Save Your Breath (Morgan Dane #6) - Melinda Leigh Page 0,30

empty concrete. Trying to absorb the scene playing out in his mind, Sharp rubbed his scalp with both hands. “I should have known. I should have assumed she’d been kidnapped.”

He’d let her down already.

“Sharp.” Morgan’s voice was clipped. “You had no way of knowing. Now let’s start looking in her office for a motive.”

“Right.” Sharp nodded. Back to work.

“She keeps her calendar and contact information on her phone, which is missing, but it syncs with her computer. She keeps her laptop on her desk.” Sharp turned and led the way back through the house to Olivia’s office. He flipped the wall switch, and light brightened the room. A built-in desk and bookshelves lined the walls.

“I should be able to break into her laptop,” Lance offered. “I’ll have to hack around her screen passcode, but it’s not hard.”

Sharp gestured toward the desk, and Lance took the chair behind it. He opened the laptop and went to work. In less than two minutes, he bypassed the opening-screen password.

“I’m in.” Lance looked up.

Morgan walked toward the shelves and began scanning them. Olivia had research books on every aspect of the criminal justice system, from police procedure to criminal defense. “We need to know which cases she was researching.” She stopped at a row of binders. “Is all Olivia’s research on her laptop, or does she keep written notes as well?”

“Both.” Sharp leaned over Lance’s shoulder. “She transcribes her interviews and notes onto the computer, but she keeps the originals. She organizes everything in those binders in some sort of elaborate system.” Sharp remembered seeing a black and a red binder on Olivia’s desk earlier in the week. He spotted the two binders lying on their sides on the shelf over the desk. He picked up the first one and opened it, scanning the page. “Olivia was researching the case of Cliff Franklin, who was convicted of murder in 2016.”

Lance looked up. “I see two recently accessed folders on her computer. One is entitled ‘Franklin Case.’ You’re never going to guess the name of the second case.”

Morgan turned away from the shelves. “What is it?”

Lance looked up and met her gaze. “Olander.”

Morgan froze. “Olivia was interested in Erik Olander’s case?”

Sharp retrieved and then opened the second binder. “Yes. This book is labeled ‘Olander.’ Isn’t that the name of the woman who shot herself outside the office?”

“Yes.” Morgan looked troubled.

“That’s a hell of a coincidence.” Sharp moved behind the chair and read the computer screen over Lance’s shoulder. If Olivia was interested in the case, Morgan would be second-guessing her decision to turn down Mrs. Olander.

Morgan reached for the binders.

Sharp let her have them. He didn’t like the coincidence, and he knew Morgan wouldn’t either.

“I wonder if she found something to suggest Erik Olander was innocent.” Shaking her head, Morgan closed the binder and splayed her hand on its cover. “It’s too much material to read quickly. I’d like to take all of this back to our office and put it on the whiteboard.”

“I agree.” Lance closed the laptop and tucked it under his arm. “We need to get organized.”

The three of them could divide and conquer all this information. Plus, Lance and Morgan saw different patterns. Over the past year, they had learned to work as a team. Their different skill sets complemented each other, and Sharp needed their help.

The clock was already ticking.

Olivia had been gone for twenty-two hours. Sharp had already misinterpreted several clues. Now he had to hope Olivia didn’t die because of his mistakes.

Chapter Twelve

Back at Sharp Investigations, Lance tossed his jacket on his chair and then hustled into Morgan’s office. Sharp was right behind him.

“I’m going to try to hack into Olivia’s online accounts,” Lance affirmed.

Morgan gestured to the whiteboard that hung on her wall. When they worked complicated cases, her office became their war room. “Why don’t you stay here and use the board? I’ll take the binders into the kitchen and start reading.” She grabbed her laptop and withdrew.

Sharp sat in Morgan’s chair. Facing him across the desk, Lance opened his laptop. They spent the next few hours hacking into Olivia’s online cell service and credit card statements. Luckily, Olivia used the same password for most of her accounts.

“I’ll tackle these phone and financial records.” Sharp flexed his fingers over the keyboard of Olivia’s computer.

“And I’ll move on to social media.” Lance found several social media accounts in Olivia’s name. All were professional. Olivia did not post personal information. She scheduled her posts in advance. They automatically