“Can you feel any vibes or anything? We have to get something out of this.”
Amelia pretended to feel the vibes until she figured a reasonable amount of time had passed. She shook her head. “Sorry, nothing.”
Leo walked around the locker, examining the floor and walls for any sign of what it might have held. He was looking for marks and stains, perhaps showing an outline of what may have sat there. He checked for dust or scraps of anything that may have settled on the floor.
Still nothing. It was like the room had been professionally cleaned. Not just everything removed, but everything polished, swept, and restored. There wasn’t one trace of what used to lie within the four walls.
Amelia used her time to look around the outside. Every locker door looked exactly the same, the only point of difference being the small black painted number above the doors.
She turned her attention upwards, the security cameras catching her eye. She stared at them, trying to work out whether locker number thirteen was in their line of sight.
She figured the cameras were there purely for security. If someone were to break into the facility and go on a damage spree, they would probably want to catch them. After all, one of the reasons people rented storage lockers was for the security of their items. If the facility didn’t have a good handle on it, they would lose customers very quickly.
“Hey Leo,” she said, interrupting his futile search. “They’ve got security cameras. Do you think you could talk Miss Giggly into letting you watch them?”
He joined her at the door to the locker and followed her pointed finger. Seeing the cameras, he got his optimism back. “If they still have the footage, we might be able to see what Renee took out of here.”
“That’s what I was hoping.”
They shared a smile, it was possible they weren’t looking at another dead end after all. Leo closed the roller door and locked it again, even though he now knew it to be empty.
They hurried to reception and stated their case, Leo doing all the talking and showing lots of teeth in the process. The woman obliged, bringing up the tapes for them to go through.
“Anything to help the police,” she declared. “I’m going to make a cup of tea, would you like one?”
Amelia didn’t bother answering, she knew she wasn’t even on the woman’s radar. Leo didn’t need the distraction. “No, thank you. How long do you keep the tapes before recording over them?”
“About a month. We figure that’s long enough for someone to make a complaint about something.” She waddled off and left them to it.
Amelia took the seat beside him. “Is there a fast way to do this?”
“Yeah, you get the rookies to do it for you,” Leo replied earnestly. “That usually works for me.”
“The joys of delegation,” she sighed, understanding they would have to sit there and fast forward through days upon days of footage.
They settled in for the count as Leo started with the old tapes first. The screen lit up with four panels, each belonging to one of the cameras set up around the facility. The first was of the entrance gate, one was of the reception entrance, another on aisle two, and the last on aisle one. It wasn’t exactly the most watched facility in the world, but at least it covered most areas of the business.
Leo set the timer for thirty-two times the normal speed. However, watching the quiet facility made it seem like they were going in slow motion. Barely anyone visited their unit, hours going by on the screen without any movement. The most exciting thing to happen was when Miss Giggles arrived for work every day and then again when she left – right on five o’clock.
Every few days it appeared someone would make a delivery or pick up from their locker. They would drive through the front gate, park outside their unit and then disappear inside for a short period of time. Then they would leave again. Now and then they would pop into reception, presumably to pay their bill.
The days ticked by in a similar fashion. They started to worry they would run out of tapes without seeing anything of interest. There was no way to tell what Renee had done with her locker. She could have been paying rent on an empty unit for months for all they knew. They might not have a valid reason for it, but Renee might have done. Everything they had discovered about her told them she wasn’t an ordinary woman. Their logic couldn’t be applied anymore.
“What was that?” Amelia pointed, immediately wide awake. “I think I saw something.”
Leo hit the rewind button and saw what she had spotted. Someone had parked outside locker thirteen. He changed the speed to normal and waited for some action.
“He’s just sitting there,” Amelia said.
“He’s on the phone.” Leo pointed to the man’s hand through the window of his car. It was a black four-wheel drive, probably a Toyota if Leo wasn’t mistaken. The man in the video nodded and gestured as he spoke, having an animated conversation with whomever was on the other end of the line.
After a few moments, he got out of the car. They watched in hope, unable to even dream that he would go into locker thirteen. The man went around the car, his hand dragging along the bumper bar as he moved.
“He’s going into locker thirteen,” Amelia exclaimed.
They were glued to the screen, careful not to miss anything the man might do. They watched as he tried the door, giving up when it didn’t budge.
He pulled something out of his pocket and tried it in the lock just like Leo had – it worked. He pulled off the padlock and tucked it into his pocket. The roller door was pushed up.
From the angle of the camera, they couldn’t get a good look into the locker itself. They could, however, see a small triangle of the unit. It revealed a floor and not much more. Whatever was in the unit, it didn’t fill it to the brim.
The man disappeared into the shadows. There was no sound to the footage so it was impossible to know what he was doing in there. All Leo and Amelia could do was watch and see the time ticking by on the bottom of the screen.
Six minutes and thirty-five seconds was the amount of time it took him to emerge from the locker. He carried something, a large box that he was struggling with. The way he gripped the edges told them it was heavy.
