by Kathi Daley
“I did tell you that, and I thought it to be true when I said it. I personally spoke to several council members who agreed that we didn’t want to do business with a man who would try to blackmail the mayor.” Kyle took a deep breath before running his hand through his thick blond hair. “But Bristow had been doing some politicking and the project was back on the agenda. From what I understand, he’d hired a new analyst and the proposal he’d put together appeared to be very beneficial for the town.”
I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t frigging believe this. How could that happen?”
“Bristow is smart and gregarious. He obviously worked hard to put together a proposal that seemed to some to be too good to pass up. I know I should have told you what was going on, but you’ve had so much on your plate with your dad’s recovery and the extra hours you’ve been putting in at the resort since your dad’s car accident. I knew you’d be upset after everything that happened, so I wanted to wait until I knew for sure how things would play out.”
“I’m not a child. You don’t have to protect me.”
Kyle bowed his head. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything, but for now I think we need to focus on Gina.” Kyle turned his attention to Kate. “Did you check for her at the hospital?”
“We have,” Kate responded. “So far Ms. Roberts hasn’t been admitted to any medical facility within a sixty-mile radius.” Kate turned her attention back to me. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone, should she have needed help but been unable or unwilling to go to a hospital?”
I glanced at the high school group gathered around the fire. The party still appeared to be in full swing, so I gathered no one realized the severity of the conversation Kyle and I were having with Kate. Eventually someone would become curious and wander over, but everyone knew Roy and I were friends—they might assume I had an equally good relationship with his new partner. I continued to remain quiet for another few minutes, trying to think as Gina would.
“I don’t know where she’d go, but I do know there’s no way she shot Bristow. Gina isn’t a violent person. I don’t know why he was found in her car, but I do know she’s innocent of any wrongdoing. If she was in the car with Bristow she could be hurt. We have to find her.”
“The Paradise County Sheriff’s Department is looking for Ms. Roberts as we speak. I know you like to butt in where you aren’t wanted or needed, and I strongly recommend you leave the investigation to the professionals.”
“But—”
Kate cut me off. “There is no but. I know Roy tends to look the other way whenever you get it into your head to play amateur sleuth. I’ll have no problem arresting you for hindering an investigation if I get even a hint you’re nosing around in my case.”
I suddenly realized Roy should be here and asked Kate where he was.
“He’s in Reno this weekend for a conference, so I’m afraid you’ll have to deal with me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an investigation to conduct. I’d suggest you return to the party.”
“My friend is missing and may be injured or dead and you want me to return to the party?”
I noticed Kate seemed to flinch slightly before answering. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Kyle closed the distance between us and put his arm around my shoulders. I didn’t know whether he’d pulled me close as an offer of apology or to warn me to watch my tongue. Either way, Kyle had demonstrated on numerous occasions that he had my back, so I trusted him now. I stood in silence while Kate extracted a promise from Kyle to call if he heard anything. She walked back to the group gathered around the bonfire, and I watched as she spoke to Principal Remington again. She must have been asking the others about Gina because the people who previously had been drinking and having a good time squeezed in to hear what she had to say. After several minutes, Kate headed back to the parking area where she’d left her car.
I glanced at Kyle. “There’s no way Gina shot Bristow. I can’t explain why he was found in her car, but if she’s involved in this, it’s as a victim, not a killer. Gina could be in real trouble and I’m not going to sit around and do nothing. She could be hurt. She could be dying.”
Kyle leaned forward slightly and kissed my forehead. “I agree Gina most likely didn’t shoot Bristow, and I’m as concerned about her well-being as you are. We have very little to go on, which will make finding her tough, but I promise we’ll figure this out.”
“How? Where do we even start?” I could feel panic begin to build. Gina and I had only known each other for a couple of years, but in those two years I’d come to think of her as one of my very closest friends. Not only was she fun and easy to be around, but like me, she had shown a willingness to go the extra mile to help the students who had a problem they needed help working through.
“I’m not sure exactly,” Kyle admitted. “But we need to try to remain calm and think logically. If Gina was with Bristow, as Kate suggests, maybe we can figure out where they were heading.”
Kyle was right. Giving in to the panic I felt wasn’t going to help Gina. I pulled my phone from my pocket. “Kate said she tried to call Gina, but I’m going to try myself.” I dialed her number and waited. “It went straight to voicemail,” I said.
“Her phone might just be turned off, but there’s a chance it’s been destroyed. Leave a message anyway in case she’s able to access her messages at some point. Tell her you need her to call you, but keep it light. We don’t know who might have the phone.”
I nodded and began to speak. “Hey, Gina, it’s Tj. I’m just calling to see where you are. I was expecting you to meet me at the bonfire. I guess you got held up, but we’re all having a really good time and wish you were here. Anyway, give me a call when you get this message, even if it’s late. You know how I worry.” I hung up and looked at Kyle. “How was that?”
