Free Obsession by Debra Webb

may discover the owner’s info is stolen or made up. When a person doesn’t want to be tracked down, that’s what they do. It’s incredibly easy.”
    “Yeah,” Jess agreed. “Makes life a lot easier for drug dealers and terrorists.” She studied the note he’d given her. Tim . Her brow furrowed, no doubt making permanent wrinkles. Had she seen that name in the list of associates? She didn’t think so.
    “I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Vernon.” She was backing toward the door as she spoke. The list of questions she needed to ask anyone who might have been close to Reanne—discounting her mother—stacked deeper and deeper.
    He flaunted another of those cute smiles. “Any time, Agent Harris.”
    Burnett was still on his cell. Jess paced the corridor as he had done. She was aware that he and Patterson still argued about something but she didn’t care about that right now. Reanne Parsons had a boyfriend. Tim. On the day she went missing they discussed meeting face to face, which might mean they had not met in person before.
    Trepidation mingled into the anticipation twisting in her chest. This discovery set Reanne apart from the others. Patterson wouldn’t like where that steered this investigation in terms of her disappearance. It punched a massive hole in what Burnett, Patterson and Griggs believed had happened in this case.
    Jess needed to talk to Reanne’s associates at work. She didn’t have any real friends, according to her mother. But people talked at work. Jess was banking on human nature. It rarely failed her.
    “There won’t be an autopsy.”
    That was the problem with investigators. They sometimes failed to see what their minds wanted to overlook. Patterson knew these people. In his brain, an opinion already existed, which caused him to skip past certain possibilities.
    “Jess, did you hear what I said?”
    She didn’t realize Burnett was talking to her until he said her name. “What?” She shook her head, replayed the words he’d said. “No autopsy? Why not?” Wasn’t an autopsy SOP in an unaccompanied death of possible suspicious origin?
    “The coroner’s preliminary call is that the death was a suicide and the wife doesn’t want an autopsy. Patterson won’t push for it and that is his jurisdiction.”
    Well hell. “Can we at least get toxicology? Find out if he was on any undisclosed medications?”
    “SOP. We’ll have that in a couple of days with the rush Koerber is putting on getting this done.”
    “Good.” Jess held up the number Vernon had given her. “Reanne had a boyfriend or boyfriend candidate. The day she went missing she exchanged text messages with a Tim.” Jess briefed him on the details.
    “Harper can track down the name assigned to the number. See if it leads anywhere.” Burnett sent his detective a text that included the number. “Now.” He slid his phone into the holster he wore on his belt. “We are going to get some sleep.”
    Was he out of his mind? “I don’t want to sleep! This changes everything. I want to talk to her coworkers. Now .”
    “Jess, it’s four in the morning. People are still in bed. We should be in bed.”
    The last prompted a shiver. Jess was too tired to deal with her less intellectual side. Or maybe she was hung up on all the beautiful women who appeared to be a part of his life. Wells, his ex, the reporter who was so hot—his word. Maybe she did need sleep. One way or another she had to recoup her perspective.
    “We won’t be any good to anybody if we don’t get some sleep.”
    She held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll sleep at your office.” Surely there was a shower somewhere in the building. There hadn’t been time for one before the prayer service. A quick change of clothes had made them late as it was.
    “No you will not.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and pointed her toward the exit. “You’ll sleep at my parents’ house and I’ll pick you up at eight-thirty.”
    “Eight-thirty?” She