He placed the box on the floor just outside the unit while he opened the trunk of the vehicle. With a heave, he lifted the cardboard carton into the back and closed the door again. They watched as he closed the roller door and fixed the padlock back in place.
It wasn’t until he walked in front of his vehicle to get back into the driver’s side seat that they finally got a good look at his face. Leo freeze framed the image as they both gasped. They recognized the man.
“It’s him again,” Amelia whispered, feeling the hair prickle on her arms.
“Who is that guy?” Leo asked, wishing he had been able to identify him. The man from the Armstrong Inn had been without a name for far too long.
“I’m sure it’s Master Lou,” she replied, remembering the information gleaned from Blake Turner in the courthouse bathroom.
Leo turned his attention from the screen to his partner. “You haven’t got a surname yet?”
She shook her head. “No, sorry. I just got Master Lou.”
Leo sighed and returned to the screen. He hit the play button and they watched the vehicle drive out of the storage facility like nothing had happened. With it went everything Renee White had deemed important enough to put into secure storage.
“How did he have a key?” Amelia asked.
“Perhaps Renee gave it to him,” Leo theorized. “Maybe she knows Master Lou in some way.”
“He paid for Blake Turner to take the fall for Jordan’s murder. If the three of them are connected, it doesn’t look good for her innocence in all of this.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Leo said, getting that sinking feeling in his stomach again. He had worked on cases before where either a mother or father was involved in their child’s death. Some were planned but mostly they were accidents. A little
shake of a toddler could be fatal, a careless driver running over their child in their own driveway, neglect when they didn’t know better. It was rare to have a parent actively partake in their child’s murder. “Let’s not jump to conclusions yet.”
Amelia turned to him. “If you could look at this objectively, forgetting everything you know or want to believe about Renee, would you think she had something to do with Jordan’s death?”
Leo didn’t want to lie, he needed to hear the truth himself. “Probably.”
“Let’s hope we’re wrong.”
Just as Leo was about to wholeheartedly agree, his cell phone rang. He quickly retrieved it from his pocket and checked the caller ID – it was the station. He excused himself to answer the call outside.
Amelia was waiting patiently when Miss Giggles returned to check their progress.
“Oh, where’s the detective?” She asked, looking around in a panic. Amelia inwardly grinned when she noticed the woman had put on some bright red lipstick.
“He’s just stepped out for a phone call. We’re finished with the footage, thank you for being so hospitable.” Amelia stood and leant on the counter, waiting for Leo to return.
“I hope you found what you were looking for?”
“We did, thank you.” A thought entered her mind, she decided to run with it, pointing at the screen with Master Lou’s face back in freeze frame. “You haven’t seen this man before, have you?”
The woman leaned in close to the screen, getting a good look at Lou. She squinted, obviously needing glasses. Finally, she stepped back again. “No, I don’t think I have. Did he do something wrong or something?”
“We’re not sure yet.”
“I’m sure Detective Michaels will work it out. You’re a lucky girl getting to work with him.”
Amelia smiled politely, the comment annoying her. She wasn’t sure why, just that it did. “Yeah, well, I should see if he’s ready to go.”
“Do you know if he’s single?” She asked, trying to appear casual and flippant while desperately hanging on the answer.
“I don’t know,” Amelia replied vaguely.
“Oh well, it’s not important.” It’s very important.
She shifted toward the door. “Thanks again for your help.”
“Tell the detective he can visit anytime.” The woman waved her away.
Amelia slipped out the door, seeing Leo hanging up as she got closer. “Where to, Boss?” She stopped, seeing the grimace set into his jaw. “What’s wrong?”
“The commissioner wants to see me at the station,” he replied, the worry creasing his brow. “I’ll drop you home and then I have to head straight over there.” They walked straight for the car.
“Did he say why he wanted to see you?”
“No, but I suspect it’s to tear me a new one for speaking to Kale White this morning.”
The ride back home was solemn, despite their inroads into the investigation. Leo was preoccupied with all the punishments Pace could throw at him for not taking his suspension seriously. He would want to make an example of him, show the others what happens to insubordinate officers.
When Amelia walked through the front door of her house, she was relieved. She didn’t know what to say to Leo and knew she couldn’t say anything to make him feel better. The house was a quiet solitude away from the world.
Having the afternoon suddenly to herself, she decided to throw some food together for dinner. It was about time she did something nice for Lane. At the very least she might earn some brownie points.
By 5:30, she was over it. Amelia flopped onto the lounge and flicked on a soap opera. Her head hurt from thinking about the case and she was worried about Leo’s fate. He hadn’t called with an update like she thought he would.
That only left her with the nagging thoughts of Master Lou and his connection to Renee White. She didn’t want to believe they could be connected, but everybody she had ever met told her that people were horrible and did bad things. Everybody lied and there was no reason to think Renee would be any different.
