Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“Oh, Ollie, what have you done?” Kat asked.
“If that’s even his name,” Sienna murmured.
“You think he’s our Danny Boy?”
“I’d bet on it.”
Kat pressed her lips together, looking around. “If he is, then rationally, that would make this dude—”
“Father,” Sienna finished.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Sienna and Kat watched from the porch as the SUV carrying the body that had lain dead in the bedroom upstairs for at least two decades drove away. Sienna moved her neck from one side to the other, stretching out her sore muscles. The sun was dipping in the sky, which made Sienna realize they’d been there for hours. She and Kat had stayed at the scene, while Ingrid had gone back to the station to pull up everything she could about Oliver Finley and the house where he’d lived with a corpse for who knew how long. The criminalists were still crawling the property, and an APB had been put out on Oliver Finley’s vehicle. The one found covered in the detached garage had come back registered to Sheldon Biel, forming an undeniable connection between Oliver and the crimes being committed. It seemed there was no doubt they’d indeed found their Danny Boy.
Oliver Finley had been contracted by the staffing company to work at the police station approximately six months before. The company had done the usual background check, but it’d come up clean. At that moment, they had no idea if Oliver had purposely set about working there in an attempt to gather information about his planned crime spree or whether it’d been pure luck on his part, as he’d been working as a janitor for years at that point. They were keeping an open mind, but Sienna had trouble believing there was any pure luck when it came to this case.
It did explain exactly how he’d known her name as the detective working the case right off the bat, even though she’d been new to the station. It would have given him time to do a simple search on her and tie Gavin into his game immediately too. Maybe he’d even chosen her specifically because he’d believed she’d be the least likely to work out his clues. Which made her feel less personally targeted, at least.
“The house is owned by a man named Patrick Finley, who, according to tax records, fell off the grid about twenty years ago,” Ingrid, who’d just arrived on the scene, told them.
“If by ‘fell off the grid’ you mean he’s been decaying in his bed, then yeah,” Kat said.
Ingrid gave her a wry tilt of her lips, moving a couple of steps to the side as a criminalist came through carrying several large plastic evidence bags that looked to be filled with bedding. “Here’s the really interesting part. The Patrick Finley who bought this house actually died twenty-seven years ago.”
“Wait, what?” Sienna asked. “How?”
“Natural causes, apparently. Something heart related. However, right before he died, his company went under. It turns out his business partner had made several extremely bad business deals and then tried to cover it up, later embezzling money. Then that business partner, Roger Hastings, disappeared.”
“Roger,” Kat said, her eyes meeting Sienna’s. “Father.”
“Right. Also, when he disappeared, he took his child with him. A seven-year-old boy named Daniel.”
“Oh,” Sienna breathed. “Roger, Father, stole his son and then took on his dead business partner’s identity.”
“Wow,” Kat said. “And then he changed his son Daniel’s name to Oliver, a.k.a. Ollie.”
“But he still thought of himself as Danny Boy,” Sienna murmured. “At least in his writings he did.” She thought for a second. “How did he get the paperwork to do all of that? I mean, if he had his partner’s documents, I guess it could be easy enough. But what about his son’s?”
“We’re still looking into that. Roger’s family owns two casinos in Vegas, though, and if you have enough money, you can pretty much buy anything. It’s possible they helped him or at least inadvertently funded him, even if temporarily.”
True. Sienna considered it. All he’d really needed was a forged birth certificate, and the rest would be relatively easy. “Why would his family aid and abet him?”
“Families do illegal things for family members for all sorts of reasons—false loyalty, fear of guilt by association, a way to get that person the hell away from their reputation, especially considering their very public business. But in any case, to this day, he’s still wanted by police for child abduction,” Ingrid said.
Well, not exactly. Roger Hastings was likely nothing but bones headed to the morgue as they spoke. “Where did he take the kid from?”
“Right here in Reno. The wife reported them both missing immediately after it happened, and they searched for them but didn’t have any luck.” She moved to the side again as another criminalist came through. “That’s all I have for now, but Xavier and several available POs are making calls and doing information searches. We’ll have a more complete picture soon. Sienna, can I speak with you for a moment?” Ingrid asked.