David eyebrows rose. “Really?”
Brock nodded and flipped through a stack of receipts.
“How?” I asked.
Brock pulled a receipt from the pile. “The guy came in here about fifteen minutes before Angela arrived this morning.”
“Are you serious?” David asked.
Brock nodded. “He ordered a mango-papaya smoothie and then paid with a credit card.”
I looked at the receipt and read the name that was at the bottom. “Henry Moore.”
My heart sank. That was Angela’s ex-boyfriend.
David’s eyes lit up as he looked at the receipt. “What a lucky break.”
Brock held his pointer finger up. “Actually, I’m not sure how much it has to do with luck.”
David’s nose crinkled. “What do you mean?”
“When I was done making his smoothie, Henry grabbed it and went out into the parking lot. After that, I figured he got into his car and drove away. But I didn’t pay close attention. Maybe I should have.” Brock got quiet for a second.
“Is there more to your story?” David asked.
Brock nodded. “Instead of driving away with his smoothie, he must have waited in his car for Angela to show up here.”
“What makes you so sure about that?” David asked.
“When their argument began, even though I couldn’t hear what they were saying, it was pretty obvious that they knew each other,” Brock replied.
“Once their argument was over, what happened next?” David asked.
“Angela stormed away.”
“And what did Henry do?”
“He turned around and went back to his car.”
“Did you see anything else that might be of use to us?” David asked.
Brock shook his head. “Nope.”
“All right,” David said. “Thank you for your help.”
“Of course,” Brock said.
David and I turned around to leave the smoothie shop.
Before we made it to the exit, Brock got out attention again. “Detective.”
David stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “I’m not interested in a smoothie.”
“That isn’t what I was going to say,” Brock replied.
“Oh,” David said. “Then what’s on your mind?”
“I hope you find Angela soon,” Brock said.
“So do I,” David said.
Chapter Eleven
David and I headed back to his car in the parking lot. David got in the driver’s seat, grabbed his police laptop, and typed Henry Moore’s name into the database.
While he was doing that, I looked around the parking lot for clues. When that produced no results, I looked at the surrounding buildings for security cameras. Unfortunately, there weren’t any.
David then called out to me. “Sabrina, do you want to take a look at this?”
I approached the car. “What have you got?”
David read aloud. “Henry Moore. 187 Cliffside Lane, Oak Ridge, California.”
“Oak Ridge? Are you sure that’s his current address?” I asked.
David nodded. “It’s the most recent address for him in the motor vehicle database.”
My nose scrunched. “Did he drive all the way over here this morning from Oak Ridge?”
David scratched his chin. “He would have had to get up pretty early in the morning to do that.”
“There’s another option,” I said.
“You mean, maybe he’s staying in a hotel in town?”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“We can call around.”
“Before we do, what else have you got on Henry?”
David looked at his laptop again. “Not much. No felonies, no misdemeanors—”
“So he’s clean then?”
David nodded. “The only blemishes on his record are a few parking tickets.”
I held my pointer finger up. “Correction. The only blemishes so far. You never know what might get added to that record.”
“We’ll certainly find out,” David said. “Let’s call all the local hotels.”
***
After phoning almost every hotel, motel, and resort in town, David and I finally caught a lucky break.
We discovered that Henry Moore was staying at The Cozy Cove Motor Lodge on Wave Avenue.
We immediately bolted over there. I prayed that Henry would be in his room when we arrived. If he was somewhere else in town, it would be far more difficult to track him down.
So imagine my relief when we arrived at the motor lodge and Henry opened the door to his hotel room after a few knocks.
Even though the slim forty-nine-year-old came to the door, he did not look happy to see us. Instead, there was a confused look in his brown eyes as he addressed David and me.
“Can I help you?” Henry asked.
David flashed his police badge. “I sure hope so.”
Henry’s eyebrows rose. “Wait. You’re with the police?”
David nodded.
Before David was able to respond verbally, Henry threw another question his way.
“What are you doing here?” Henry asked.
“We need to ask you some questions about your morning,” David said.
Henry squinted. “I can’t imagine why.”
“Mr. Moore, we know about the big argument that you had with Angela Hummel outside of Treasure Cove Smoothies,” David said.
“First of all, I don’t think argument is the right word—”
“How would you describe your interaction with her?” David asked.
Henry was more concerned with another matter. “How did you even know about our discussion?”
“How I got my information is not nearly as important as what I heard,” David said.
“It is to me,” Henry said.
“Can we please focus on the details of the argument—?”
“Stop calling it that,” Henry said.
“It was just a discussion.”
David shook his head. “That’s not what I was told.”
