Read Online Catherine Nelson - Zoe Grey 02 - The Trouble with Theft by Catherine Nelson - Free Book Online

can’t believe it,”
I said after a long moment. “Do you have any leads or anything?”
    He shook his head.
“No. I’m still not really sure what we’re dealing with. We think her murder is
connected to a string of murders stretching across the state. The FBI is
getting involved, and a task force is being formed.”
    “I just can’t believe
it.”
    He sighed and leaned
forward again. “I get the feeling you have plans for the evening. I was going
to head back to work anyway. I want to go through things while it’s all fresh
and before the FBI takes over.”
    “Yeah, I’ve got a
couple things to do. Hey, would you do me a favor, maybe when you need a break
later?”
    “Depends,” he said
cautiously, watching me. Even after such a short time, Ellmann knows me well.
    “I just need a little
information. In August, a couple named Melissa and Mitchell Conrad was murdered
in their home. I don’t know yet if it’s connected in any way to the woman I’m
looking for. There wasn’t much in the papers.”
    “The name rings a
bell, I think. I’ll see what I can find. It’ll probably be nothing,” he warned.
    “I know. I just need
to be sure.”
    “Who are you looking
for?”
    “A woman named
Danielle Dillon. I’ve got until six a.m. Sunday to find her or Sideline is out
a lot of money and an old lady loses her house.”
    “Is she the reason
we’re here?”
    “No. That would be
Cory Dix. Oh, I don’t have a cell phone right now, by the way.”
    If he was surprised,
he didn’t show it. I suspect he wasn’t.
    “What happened?”
    I explained.
    “I’m glad you didn’t
follow him out the window.”
    “I’m not a total
idiot.”
    “So, what’d Dix do,
anyway?”
    I told him.
    “Streaking, huh? He’s
quite the daredevil.”
    “He’s a pain in my
ass,” I said, looking across the street at Starbucks. “He works there. And the
police are probably more upset about the grand theft auto part.”
    “With CSUPD, it’s hard
to tell.”
    Not surprisingly,
there is a bit of rivalry between the different agencies in law enforcement.
Those in Fort Collins and the state of Colorado are no different. They are
capable, for the most part, of working together, but they’re pretty hard on one
another. And all of that animosity is magnified for the FBI. I imagined Ellmann
would be pretty stressed in the coming days after working with them and a bunch
of other local agencies.
    Ellmann polished off
his entire plate and then the last part of mine. We paid our bill and left,
crossing College then heading south. He held my hand while we walked.
    “So, my dad called me
today,” he said.
    I could tell by his
tone I should be worried.
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. He’s getting
married.”
    From what Ellmann had
told me, his parents had been married young. After three children and fifteen
years together, they’d called it quits. His mother, Anja, had gotten remarried
a couple years later to a guy Ellmann and his siblings like well enough, and
she’s still married. His father, Vincent, had been sleeping with his secretary
at the time of his divorce. After a couple years, he found out she’d been
having an affair. He dumped her then moved on to someone else, then someone
else, then another. He was never without a girlfriend for very long, and the
women kept getting younger and younger. His children had gotten used to his
revolving door of women, but none of them liked it.
    “Married?” I said,
unsure of exactly what else to say.
    “Her name is Susan. I
guess they’ve been together for about a year. Anyway, he called to tell me he’s
coming to town. He wants all of us to meet her before the wedding. He’s already
been to see my brother in Seattle. This is his next stop. Somehow he convinced
my sister to fly out here, too.”
    Ellmann is the middle
child. His brother, Charlie, is two years older and lives in Seattle with his
wife and their two children. He’s some kind of engineer doing some sort of
complex aerospace