“That was fine. If Gina’s okay and gets the message, she’s likely to call you back because you admitted to being worried. If someone else listens to the message, you haven’t given anything away.”
“So what now?” I asked.
Kyle paused. I could tell by the expressions crossing his face that he was analyzing the situation and developing a game plan. When I first met Kyle he was so drop-dead gorgeous I was sure he was a model, or even an actor. When I found out he was a very accomplished software developer with mad hacker skills I couldn’t have been happier. While I’m credited with solving a number of local murders, I couldn’t have done any of it without Kyle’s tech knowledge and ability to get whatever information required from any source connected to the internet.
“Do you still have a key to Gina’s house from when you watered her plants while she was out of town last spring?” Kyle asked.
I nodded.
“Okay. It’s after ten o’clock, so I doubt there are a lot of people out and about in her neighborhood. Let’s grab the key and head over there to look around. Based on what Kate said, it didn’t sound like anyone from the sheriff’s department had searched her house yet. If we hurry there still might be something to find.”
“Like what?” I asked.
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a note as to where she was heading this evening or some type of evidence that would explain why she was with Bristow in the first place. It’s hard to know what we might find until we have a chance to look around.”
“Okay. That makes sense. Gina’s house key is in my desk drawer at the high school. I meant to give it back to her at the end of the school year, but I forgot.”
“Can you get into the high school now?”
“I have both a key to the exterior doors and the alarm code.” I paused and looked toward the others gathered around the fire. We were standing far enough away so we didn’t run the risk of being overheard, but close enough to be considered part of the group. “Do you think we should tell them what we’re doing?”
Kyle glanced toward the group, most of whom were drinking. “I think it’s best to keep this between ourselves for the time being. I imagine that Kate asked them about Gina but I’m not sure how much she shared. We’ll just say you aren’t feeling well and have decided to head home.”
“Okay. That sounds like a good idea. Should we call Roy to tell him what we’re doing? I know Kate said he’s in Reno, but I have the number to his personal cell and it isn’t all that late.”
Kyle tilted his head but didn’t respond right away. I tried to read the answer in his bright blue eyes. “I’m not sure,” he eventually said. “Roy has always been straight with us and I feel like we owe it to him to be straight with him about our intention to look into things regardless of Kate’s wishes. But if he knows what we’re doing, it’s going to put him in an awkward position with his partner. He’ll probably hear about the situation and may call you anyway, but I think I’d wait for him to make the first move.”
I put my hand in Kyle’s and curled my fingers around his. I was still irritated about him not telling me about Bristow’s new proposal, but he’d been right that I had more than enough to deal with without adding to my plate a town council matter over which I had absolutely no control. I squeezed his hand both to find comfort in his strength and to let him know I wasn’t really angry. What I was, I decided, was scared.
Chapter 2
Serenity High School was a large brown building with interior hallways that looked a lot like a spider. It was located just a block from Main Street and shared a parking lot with the county offices. During the school year the building was occupied for much of the day, but during the summer, when school was closed, there was rarely anyone around. I saw the lot was empty as we pulled in. My office was around the back, near the gym, so I directed Kyle to pull around to the rear. As I expected, the door was locked, so I used my key to enter the building. I was about to deactivate the alarm when I realized it had already been turned off.
Strange.
I shrugged and turned on the flashlight on my phone before starting down the dark hallway toward the physical education department. Maybe someone else had entered the building through another door, or maybe the last person to visit the building had forgotten to reactivate the code. Based on the stern reminders from Principal Remington to be mindful of the alarm, I imagined forgetting to reset it wasn’t a rare occurrence.
My feet hitting the black-and-white tile created an echo as I hurried across the scuffed floors. The hallways were lined with lockers and free of windows. It was sort of freaky being alone in the building so late at night. I used my key to enter the gym, which led to the hallway where the physical education offices were located. I went into my office for the first time since the end of May, when school had ended, and took a quick look around. The piles of paperwork I had left behind were still waiting for me to complete when I returned, and the broken sporting equipment I’d meant to either repair or replace was still stacked in one corner. Classes started early in Paradise County and the new school year was only two weeks away. Perhaps I should take a few days to come in before that to get organized.
I ran my finger over the layer of dust on my desk before opening the top drawer. As I expected, the key to Gina’s house, as well as the key to her office in the mathematics department were where I’d left them in the middle tray. I grabbed the keys and went back down the hallway and through the gym to the main part of the building. I was about to go to the door leading to the exterior of the building when it occurred to me that there could very well be a clue to Gina’s whereabouts in her office. While I hadn’t visited my office since school let out in the spring, Gina had seemed enthusiastic for the new school year to begin and I wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t already begun her preparations.
