Crossfire (Cross Duet #1)

26. IVY

26

IVY

I shifted uneasily in my seat, my hands fidgeting in my lap. “Have you found any leads?”

Detective Mitchell leaned forward, his elbows resting on the desk. “My analyst is still scrubbing the texts you provided and attempting to track the data. Not surprisingly, they were sent from a burner phone.”

Yeah. That’s what Google said.

“How long do you think it will take to finish the analysis?” I pressed.

The detective remained silent, studying me intently. “It’s difficult to say. Sometimes, we get lucky and find something right away; sometimes, weeks can pass without any more intelligence. Sometimes longer.”

But there was something different in his facial expression today, something I couldn’t put my finger on. Was he onto something and didn’t want to tell me, didn’t want to get my hopes up?

When he’d tried to decline a meeting with me today, I assumed it was because he hadn’t had enough time to dig into this, or maybe he was still staunchly believing my attempted murder was “simply” a human trafficking thing gone wrong. But now, I wondered if something had changed.

Or maybe my mind was seeing something that wasn’t really there.

Detective Mitchell proceeded to go through everyone in my life one more time, confirming the status of relationships and last interactions. From close people, like my mom, to colleagues at work, he methodically checked off each person on his list. He even inquired about my mother’s ex-boyfriend, Steven Hackett, along with a neighbor who’d had a fleeting crush on me before moving out of state a month ago. The detective’s line of questioning seemed to linger longer than last time.

“Do you still think this was a stranger that tried to kill me?” I asked. “Human trafficking?”

Detective Mitchell closed the notebook in front of him.

“Let me do some more digging,” he hedged. “I’ll be in touch.”

Great. That wasn’t a no, and if it was someone in my life…what if they came back?