking lot, Duncan made a phone call to the county district attorney so he could give a push on that warrant. The fog had gotten even thicker now. Even if they managed that warrant inthe next couple of hours, the CSI team might not be able to start right away because of visibility. Still, they had to try, and they might be able to set up enough fans and blowers to keep away the fog while they at least set up something to secure the grave and remains.

“Will you arrest Leonard for murder?” Pamela asked. It took Slater a moment to realize she was directing the question at him.

“I’m not sure what will happen,” he answered honestly as Lana helped her mother into the back seat of the cruiser. Duncan got behind the wheel, and Slater took shotgun.

“He’ll be arrested,” Pamela concluded, breaking into another sob. “He must have killed Taylor. And Stephanie. I know it was Buck who smothered her, but Leonard would have been part of that, too.”

Yeah, he would have been if Leonard was actually Buck’s accomplice. It meant Leonard had also been responsible for the attacks on him and Lana.

Hell.

If Leonard had truly done all of this, then Slater would make sure the man paid and paid hard.

Lana kept her arm around her mother, but she pinned her gaze to Slater. “What did you see in the grave?” she mouthed.

Slater went through the photos he’d taken and enlarged the one that showed the heart pendant. Lana studied it, frowned and shook her head. “It looks familiar,” she said, again mouthing the words.

He nodded an agreement and tried to force himself to think. And then Slater recalled the party photo of Alicia, Leonard, Buck and Marsh that Taylor had shown them. After Taylor’s murder, the phone she’d had with her had been taken into evidence, and Slater was hoping that photo was still on thephone and that Taylor hadn’t moved it back to the storage cloud the woman had mentioned.

Slater called the lab and said a quick thanks when someone actually answered. Better yet, it was a tech, Mark Gonzales, who Slater knew well.

“I need a favor,” Slater said to Mark after they’d exchanged greetings. “I need you to check the photos on Taylor Galway’s phone. I’m looking for a picture taken twenty years ago at a party. Leonard Walsh is in the shot. So is Buck Holden,” he added, knowing that Mark would likely recognize those two faces.

Slater was hoping that Pamela wouldn’t be listening to the conversation, but when he glanced back at Lana and her, he realized Pamela was now staring at him.

“Taylor sent me a picture of Leonard and Buck at a party,” Pamela muttered, and she began to fish her phone from her pocket.

“Got it,” Mark said just as Pamela started scrolling through her own photos. “I’m texting it to you now.”

Slater’s phone dinged, and the picture loaded. Yeah, it was the one all right, and he immediately saw what he’d been pretty sure he remembered.

The heart pendant.

Alicia was wearing it.

Hell. Slater doubted that was a coincidence, and it was yet another piece of evidence pointing to it being Alicia’s body in the grave.

“Thanks,” Slater told Mark, and he ended the call. Since Duncan had finished talking to the DA, Slater passed him his phone so he, too, could take a look.

“Here it is,” Pamela said, lifting up her own phone for them to see.

It was the same photo all right. The one that had convinced Slater that Alicia and Leonard had been having an affair. It was also the one where Marsh had seemed to be mooning over Alicia. And where Buck and Leonard had appeared to be very friendly.

“Why did you want to see it?” Pamela asked, but she didn’t wait for an answer. She turned the photo back toward her, and her gaze combed over it. Anger flashed in her eyes. Raw, vicious anger that she quickly shut down. “Leonard was sleeping with her, and then he killed her.”

“Why would he have done that?” Duncan came out and asked.

Pamela lifted her shoulder in a shrug and kept her attention on the photo. “Maybe because Alicia tried to blackmail him or something. He opened himself up to blackmail when he got in bed with her.” She stopped and gasped. “The necklace,” she muttered.

Slater and Duncan exchanged surprised glances. “What necklace?” Lana asked, taking the phone from her mother so she could see.

“That one. The heart,” Pamela blurted, but then she made another of those sobbing sounds. “It’s the same one. I’m sure of it.”