“Not from where I stand. Every family can do with a bit of friendly rivalry here and there. Hear you had a spot of bother over at your place the other day?”
Ryder watched for the words he wasn’t speaking. She couldn’t make up her mind about him. One minute he gave her the creeps, the next he seemed like a reasonable old man. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
Eric leaned over and whispered close to her face, “Might be a good idea to wind up whatever it is you’re doing that’s stirring up the locals, Ryder. Don’t want to see anything happen to anyone in this family. Had enough of that in the past.”
“Just doing my job, Eric. If the locals can’t handle that, sounds like I might need to dig a little deeper closer to home, wouldn’t you say?”
“Can we talk about something else in front of the child? Don’t know that it’s good for her ears, somehow.” Ethol took Ebony’s hand and led her away. “We’ll check out the other entries while you three sort yourselves out. Find us when the talk is more child appropriate.”
Ryder saw the smile light up her daughter’s face, once again pondering her feelings toward her grandfather. She turned to Eric. “If you have something to tell me, call into the station, if not, stop with the innuendos.”
Eric curled his lip at her. “You’re stirring up a hornet’s nest and the only person you’re hurting is my father. People can be cruel, Ryder, or don’t you remember that?” He gave her a long look and then turned on his heel, walking away from them as fast as he could.
“Well, seems I’ve got myself a real friend there. Sorry about that.” She saw him leave the building and turned to Amy. “Let’s go and see the rest of the entries, shall we?”
“It’s not really your fault, Ryder. He’s worried about Grandad.”
“Funny, Grandad doesn’t seem anywhere near as worried from what I can gather. Looked pretty chilled to me.”
Chapter 13
Jake saw his two rookies walk in and throw their hats on their desks, cheeks flushed from their time outside. They’d been out walking the beat since early that morning and the day had turned hot. He knew the crazies would come out and play if the temperature got any higher. “Ryder, you might want to check this out. Sydney sent us a couple of videos to go over to see if there was anything that stood out for our investigation. Thought they might help in your cold case.”
She strolled into his office with Mick behind her. “What is it?” She leaned over the desk, watching his computer screen.
“Video clips Sydney sent up. Looks like a kind of advertising clip from what I can tell. From what we can see, its spy vision. A few different locations too. They wanted to know if we recognised the places or any of the children in your foray into the seedier side. Seems you’ve stirred up a wave of cold case reviews with your questions.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” She glanced at him quickly before turning back to the screen.
“Wow wow wow, stop right there.” Mick leaned over Jake’s shoulder. “Take it back a bit, not too far.” Jake slid the bar on the video back and pushed play again. “Oh shit. No!”
“What?” A sense of foreboding settled on Jake’s back.
“That’s the babies room at the child care centre. Amy’s place. I’m sure of it.”
“Where did Sydney get this?” Ryder grabbed the keyboard and her fingers flew over the keys. She brought it back to the beginning of that short burst and started to go over it frame by frame.
“It came from a raid they did a couple of years back. One of the detectives thought it was worth you having a look in case it triggered something.”
“Are you sure, Mick?” Ryder had gone pale and Jake waited for her to run.
“Yeah, I am. The walls are a different colour now. I think Amy had the place painted sometime last year from memory, but before that they were that vile pale green.” He rubbed his hand over his face, still shaking his head.
“That puts a nasty spin on things then.” Jake leaned back in his chair pondering their next move. “We don’t have any proof that anything happened. Not a shred of evidence against Amy.”
“She wouldn’t, would she?” Ryder swallowed and hit the play button again, her gaze locked onto the screen. When it ran through, she turned to Jake and opened her mouth.
“No, Ryder.”
“But she has my…” baby. The words hung in the air between them.
“I know. Listen to me. This could have been taken off a security camera at a security firm or anything. You know that. There is no way a judge is going to give you a search warrant on this alone.”
“But we can’t sit here and do nothing. I think we should at least get Amy in and interview her.” Jake looked at the hope burning in her eyes and knew she was right.
“Fine but I’ll be the one doing it, understand?” He waited for her to acknowledge his order. “Ben Simpson can go and pick her up, bring her in. I don’t want you anywhere near the place. In fact, it might be a good idea to go and get Ebony and have an early day. Make up any excuse you like, but don’t let on what’s going down.”
“I’m not stupid, Jake. And I really think I can help this end. Let me pick her up and come back to work. She can sit in the staff room.”
“No.”
She pursed her lips and glared at him, then closed her eyes. When she opened them again he noticed a steely glint he hadn’t seen before. Awesome. All he needed was a fiery officer with a personal stake in an investigation.
“Go home, Ryder. Do some gardening
