Actually, it sounded to Cat like Tyler hadn’t liked or respected women at all. He’d used and discarded them like tissues during a head cold.
Tyler Eckerd wasn’t a good guy. He was a creep.
But that didn’t mean he deserved to be gunned down. No one deserved that.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
“Yes,once I received the ballistics report, it was clear to me that Josh wasn’t the target of the shooter.”
Finn sat across the desk from Cat and Tate, his expression somber as he played with a pencil in between his fingers. He’d agreed to speak with them at the last minute, but he’d said he only had a few minutes before a meeting.
“That’s it?” Cat asked, her gaze darting from Finn to Tate and then back again. “You already knew?”
“I just realized it when I received the ballistics report. I’ve been working on determining the new direction of the investigation. It sounds like you might have some good ideas. But I have to say, you shouldn’t have done any investigating on your own. It’s a dangerous thing to do, and we already have one dead body around here. We don’t need more.”
“We only went to see Tyler’s friend,” Tate pointed out. “Greg wasn’t even in town when Tyler was shot.”
“True, but I’m not a huge fan of civilians running around trying to dig up information.”
Tate held up Tyler’s cell phone.
“This sort of fell into our laps. There was no digging involved. It looks like he had a girlfriend here in Winslow Heights, and she threatened him.”
“I’ll follow up with a search on his phone records, find out who she is,” Finn replied. “In the meantime, I need you to leave that with me. It’s evidence at this point.”
“What happens now?” Cat asked.
Finn smiled and chuckled a bit.
“For you? Nothing. Nothing happens. You go home. You live your life. You leave the police work to me.”
“But you’re going to try and find Tyler’s girlfriend?” Tate asked.
“I am, but I want to caution you that she might not be the answer to the question. Yes, she made a threat, but lots of people have made idle threats when they get dumped. Ninety percent of the time, nothing ever comes of it. I just don’t want you to be disappointed when I find her and she doesn’t turn out to be the shooter.”
“She could be, though,” Cat said. “There’s the other ten percent.”
“And that’s why I’m going to find out who she is,” Finn replied. “I might get lucky, and she’ll be the guilty party, but I’m not counting any chickens today. Sometimes, it’s not that easy.”
“There is one loose end,” Cat pointed out. “Someone tried to run over Josh.”
“I’ve thought about that,” Finn replied. “I think whoever shot Tyler jumped on the bandwagon of everyone thinking the intended victim was Josh. If there was another attempt on his life, then it would cement that Tyler was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“And they just happened to hit him with a vehicle that looked like Rachel’s,” Tate said. “But they specifically didn’t finish the job. They drove away. It points to someone local.”
Tate sat back in his chair, rubbing at his temple.
“But anyone in town could have known about Josh’s biking hobby. He didn’t make any secret out of it, and because he’s lived his entire life here, he knew a ton of people. We’re not narrowing this down at all.”
“It’s not for you to worry about,” Finn repeated. “This is a police matter. I think it’s wonderful that you care enough about your friend to want to see his killer behind bars, but I cannot stress enough that you need to stay out of this. Someone is dead. You don’t want to be the next one.”
Cat and Tate dutifully nodded, although she could tell that he wasn’t happy about it. Finn’s expression could only be described as dubious, as if he, too, didn’t believe them.
But some things were best left to experts. She and Tate didn’t know how to catch a killer. At least they could say they’d brought a big lead to law enforcement that might help.
Some woman in Winslow Heights had threatened Tyler right before he ended up dead. She was where the investigation needed to start.
