Only One Draw Ch. 07

"Yeah. On a yacht, in the Caribbean. It should be fun. I think I'll go out and buy a new beach outfit to celebrate."

After Toby was gone, Hardesty got a call of his own, from Glen Whitehall, who was pulling checkup duty on their serial killer case.

"The good news is that they are managing to match up a lot of the prints and DNA from the back of Johnson's cab, and there's a shitload of it. They are still processing," Whitehall reported.

"And the bad news?"

"Two pieces of it. First, the less bad, I think. We still don't have a court order in hand on collecting DNA from Gould and his live-in guy."

"Shit, and the worst news."

"Hope you're sitting down. One of the IDs of someone who's been in the back of Johnson's cab came up with your guy."

"My guy?"

"Yes. Toby Drake. Sometime in the recent past he was in the back of Johnson's cab--just like two of the victims, Nicola and Natalie were. He has been as close to the guy as the other two were."

"Fuck," Hardesty exclaimed. He been right to think that Toby had been too close to this case already. Well, he'd have to do something to shield him until the case was truly solved.

Then Hardesty remembered the call Toby had just gotten, and he felt a great sense of relief. Toby was going to Miami for a week. He'd be well out of it all. He hadn't been listening that well to Toby's rundown on what he'd be doing and who he'd be doing it with. Sam Shaffer was part of this case. He was Griffin Gould's art agent and he'd been Natalie's john the night she was attacked. Being connected with Gould, who was connected to all of the victims, Shaffer was connected with this too. And he was taking Toby away with him for a week.

But Hardesty was only thinking that Toby was safe to be out of Washington for a while. He hadn't latched into who Toby would be out there alone with.