by S. E. Harmon
“You and I need to redefine the term good news.”
“However, I did research on the shape and color of the fob. Only three storage facilities in the area use the orange diamond shape. I’m sending their names to your phone now.”
Thankfully the Danny peep show ended as he disappeared back into the bathroom, a pair of jeans and a shirt over his shoulder. I fell back on the bed. “How many units are we looking at again?”
“Approximately 635,” she confirmed chirpily.
It was a better number than what we started with, but still rather big. With all the technology at our disposal, it was a little frustrating. “Which has the cheapest prices? She was a student, after all.”
There was a moment of key clicking on Chevy’s end. “Griff’s Self-Serve Storage in Pembroke Pines. We’re down to 207.”
My brow furrowed as I thought about what size unit she’d most likely rent. I couldn’t imagine her needing anything oversized. Her whole room would fit into one of the smaller units. And we’d already found her car. “Eliminate the vehicle storage units,” I said.
“195.”
“The ten by fifteens.”
“173.”
“The ten by twenties.”
“152.”
Despite the best of my ability, I couldn’t think of any other variables to eliminate. I sighed. “152, huh? That’s… daunting.”
“Not that big of a task.”
“Big as your Texas hair,” I murmured.
“Texas wishes. I’m from Jersey, hon.”
She hung up on me, and I tossed the phone on the nightstand with a heartfelt groan. It was going to be a very long day. “Happy hunting,” I murmured to no one in particular.
“IF I never see another storage locker, it’ll be too soon.”
I glanced at Danny as we walked down the aisle of endless green doors. I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland. “You and me both. What number are we up to?”
“Thirty-six,” he said with a sigh. He checked the log we got from the front desk. They gave us a list of only the units paid for without credit cards and narrowed our 152 down to 42. It was still 41 too fucking many.
I stuck the key in lock 36 and it wouldn’t budge. “Next.”
It was growing dark by the time we happened upon storage unit 103. I pushed the key in the slot, and mother of God, it actually turned. We exchanged a look and matching grins. “Thar be treasure in that there unit,” I said with an awful accent.
He groaned. “Please don’t do the pirate.”
“Why? Ye showed me yer booty just last night.”
He spluttered with laughter. “You’re a perverted Davy Jones.” He leaned down to roll the door up. “And on that note, let’s see what we found.”
The flickering bulb outside barely illuminated the space, and I pulled up the flashlight app on my phone. Danny took out his heavy-duty flashlight and flicked it on. It replicated the surface of the sun, and I scowled.
“Show-off.”
He grinned and shrugged. “Don’t be mad because mine is bigger than yours.”
I turned my phone off and glanced around. The storage room was about the size of a small bedroom and was crowded, mostly with cardboard boxes. A couple aluminum suitcases. A big pink bear. I rubbed his fluffy, torn ear and he stared at me forlornly, as though I weren’t the person he was waiting for.
“What size would you say Amy was?”
I glanced over to see Danny rifling through one of the boxes. “I don’t know. She was tiny, though. Maybe a two or four.”
“Then these must belong to someone else.” He held up a pair of capris. “Size ten.”
“Jenna’s?”
“Sounds about right.” He rifled through the box some more. “All of these are Jenna’s.”
“So Amy was right.” I bit my thumbnail. “Jenna was planning to leave with her. She was probably giving stuff to Amy every now and again to store here. And after Amy disappeared, she had no idea where to look to get it all back.”
“Which means Jenna lied to us.” Danny’s jaw looked tight. “Again.”
“I’m guessing she’s back on the suspect list?”
“Never left, as far as I’m concerned.” He closed the flaps on that box and searched through another. “Dishes.”
I opened another box. “Towels.”
“Bedding.”
“DVDs.”
We spent around twenty minutes searching the unit, and we went through every box. Every nook and cranny. We didn’t find any clues, but we did find every single thing you needed for a new apartment.
