Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,35

here?”

He shook his head. “No. Not sure where I’d go right now.”

That sounded a little sad. I glanced at the pictures on his desk. “You have what looks like a brother and a sister. Where are they?”

He tapped a pen with his free hand. “Brother in Wyoming and sister in New York City. Both busy and I’m hoping to get them here to relax instead of going there.”

I took a moment to breathe, which is something apparently he needed to do as well. “Why don’t you invite them here this month, since it’s the best time of year to visit? You could take a week or two off and show them around.” People flocked to northern Idaho in July.

He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’ll do that after I figure out who shot Pucci in the head.”

Well, that was an opening, and we both knew it. I exhaled. “What do you have on Pucci’s murder? You can talk about it because I work for the prosecuting attorney’s office.” Before he could object, I held up a hand. “This wouldn’t get you in trouble. Just me.”

“Maybe I don’t want to see you in trouble,” Grant muttered.

“Is there something I shouldn’t know?” I asked, taking a chance.

Pierce glanced down at his papers. “Not really, to be honest.” He reached into a drawer and brought out a bright and fluorescent pink file folder that was somehow glittery. My name was written neatly on the tab, and he handed it over.

Wow. That was a lot of sparkle. I took the folder and flipped open the top. “What is this?”

“Everything on the case,” Pierce said, drinking more of his coffee.

I gulped and looked up at him. “I don’t understand.”

He shrugged. “I knew you’d come looking, and I also knew you had access to most of this from your office, although that’d get you in trouble. So I saved us both a ton of time and dancing around and just compiled it.”

My chest warmed, and hope burst through my chest. “You don’t think Tessa killed Danny.” Oh, I knew she hadn’t done it, but relief lightened weights I hadn’t realized hung heavy on my shoulders.

“I’m not ready to say that,” Pierce said, his eyes beyond green in the small office. “My instincts are usually on track, and I don’t think she did it, but I’ve been wrong before. I haven’t cleared her or Devlin. It doesn’t make sense that he’d drop the gun for her to take, but maybe he’d been ready to leave when she came in the door. So you need to continue to keep your distance from him until we arrest somebody.”

At that second, I knew that not every bit of evidence was in my pretty pink file folder. I couldn’t blame Pierce for that, though. He’d been more than generous. “This is nice of you.”

“Yeah, it is. Remember that in the future,” he muttered. “Besides, at some point, we have to turn over everything to your sister’s attorney, and you’d have access anyway.” He cleared his throat. “The only prints on the gun were Tessa’s, but the lab pulled a different set off the bullets. It doesn’t come back to anybody in the system, including Devlin.”

Okay. That was good. Very good. Not great, because anybody could’ve touched the bullet, but it was something.

I rifled through the papers and found Kelsey Walker’s information and address on the bottom sheet. Excellent. “Thanks for the address on Kelsey. I want to talk to her.”

“We’ve cleared her for the murder. She was at the concert down in the park with about a hundred witnesses,” Pierce said. “Feel free to talk to her, but go gentle because Pucci really did a number on her. I don’t think she would’ve held firm with the battery charges against him.”

I always went gentle. “This is the pinkest file folder I’ve ever seen.”

He chuckled. “I found it in the supply closet, and it reminded me of you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Anything interesting in here besides Kelsey’s alibi information?”

“Yeah. Pucci has quite the sheet with all sorts of crimes for your reading enjoyment. In addition, his phone records show that he was in contact with Tessa as well as Aiden Devlin. A lot of contact.” Pierce finished his latte and tossed the paper cup into the garbage, which was across the room.

“Three points for you,” I murmured. Wait a minute. Pierce looked like a weathered good ole boy surfer from California sometimes, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he’d reached