LITMIR.BIZ

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help,” he said softly as he put the towel in her hand.

      She pushed the towel away, suddenly agitated. “The files...where are they?”

      “You’re bleeding.” He took the towel back and started carefully cleaning her wound. He was surprised that she allowed his ministrations, but her docility was probably due to the pain. A wound like that had to hurt. “Is that better?”

      “Yes. Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t happen to have any aspirin, would you?”

      “Not on me. Sorry. Did your dad keep any here in the office?”

      “I don’t remember seeing any,” she said softly.

      “Did you see who hit you?”

      “No, I was reading a file...” She suddenly tried to sit up again and her eyes darted quickly around her. This time, he helped her up to a sitting position. She kept the towel pressed against her wound as she looked around. Her shoulders slumped. “The files are gone.”

      “What files?”

      “My dad kept hard copies of his files that mirrored the files on his computer, but the written versions went into a lot more detail. I was reading through the files for his open investigations when someone came in here and hit me. I only got a chance to look at a couple of them. Whoever hit me must have taken the files when they left. I had a whole stack of them sitting right here.” She motioned toward an empty spot on the floor.

      “Well, it’s a good thing I interrupted him when I did. If I hadn’t, he might have killed you.”

      Bailey shrugged. “Even so, I’m not going to stop investigating. I told you I’m going to find out who ordered my father’s murder. That’s exactly what I intend to do, with or without those files.”

      “And I told you to stay away from this case. You’re too close.” He leaned back. “We took his computer as part of our investigation and have a team of experts going over it as we speak.”

      “That’s not going to do you much good. He barely used the thing.”

      Kennedy shrugged. “Even so...”

      “Aren’t you the one investigating? Shouldn’t you be the one going over it?” Her voice was skeptical, and her tone bothered him, although he wasn’t sure why. Why should he care what she thought of him? He pushed the thought away and focused on the conversation. Maybe he could learn something valuable from Bailey. Sometimes witnesses and family members knew things that they didn’t even realize would help solve the case. He wanted her to relax her guard around him. She just might let something important slip.

      “Yes, I went through his computer earlier today, but I didn’t see anything that would raise a red flag. I’m not a hacker, though. I needed a bit of help, and police work is a team effort.”

      She raised an eyebrow. “And what have you and your squad discovered?”

      Protocol meant he shouldn’t answer her—but if he wanted her to open up to him, he’d have to give a little. “Nothing yet. Everything so far seems rather routine. Nothing worth killing over, at any rate. He hadn’t even updated any of his computer files for over two weeks. Whatever he discovered the night he was killed isn’t noted on the hard drive. We’ll keep going over it, though, as the case progresses. Once we have a few leads, we might see something that ties everything together.”

      “That’s why you need me. I might see something that you and your team don’t. I can save you valuable time.”

      Frank shook his head. There was no way he was working with a convicted felon on a murder investigation, especially when the victim was the felon’s father. It was a recipe for disaster. Still, he hadn’t interviewed her yet regarding the murder, so now was as good a time as any. He’d planned on looking her up tomorrow anyway. “Look, you were working with your dad, right? How well did you know the cases he was working on?”

      She paused for a moment, displeased that he had changed the subject, before apparently deciding to let him get away with it. “We’ve only been working together for the last six months or so. I don’t know all of his cases. I only worked with him on those that required computer expertise. That’s why I came here today—to learn more about the other ones that I wasn’t working on, but now that the files are missing, I’ll need to see his computer to get the names and details of the other clients.”

      Frank ignored her subtle push to access her father’s computer and sat on the corner of her father’s desk. “So, how many cases were you working?”

      “Bits and pieces of four of them.”

      “Do you see any connections between those cases and his death?”

      “No. Like you said before, nothing worth killing over. Three of the cases are common divorces with the parties trying to hide assets, but none of them are worth more than about 150K. The other is a young lady that was adopted as an infant who is looking for her birth parents. I’ve already made a lot of progress on that case—I’ve found the birth mother and have leads on the biological father. Everyone involved seems pretty ordinary, so I doubt that has anything to do with my father’s death, either.”

      “Did your dad have a backup hard drive?”

      Bailey shook her head. “No. I was trying to get him to back up his laptop, but he kept telling me that’s what the paper files were for.” She pulled herself to her feet, swayed a bit and grabbed the wall for support.

      Frank stood and quickly led her to her father’s office chair and had her sit again. Rather than appreciating his help, however, she pulled her arm roughly away from him.

      “I’m okay.”

      He put up his hands in mock surrender. “Maybe you should take it easy for a while. I can call an ambulance if you need one.”

      “Don’t you dare,” she said in a low voice. “I’m perfectly fine.”

      “Sure you are.” He returned to sitting on the side of the desk. He wasn’t going to argue with her, but he was going to make sure she was okay and could safely get home before he left her this evening.

      “So when can I get my father’s computer back?”

      “It’s going to be a while.”

      “Look, let’s just cut through the dancing. Since the files were stolen, I need that computer to find out what case is related to his murder. Even if it hasn’t been updated, I might be able to make a connection.”

      “That’s not going to happen.” He could see the anger erupting within her, but to her credit, she didn’t lash out this time. He tried to mollify her. “Look. We’re both making a very big assumption here—that his death is related to one of his cases.”

      “He led a pretty simple life. I can’t imagine he was into anything dangerous outside of his work.” She paused.

      He drew his lips into a thin line.

      Bailey visibly fumed but still managed to hold her temper. He ran his hand through his hair and decided to change the subject again. “Let’s take a step back. Did your dad have any enemies?”

      Bailey exhaled. “Not that I know of, but to be fair, I’ve only been working with him for the last six months or so, and he didn’t share everything with me. Before we started working together, I didn’t even know him that well, but I still can’t imagine that he was into anything dangerous.”

      Franklin thought about that for a minute. From what he remembered, Bailey’s parents had divorced when she was a baby, and while her mother had used drugs and neglected her, leaving her on her own to raise herself, the story went that her father had basically abandoned her. “I thought you didn’t get along with your father.”

      “I didn’t even know him, but after I got out of prison, I looked him up and found out the truth. My parents got married right after my father joined the military.

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