I stood with my hands on my hips and stared down at a box full of pots and pans. Those girls had been serious about taking off. But who would have a problem with that? They were both high school seniors—feasibly, they were going off to college the next year anyway. I looked up from the box to find Danny mirroring my pose.
“Personal theory,” I said. “Go.”
“All right. Maybe she lied to Amy, trying to stall her as long as possible. I mean, look at this stuff.” He gestured at the bear. “She starts bringing stuff to the storage unit to show her level of commitment.”
“Only, she brings items of almost no value. Meaningless things that she can do without.”
“Exactly. Eventually Amy figures out that she’s not really going to leave and tells her it’s over. She doesn’t take it well, and… well, you know the rest.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a possibility.”
“Okay.” He pointed at me. “Personal theory. Go.”
“I’ve been thinking about the dent in her car’s bumper.”
“What about it? It’s an older car.”
“Yeah, but it was in relatively good condition. Little dings and scratches, sure, but that was a bigass dent.”
Danny shrugged. “I think it’s pretty much a rule that your first car has to look like it was used for batting practice.”
“Possibly. But that wasn’t her car, it was her mother’s car. I don’t see insurance-scam queen Dinah Greene letting a huge dent like that slide. Hitting someone is a damn good way of getting her to pull over.”
“Someone at her ex-boyfriend’s house?”
“Maybe someone following her. Let’s assume, just for a minute, that she meets up with Jenna and breaks it off with her. She’s angry, and they argue about her mother always controlling her life.”
Danny took up where he left off. “So she heads over to the ex-boyfriend’s house to hook up and get some payback. Only she changes her mind—”
“He’s a hothead, and they wind up arguing. He begins to get violent, and scared, she runs outside. She decides it’s too risky to go back in that house and takes off, leaving her stuff behind.”
“Someone taps her bumper, and she pulls to a stop on a lonely, dark road. No phone. No way to get help. Whoever hit her gets out of his car and comes to her window. Knock, knock.”
They looked at one another, lost in thought. Danny asked the obvious question first. “So who’s there?”
Tap, tap, tap.
Kevin’s sharp rap on the storage unit door almost sent Danny through the roof. I bit my lip to hide a smile as his face grew pink. “You need the teddy bear for protection?” I asked sweetly.
Danny sent me a glare and turned to Kevin, who had a lollipop tucked in his jaw. “What is it?”
“You guys could’ve told us you found something,” Kevin complained. “We’ve got a full team still looking out here.”
Danny eyed the lollipop. “I can see you’re slaving away.”
Kevin pulled it out with a pop and pointed the blue lollipop in our general direction. “Don’t judge me. I have low blood sugar.”
“You have no such thing,” Danny said with a scowl.
“But I could, and that’s important.” He stuck the lollipop back in his mouth. “I’m going to let Tabitha know what’s up.”
“You do that.”
Danny ran a hand through his hair as Kevin disap
peared down the dark hallway. He seemed prepared to ignore my general amusement. Mostly because someone carrying a gun shouldn’t be as jumpy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. “Not a word,” he said.
“Word.”
“Shut it.”
Chapter 26
WHEN SKY invited me over, I rationalized that at least I could work after dinner. And after a dinner of something that she managed to both undercook and burn at the same damn time, I did just that. Since she didn’t stand on ceremony much, she didn’t mind when I propped my striped, sock-clad feet on the coffee table. Listening to the sounds of their household settling, going about their nightly routine, made me feel like I was home.
I glanced on either side of me, where the twins had invaded my space on the couch. They both copied my lead with their feet crossed on the table, but their legs were barely long enough to reach. Jeopardy was on, and frankly I’d heard enough wrong answers from my nieces to last me a lifetime.
Kari tried to glance over my shoulder, and I moved the file away. She pouted. “I can’t see it now.”
“You’re not supposed to,” I said and ruffled her hair. “Don’t you have something else you’d rather be doing than bugging me?”
“Not really, no.” She scowled. “Besides, there’s no telling when you might have to leave again.”
