Temptation Trails (The Haven Brothers #3)

“No, but he’d only just left, I think the day before she disappeared. He could have done it before.”

“Do you remember when the flowers arrived, relative to when she disappeared?

“A day or two before, I think.”

I kept my expression carefully neutral, but inside I was seething. It was possible those packages had come from her ex-boyfriend. But what if they hadn’t? How could the investigators have been sure? Those items should have been taken in as evidence. How could someone have dropped the ball so badly?

“You don’t happen to have those packages or any of the things they contained, do you?”

“No, I don’t. It seemed sort of morbid to keep them.”

“Of course.”

“Why are you so interested in them? I thought they didn’t have anything to do with her murder.”

“I’m just looking at her case with fresh eyes. Were there any other strange incidents you can recall around the time of her initial disappearance? Any indication she was being watched or followed?”

“She did seem preoccupied. Like she was nervous. I remember because she wasn’t usually like that. She was such a happy person. It was like there was a cloud following her around. But she didn’t tell me why, so I don’t know what was making her feel that way.”

I hesitated before asking, but I had to know. “She didn’t happen to get anything on her car? A gift bag, maybe with a stuffed animal in it?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. At least not that I know of.”

That was a relief. “Okay. Thank you for your time and I apologize for poking at a painful wound.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’ll help in any way I can if it will get my sister’s killer behind bars.”

“Of course. I’m doing my best.”

“Thank you, deputy?”

“Haven. Garrett Haven.”

We got up and she walked me to the door. I gave her my card and asked her to call me if she remembered anything else that might help.

I left and went back to the station. Someone had brought in goodies, but they were just donuts from the Quick Stop. Easy to ignore. And I had bigger things on my mind.

Jasmine’s murder had been considered a crime of opportunity. She’d been taken off a hiking trail, a simple wrong place, wrong time situation.

But was that it?

The location of her bracelet still bothered me. It was too far from where her body was found, and not on a hiking trail. How had it gotten there?

And the packages. I wasn’t convinced they’d been sent by her ex. I’d have to see if I could track him down and ask him myself. If he admitted to doing it, fine, I could move on and find another lead to follow.

But this trail was beckoning to me, tickling my instincts. A package with her underwear in it meant someone had broken into her house. That wasn’t a crime of opportunity, that indicated research and planning. And it had been meant to send Jasmine a message.

Someone had been watching her. She hadn’t been a random victim. She’d been a target.

I went to my desk and sat down, intending to dive back into Jasmine’s case files, but Sergeant Denny appeared as if from nowhere. He crossed his arms, and by the groove between his eyes, I could tell he wasn’t happy. “Prosecuting attorney’s office dropped the Jones case.”

“What?”

“Botched reports, missing evidence. The whole thing’s a mess. I know you’re a rookie investigator, but you should know better.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I’d followed protocol to the letter. I always did. “That doesn’t make sense. What’s missing? Who else had access?”

His gaze darkened into a glare.