Henry folded his arms. “That’s it. I want to know exactly what you heard. And who you heard it from. But most importantly, why is any of this your concern?”
David stared Henry down. “Mr. Moore, we’re the ones asking the questions here.”
Henry looked intently at the stern expression on David’s face. “I’m confused. What’s all this about again?”
“I want to know where you went after Angela stormed away from you this morning?” David asked.
Henry shrugged. “Why does that matter?”
“Will you please just answer my question?” David said.
Henry stared David down. “Why are you being so stingy with the details?”
David held firm. “Are you going to answer my question or not?”
Henry didn’t budge. “I’m not saying another word until you tell me what this is about.”
“Angela Hummel has gone missing,” David said.
Henry’s jaw dropped. “No way.”
David nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“So that’s why you were asking me all those questions.” Henry’s eyes bulged. “You think I might have had something to do with her disappearance, don’t you?”
“Are you surprised?”
Henry nodded. “Of course I am.”
“I don’t know why. After that argument you had with her, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t suspect you.”
“I don’t know what happened to Angela, but I had nothing to do with her disappearance.”
“You can see why I’d have a hard time believing that.”
“Detective, you have to believe me.”
“Give me a reason to,” David said. “Because so far, you’ve just been evasive with me.”
“I understand this doesn’t look good—”
David scoffed. “Are you kidding? It looks terrible.”
“But looks can be deceiving.”
“They can al
so be very telling.”
“This is just a case of some really bad timing,” Henry said. “It’s a coincidence that Angela happened to disappear this morning after I spoke with her.”
“Just because you say that doesn’t make it true.”
Henry threw out his arms. “I already told you I had nothing to do with Angela’s disappearance. What more do you want from me?”
“I want you to answer my question—”
“I already did.”
David held his pointer finger up. “Not when it comes to your whereabouts. Now I’ll ask you one more time. After your argument with Angela ended, where did you go and what did you do?”
“I took a walk to clear my head,” Henry said. “Then I came back here.”
“While you were out walking, did you run into anyone?” David asked.
“I passed by a number of people,” Henry said.
David pulled out his phone. “I’m going to need names and numbers.”
Henry squinted. “Why? So you can call them?”
David nodded. “Exactly.”
“They were just a bunch of strangers. I don’t know their names, much less their phone numbers.”
“That doesn’t exactly help your case.”
“You said you wanted the truth.”
“Did you stop into any businesses on your walk?”
“No.”
“So what you’re telling me is that there’s no way of proving that you did actually take a walk?”
“I give you my word.”
David scoffed. “Henry, I’m a detective. I deal in facts. And since there’s no way of verifying your story, I’m not just going to take your word for it.”
Henry groaned. “I don’t know what else to tell to you.”
“I do,” David said. “You can start by explaining to me what you and Angela argued about.”
Henry became quiet.
While he was silent, I had plenty to say. “You wanted her to take you back, didn’t you?”
He didn’t respond.
I continued. “But she turned you down. Isn’t that right?”
Henry’s mouth remained shut.
“I know what you’re thinking,” I said. “But ignoring my questions won’t make them go away. And after a certain point, not replying is an answer in itself.”
David did his own prodding. “So what do you have to say for yourself?”
“You’re reading too much into things,” Henry said.
“You drove here from Oak Ridge. You even booked a motel room. Those are not spur-of-the-moment activities. Clearly, some thought went into this. Which makes me wonder what else your plans were,” David said.
“Look. I had some vacation days saved up,” Henry said.
I put my hands on my hips. “And of all the places in California that you could have gone, you chose here?”
Henry shrugged. “Why is that so hard to believe? Treasure Cove is a tourist destination.”
“Yes. In the summer. Not in the fall,” I said.
“I don’t like crowds,” Henry said.
“So let me get this straight. Are you telling us that running into your ex-girlfriend this morning was just completely random?” I asked. “Because I don’t buy that for a second.”
Henry groaned. “I’ve already answered all your questions. Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
“Before we go, there’s one last thing we need from you,” David said.
“What’s that?” Henry asked.
“We’d like to take a look inside your motel room,” David said.
Henry scoffed. “Talk about an invasion of privacy.”
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about,” David said. “So what do you say?”
Henry took a moment to weigh his choices. A few seconds later, he reluctantly let us inside his room.
Unfortunately, our search proved fruitless. Angela wasn’t there. Nor did we find any evidence that she had been inside the room that morning.
“Are you satisfied now?” Henry asked.
David shook his head. “I won’t be satisfied until we find Angela.”
“You’re not going to find her here,” Henry said. “Now will you please leave?”