Startled, I looked at her full-on. “Who told you that?”
“No one told her anything,” Kassi informed me. “She listened in on a private conversation between Mom and Dad.”
I tried to come up with a proper response, but I had nothing. Guess I was gone all the time. My job kept me busy and kept me traveling. I swallowed hard. Sometimes I forgot that I was needed here as well.
It wouldn’t be easy to leave. There was nothing like being absent from their lives to understand how much family meant. How much I wanted to see the girls grow up, and not through FaceTime and text-messaged pictures. I wanted to be able to mosey over on the weekends and have dinner with my family… even if the food was vegan.
And then there was Danny.
Just the thought of leaving him again made my stomach tight and queasy. But what choice did I have? It wasn’t like he was asking me to stay. And I didn’t know if I had it in me to live in the same town with him, watching him eventually live with and love someone else.
“What is Anne Boleyn?” Kassi yelled.
“What is you’ve never been more wrong,” I said without looking up. “Catherine of Aragon.”
“What is Catherine of Aragon?” a contestant confirmed.
“So what’re you doing?” Kari tried to read my file again. “Like, reading or something?”
“Yeah.” I had to grin. “Reading or something. You should try it.”
“I think reading is an acquired taste. Like liver.” She pulled a face. “So, like, do you guys catch murderers and stuff?”
“That’s the idea.”
“You ever shot anyone?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “I like to use my brain more than my weapon, if I can.”
“But you have one.”
“Yeah? So?” I lifted a brow. “Why’re you so interested in my gun all of sudden? Should I be worried?”
“My friend Becca said that she bet you used a gun sometimes. That you probably shot somebody. She thinks that’s kind of badass.”
“Tell Becca’s parents that I wish them good luck.”
“What is Peru?” Kassi bellowed.
“What is loud and wrong?” I tried not to grin. “It’s Pakistan.”
“What is Pakistan?” a contestant with a twitchy eye confirmed.
Kassi sent me a narrow look and grabbed the remote. “It’s more fun playing with Mom and Dad.”
I shrugged.
“Mom doesn’t like me hanging out with Becca.” Kari made another face and then flopped back on the couch. She jiggled her leg impatiently in a way that jiggled mine by proximity. “She’s always complaining that Becca is a bad influence. That she doesn’t apply herself. That she’s too boy crazy.”
“That’s quite a list.”
“She’s not that bad,” Kari insisted. “Ugh. It’s like no matter how old I get, I still seem like a baby to her. It’s like I’m frozen in time.”
“She wouldn’t treat you like a kid if you didn’t act like one,” Kassi said, still scrolling through the channel guide. “You act and dress like Morticia.”
“Shut up, Skipper. I was talking to Uncle Rain.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. As the adult I probably wasn’t supposed to find those things funny. But damned if they didn’t have one another pegged. Kari, with her pitiful attempts at being goth and different, and Kassi, with her high, blonde ponytail and well-manicured… well, everything, was a close match to a Mattel doll.
“She just wants to protect you,” I said as I stilled her jittery thigh. “Your mom loves you very much. She’d do anything to keep you safe.”
“Safe?” Kari squawked. “She’s crazy. She followed us to the mall. She had a hat on and everything.”
“Well, wanting to protect your children can make people do crazy things.”
Anything to keep you safe. I frowned as I stared at the picture of the locket we found in Amy’s purse. Jenna’s half. The clasp was broken. Like someone had ripped it off. She just wants to protect you.
Protect you from someone trying to take you away for good? Halfway across the country? That would be one hell of a motivator. If there was no Amy, there was no reason for Jenna to leave. I tuned out the two girls good-naturedly ribbing one another while I looked over my notes.
It was entirely possible that Jenna’s mother had been following Amy that night. Certainly Amy would get out of the car for her girlfriend’s mother. Maybe they had a confrontation. Maybe Amy tried to leave and Margaret restrained her. Fought with her. Hit her on the back of the head with a tire iron?