I entered the wing that housed the mathematics and science classrooms and offices and made my way to Gina’s office. I opened the door, which hadn’t been locked, and slipped inside. That seemed odd, but I supposed she might have forgotten to lock it the last time she was on campus. I clicked on the light and took a look around. There was something that looked like red mud on the floor that seemed to have been tracked in fairly recently, but other than that, the room was spotless and free of dust, indicating that Gina had indeed come by to start her pre-semester cleaning. There was a whiteboard in the corner with an equation on it I couldn’t begin to understand. File cabinets lined one wall and the spider plant on top of the center file cabinet had been recently watered. Despite the somewhat surprising neatness of the office, nothing stood out as being helpful in tracking down Gina.
I opened the top drawer of her desk, which was as uncluttered as her office. There were a few pens and paper clips as well as a folder with the words expense report written on it. I opened the file and found sheets and sheets of numbers and data, along with a few bank statements. I had no idea if the information in the folder meant anything, the document on the top was dated the day before, so I decided to take the whole file with me. I tucked it into the crook of my arm and left the office. I was about to head back to Kyle when I heard something that sounded like footsteps.
“Hello?” I called.
My query was met with silence.
I took several steps down the dark hallway leading to the social sciences wing. “Is anyone there?” I called again.
Nothing. I continued down the hallway with only the light from my phone to guide me. I listened for more footsteps, but there were none. I paused at the intersection of two wings. I didn’t see or hear anything, so I turned around and retraced my steps. Maybe I’d only thought I’d heard footsteps. It was sort of creepy being in the dark and deserted school so late at night. It wouldn’t have been odd for my imagination to have jumped into overdrive. I took one last look around outside Gina’s office, then continued through the deserted school to the back door. I reset the alarm, then headed to Kyle’s truck.
“What did you find?” he asked when I climbed into the passenger seat with the file folder.
“Something from Gina’s desk. There are financial and bank statements inside. I’m not sure if they’re important, but there’s a document dated just yesterday on top.”
“I’ll look at it when we get to my place. For now, let’s head to Gina’s. I’m hoping we can look around before Kate and her crew show up.”
“Let’s park on the street behind Gina’s place,” I suggested. “There are a lot of trees around, so Kate won’t see your truck if she does drive by.”
“That’s a good idea. Can we get to the street that parallels the one Gina lives on from the highway?”
“Just take Fourth Street to Elm and make a left. I’ll show you where to park.”
Gina lived in a small, two-bedroom house in an older part of town. The lots were large, most of them dense with trees, affording each a modicum of privacy. As I suggested, we parked on the street that paralleled the one where Gina lived, separated from her property by a deeply wooded area. After a dark stroll through the thick brush we got to the back door. I knocked just in case Gina was home. When there was no answer, I turned the key in the lock and slowly opened the door.
“Gina, are you here?” I called as loudly as I dared. Again, there was no answer, so I stepped inside and motioned for Kyle to follow.
The back door brought us directly into the kitchen. “It looks like she’s been gone since this morning,” I said as I spotted coffee in the coffeepot and breakfast dishes in the sink.
We began opening and closing drawers and cupboards, looking for anything that might seem relevant as we made our way across the room toward the short hallway I knew led to the dining room and, eventually, to the living room at the front of the house. There were two bedrooms and a bath upstairs that could be reached from the stairs near the front door.
After a few minutes I paused my search. So far, I hadn’t found anything that seemed even remotely notable, and based on the frown o
n his face, it seemed Kyle hadn’t either. I stood in the middle of the kitchen and looked around. The cabinets, which were painted white, were clean and free of fingerprints except for the one nearest the coffeemaker. I crossed the room and opened the door. This cabinet contained coffee mugs as well as sugar, cream, and boxes filled with coffee pods. Gina loved coffee and seemed to drink it for a good part of each day, so I imagined the cabinet was opened and closed more often than the others. I doubted the kitchen would reveal any clues, but it did occur to me that there was a junk drawer in the house where I grew up that was a good place to look for interesting items. If I had to guess, the drawer near the phone hanging on the wall might be the one I was looking for.
“If you’re on your way to the phone, check for messages,” Kyle suggested.
“The phone doesn’t work,” I answered. “When Gina bought the house there was a phone already installed, but she told me she preferred using her cell, so she never had this hooked up.”
“Hasn’t Gina lived here for almost a year? It seems she would have taken it down by now,” Kyle commented as he opened the refrigerator.
“I think she meant to but never got around to it.” I opened the drawer I suspected contained the odds and ends everyone was likely to collect. This one contained a variety of pens and small notepads, coupons for nearby restaurants, an address book, a couple of matchbooks, a hair clip, and an assortment of rubber bands and paper clips. I slipped the address book into my bag, then opened the first of the three small notepads I’d found. One was half empty, though all the pages were blank. She probably used it to make lists or notes that she tore off and took with her. Another had names and phone numbers jotted down inside, and the third had rows of numbers and letters on the first page that on the surface didn’t show any real pattern.
“What do you make of this?” I asked Kyle, showing him this notepad.
“I guess they could be abbreviations of some sort or possibly a code. It’s hard to know.”