Instead of throwing more questions Henry’s way, David decided to head back to his car. But before he hopped into his sedan, David issued a warning to Henry.
“Don’t go leaving town.”
Chapter Twelve
David had a feeling that a warning wouldn’t be enough to keep Henry in Treasure Cove. My husband radioed dispatch and assigned a patrol car to keep tabs on Henry’s movements.
With the patrol car watching Henry, David and I were free to chase down other leads. We started by returning to the beach. Perhaps if we retraced Angela’s steps, we would discover a clue.
After all, according to Gavin, Angela took a very specific route on her daily run. It included a stop at Treasure Cove Smoothies and was followed by some jogging along a scarcely-traveled part of the coastline. That particular stretch of the beach was far from the pier, the boardwalk, and large crowds.
As a matter of fact, as David and I stood on the jogging path, we saw more seagulls around than people.
That said, something else struck me as I scanned the area. “Just our luck. There are no security cameras in sight.”
David took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much of anything out here other than the beach and the ocean.”
I let out a nervous laugh.
David squinted. “What’s so funny?”
“The universe’s twisted sense of humor,” I said. “Angela came here to jog because it was peaceful and far away from the crowds. But the fact that there are so few people around here means that there might not have been any witnesses to what happened.”
David nodded. “Especially since Angela went missing around seven in the morning. There’s a good chance this beach was completely empty then.”
I exhaled. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“In time, we’ll find out the truth.”
“There’s our other problem. With a missing-persons case, time is of the essence.”
“True. Which is all the more reason that we should head out. We have a number of other interviews to conduct.”
I put my hand out. “Hold on a second.”
His eyes widened. “Why? Do you see something?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but give me a minute.”
David remained quiet for the next thirty seconds while I scanned the beach and the jogging path with my eyes.
Unfortunately, my search proved to be fruitless.
I let out a groan.
“I guess that means you don’t see any clues,” David said.
“Not one.”
“That’s a shame.”
“It sure is.” I grimaced as I kept looking at the jogging path.
“Look. I know you’re frustrated, but just because you want to find a clue doesn’t mean there’s one here.”
I took a deep breath. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Now come on. We have some more interviewing to do,” David said.
Chapter Thirteen
David and I headed over to Woolversmith Advertising on Ocean Boulevard. The agency was only located about half a dozen blocks from the jogging path. That fact was not lost on me as I sat in the passenger seat of my husband’s car. But I was careful not to jump to any conclusions until I got more information.
A few minutes later, we arrived at the agency. It turned out the advertising company didn’t just have an enviable street address. They also did business out of a sleek and modern building that had a generous number of windows. As a matter of fact, the ocean view was almost too breathtaking for their own good. For example, if I worked there, it would be difficult getting any work done. I would spend all my time looking at the crashing waves.
Apparently, the employees there had found a way to keep focused. After all,
there was no way the agency could afford to pay their lease unless they were doing a crazy amount of business.
A slender, red-haired, twentysomething receptionist greeted us as we walked through the lobby. There was a nameplate on her desk, identifying her as Lisa McMillan.
“Welcome to Woolversmith Advertising. How may I help you?” Lisa asked.
David pulled out his police badge. “I’d like to speak with your boss.”
“One moment please,” Lisa said. She grabbed the phone on her desk, pushed a few buttons, and spoke into the receiver. “Mr. Thornton, there’s a police detective here who would like to speak with you.” Lisa went silent for a moment, and then spoke into the phone again. “Yes, Sir.” Lisa then hung up the phone.
“Is he coming out?” David asked.
“Actually, I’m taking you to him.” Lisa got up from her desk. “Please follow me.”
Lisa led us to a corner office that had an oceanfront view.
***
Inside the office, Gary Thornton was seated at a metal desk that had a glass top.
Gary was a burly man in his early sixties. He had a round face, slicked-back brown hair, and had sprayed on an uncomfortable amount of cologne that morning.
Gary didn’t get up from his desk to shake hands with us. Instead, he waved us over to him.
“Please take a seat,” Gary said.
If it was up to me, I would have remained in the doorway. It was bad enough that I could smell his cologne from where I was standing.
Unfortunately, the smell was even more overpowering as I took a seat across from his desk. But as distracting as the scent was, there was a much bigger issue at play. I had to ignore my hang ups.
“What can I do for you?” Gary asked.
David broke the bad news that Angela had gone missing.
Gary’s jaw practically hit the floor. He took a moment to silently process what David had told him before finally replying, “That’s awful.”
“It sure is,” David said. “Now we’re doing our best to find her, but we can use all the help we can get.”
“What sort of assistance are you looking for?” Gary asked.
“As much as you can give us,” David said.
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