The front door banged closed as Lane wandered down the hallway. He was still wearing his work boots, the heavy soles stomping loudly as he moved. Amelia didn’t get up to greet him, instead just giving a tired wave. “Hey.”
Lane stopped when he saw her. “Hey. I didn’t think you would be home. Did you solve the case?”
“No, Leo was called into the station. I made dinner.”
He took the seat beside her on the lounge. “What did you cook?”
“Pasta. Don’t get too excited, it’s nothing interesting.”
Lane sensed her glum mood, considered whether to ignore it or not, and then thought better of it. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s this case, it just seems to go around in circles.”
“Ever consider it’s because you’re not a cop?” He said, half-joking but the truth was on the tip of his tongue.
“It’s not that,” she sighed, too depressed to argue with him. “It’s the thought of a mother being involved in her five year old son’s murder.”
“You really think the mom is involved?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
Lane was quiet for a moment as he processed the information. He didn’t want to believe it either. “But that guy confessed.”
“He didn’t do it, he was paid to confess.”
“Why would he do that?”
Amelia sighed, it would be such a long story to explain it to him. She did her best to bring him up to speed, hoping maybe a fresh set of eyes might have some insight about something they had missed. She was desperate enough for anything.
“… so we think the guy might connect the mom with the man that confessed,” she ended. Lane had remained quiet, listening intently to the entire story and nodding to show his understanding as she went.
“Why would she do that?” He asked, the question of the day.
“Leo thinks perhaps it has something to do with the crime she wanted to report. Like maybe she was forced into something when they realized what she was doing.”
“I didn’t think a mother would have that in them. Whatever she was into, it must have been serious.”
Amelia nodded, agreeing and too tired to voice the words. It would have been so much easier to ask Renee the questions she wanted to. Even if Renee didn’t tell Leo the truth, at least she would be able to hear it.
Amelia pulled out her phone and brought up the photo of Master Lou she took at the Armstrong Inn. She stared at it, wishing he could talk to her too. The name Turner had given her wasn’t exactly helpful. There had to be thousands of Lou’s living in the county. She regretted not bursting through the bathroom door and asking Turner what his surname was for herself. His lies told her he didn’t know, but perhaps he could have offered up some helpful information instead.
“This is the guy we know only as Master Lou. We have no way of knowing who he is.” She held up the photo. It was poorly lit from the pub’s fluorescent lighting and grainy from her long distance from him. It wasn’t exactly the best photograph in the world.
Lane took the photo and moved it around, trying to get the best light so he could see better. “I know this guy.”
Amelia stared at him incredulously. “You do?”
“Yeah, he came into the garage a few weeks ago. He needed a rush job so we charged him double. It’s definitely him.”
“Are you sure?” She tried not to get too excited but it was difficult. If the guy had been in the garage, then he would have given them his name. And maybe even an address. “This is serious, Lane, you have to be sure.”
He handed her back the phone. “I’m certain. It’s the same guy. He’s got a scar on his left cheek, I would recognize that horrible mark anywhere.”
“Did he leave his name and address?”
“Yeah, I wrote him up myself,” Lane said proudly. “We’d have all the details in the workshop.”
“We need to go get them.”
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“Can I have dinner first?” Lane asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
“Afterwards, I promise.” Amelia stood, dragging him toward the front door.
CHAPTER 18
“How long do we wait here?” Amelia asked, bored already even though only an hour had passed.
“Until we know what we need to,” Leo replied, watching the house that belonged to Lou Delany. They had started their day early and parked three houses down from their target.
“Police work sucks,” she moaned, yawning. There was something about sitting in a nice warm car and doing nothing that made her sleepy. She wished something would happen just to wake her up a bit.
The previous night, she had called Leo with the news that she had the full name and address of none other than Master Lou. After he had got over the surprise and glee, Leo had insisted they stake out the house at sunrise. He didn’t want to miss a thing and couldn’t sleep anyway. So far, there had been no action.
“Did your boyfriend say what work Lou had done at the shop?” Leo asked, never taking his eyes off the target.
“He brought in a car to be repainted. He wanted it changed from black to red. They had to do a full repaint of the entire car.”
“There was a black car reported parked at the pharmacy before Jordan’s body was found,” Leo explained. “It sounds like we have our driver.”
“Is that enough evidence to prove he was the one who murdered Jordan?”
“No, it doesn’t prove anything. But it would help get us a warrant for the car, at least. If we were running a real investigation, anyway.”
Leo seemed to lack his usual optimism, Amelia wasn’t used to it. She preferred to be the one who thought of all the negatives and he was the one who made her feel better. That was how it was supposed to go.
“What did Commissioner Pace want yesterday?” She asked, wondering if the meeting had been the thing to change him.
“He’s lifting my suspension. I have to report back to work on Monday,” Leo replied, the good news not sounding good at all with his sad expression.
“That’s great, right? You can start investigating for real?”
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