I scrambled off the couch. “I’ll be back girls. I’ve got to make a phone call.”
I headed outside and sat on the porch steps. Danny answered on the second ring. “You headed back?”
“Not yet.” I didn’t dither. “I think I know who Amy met with.”
“Who?”
“Margaret.” At Danny’s silence I made an impatient noise. “It just fits. It all fits.”
“Yeah? And this epiphany came to you while eating beet chips on your sister’s sofa?”
“I do my best work eating beet chips.”
“Margaret?” Danny asked skeptically. “Margaret Ann Macmillan. Accountant. Part-time children’s-book writer. The Happy Panda’s New Coat? The same Margaret Macmillan who ran a charity drive for the humane society?”
“Because all killers wear Jason masks?”
“The accident theory was a good one, but we checked all the vehicles of our suspects. None of their cars were in an accident at that time.”
“Could be a rental. Or stolen.”
“So now Margaret Macmillan, volunteer Mrs. Claus at the mall, is a car thief and a murderess. Not the ex-boyfriend who abused Amy and had a fight with her the same day she disappeared. Or the daughter who’s been lying to us at every turn.”
“Well of course it sounds crazy when you put it like that.”
Danny sounded relieved. “Oh, so you do hear it, then.”
“To be fair it’s certainly not the craziest thing I’ve ever told you.”
“You’re not exactly helping your case.”
“It all fits.” Renewed with a sense of energy, I surged to my feet and paced the length of the porch. “She probably followed Jenna to their little meeting.”
“Then she would’ve known they were breaking it off.”
“Not if she was just watching them. Maybe she decided to end things once and for all. Maybe that’s why Jenna’s been lying to us—to protect her mother. The necklace is broken, right?”
“Right,” he said slowly.
“So maybe Margaret gets into a confrontation with Jenna and rips it off.
Then goes after Amy. Think about it. She waits for her after work, trying to build up her nerve, but she can’t quite manage it. But when she sees Amy going over to Brock’s house behind her daughter’s back? Well, that’s enough to push her those last few inches over the edge.”
“But—”
“Exactly. Then she taps Amy’s bumper somewhere down the road and gets her to stop. Maybe Margaret confronts her with what she knows. Things turn ugly fast. She kills Amy in the ensuing struggle, drives Amy’s car to the Everglades, and dumps it. Then she hoofs it back to her car and gets it fixed on the sly. Amy’s dead, Jenna has no reason to leave, and Margaret’s happy. Everyone thinks Amy just ran off. And if anyone looks too closely, that douche Brock takes the fall.”
“Rain.”
“I mean, really, who are you going to believe? Perfectly stable pillar of the community? Or abusive, jilted ex-boyfriend who was spurned yet again on the night of her disappearance? And pawned her violin?”
“Rain.”
“It all makes perfect sense.” I slapped the porch railing so hard, my hand stung. “Amy had her whole life ahead of her. Who does this woman think she is to just—”
“Rain.”
I finally realized Danny was speaking and put a hand on my hip. “What?”
“We don’t know if any of that is true.”
“But… it all fits.”
“That’s just what we’ll tell the judge,” he sighed. “Your Honor, it just fits.”
“I bet we’ll find Margaret’s prints on the car.”
“The car that we can’t explain how you found?” He sighed. “Don’t think I didn’t get an earful about that from Tate. Besides, Margaret’s the mother of Amy’s best friend. It’s feasible her prints would be in and on Amy’s car.”
“On the steering wheel? The seat controls?”
“She could just say she borrowed Amy’s car at one point in time. It’s not like that would’ve been impossible.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Danny’s pause was like a punch to the gut. “We need a little something called evidence before we bust down her door. And right now all the evidence is pointing in the other direction.”
That kind of logic grated on my nerves and ruined my high. Mostly because it was all true. Suddenly deflated, I sank down on the porch steps. “And if I get your… evidence?”