Addy came to kneel next to Shawn, taking the picture from his hands. “Cassie would have never moved without taking this photograph with her.”
Addy looked from the photo to Shawn, fear lassoing her heart.
“I think you’re right. There are other things in here that I don’t think she would have left behind.”
Addy scrutinized the objects in the box. A journal with brightly colored swirls on its face. A cell phone charger, although the cell phone appeared to be absent. Cassie’s comb, brush and several other grooming implements. All things that she’d have taken with her if she’d been moving back to New York or anywhere.
“I think we have to call Sheriff Donovan,” Shawn said, standing. He reached a hand down to her.
She took his hand and let him help her up. “You think he’s going to care? He’s dug in on the Cassie-moved-away theory.”
“He doesn’t have much choice but to care. This stuff directly contradicts that theory.” Shawn waved his hand over Cassie’s belongings.
Addy wasn’t so sure of that. Sheriff Donovan had had days to search the apartment and discover this stuff, and he hadn’t. Prior experience with men like the sheriff told her that he’d most likely see their discovery as an encroachment on his authority, a sign that they didn’t think he’d done his job, which he hadn’t.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs outside the apartment drew both their attention before she could voice her concerns. The window in the living room faced the side of the adjacent building while the one in the kitchen looked out onto the small patch of grass at the back of the building. None of the windows in the apartment faced the front, where a visitor was most likely to park, which meant the occupants had no idea who was coming up the stairs.
Shawn reached behind his back for his gun with one hand and gave her a little push toward the hallway with the other. “Get into Cassie’s bedroom and lock the door.”
Addy moved to the hall but didn’t go as far as Cassie’s room. She pulled her phone from her back pocket, ready to dial for help.
A fist pounded on the door. “Sheriff. Open up.”
Shawn peered out of the small keyhole in the door, his gun still in his hand. “It’s Sheriff Donovan.”
Addy let out the breath she’d been holding and put her phone in her pocket.
Shawn tucked his gun into the waistband of his jeans and opened the apartment door.
Sheriff Donovan’s eyes landed on Shawn, and he grimaced. “What are you doing here? You’re trespassing.”
“We’re doing no such thing,” Addy said, moving to Ryan’s side. “I’m the cosigner on the lease to this apartment, and I have a key.” She pulled the key from her pocket and held it up for the sheriff to see.
“We were just about to call you, Donovan.” Shawn swung the door open wide, stepping aside to let the sheriff in.
The lawman’s expression was doubtful as he stepped inside the apartment. “You were? Why?”
“Addy and I took a look around to see if Cassie left any clue as to where she was going. We found something.”
The sheriff’s gaze narrowed, moving between Addy and Shawn. “Suri Bedingfield let me search this place when you made the initial missing-person complaint, Ms. Williams. All your sister’s belongings were gone.”
Addy planted her fists on her hips, fury swelling. “Maybe that’s because you didn’t look well enough.” Donovan’s eyes glinted darkly, but she didn’t care. “We found my sister’s clothes and personal items in the attic above the kitchen.” She pointed.
“You were with Ms. Williams when she found these things?” Sheriff Donovan’s gaze swung in Shawn’s direction as if her word alone wasn’t sufficient.
“Yes,” Shawn responded calmly.
“Did you look in the attic when you did your search?” Addy demanded.
Sheriff Donovan glanced at the bags and box on the floor. “There was no reason to climb up there. Your sister’s roommate claimed she’d moved out. Why shouldn’t I have believed her?”
“Because I’m her sister, and I told you Cassie wouldn’t have left town without telling me about it first.” She struggled to keep her anger in check, knowing that yelling at the sheriff wasn’t going to help her case with him. Still, her words came out louder than she’d planned.
“Look, Ms. Williams, we can’t go chasing down every grown woman that up and leaves town.”
Her frustration with the sheriff neared the tipping point.
Shawn’s hand came down around her shoulders, and he spoke before she did. “Well, now you have evidence that suggests Cassie didn’t just leave of her own will. Or are you suggesting she intended to move back to New York but left personal effects like her graduation picture and journal behind?”
Sheriff Donovan looked as if he wanted to argue the point, but thought better of it. “I’ll have one of my deputies come process those things for evidence. But I need you two out of here before you compromise the scene any further.”
That was the last straw. Donovan hadn’t done his job, so she’d had to do it for him, and he had the nerve to suggest that she’d compromised Cassie’s missing-person case.
Addy stepped toward the sheriff, aware of his hand going to the butt of his weapon as she did, but too angry to stop herself from speaking. “If we hadn’t come here and searched—”
Shawn reached for her hand, drawing her back toward him. “You’ll let us know what you find, Sheriff,” he said a little too loudly, cutting her off.
The sheriff didn’t answer, just jerked his head toward the door.
Shawn pulled her from the apartment, his back never turned completely to the sheriff.
At the bottom of the steps, he turned to her, his mouth turned down in a frown. “You need to be more careful around Donovan.”
“Don’t you start with me.” She was in no mood for a lecture, but the trembles rolling through her body weren’t just anger. The import of what could easily have happened hit her. She marched to the Yukon.
“You have been Black in America your entire life, correct?”
“I. Said. Don’t. Start.” She grabbed the car’s door handle and pulled. The door didn’t budge.
She rested her forehead against the passenger window, unsure if she could have hoisted herself into the car if she’d gotten the door open. The adrenaline and rage high she’d been on when she’d confronted the sheriff receded, leaving nothing but the fear that she would never see Cassie again.
“I’m sorry. I know getting into it with the sheriff was stupid. I just...” A sob escaped at the same time the tears began rolling down her face.
Shawn wrapped his arms around her, cradling her into his chest.
The fear and concern she’d been holding inside for days erupted like a volcano. She couldn’t stop it and instead gave in to it, holding on to Shawn like he was her lifeline, because for those few minutes he was the only thing holding her together.
After several minutes, she drew back out of his arms. “I’m sorry.” She swiped at her eyes.
“Don’t be. If the situation were reversed and one of my brothers was missing, I would have fallen apart a long time ago. Even if it was Ryan.”
She let the ends of her mouth turn up at his paltry attempt at a joke.
“Let’s get out of here.” He beeped the car unlocked.
Addy slid to the side to let him open the passenger door for her. Propping a foot on the running board, she pulled herself into the car.
Shawn didn’t immediately close the door, his attention focused on the front right tire. “Damn it.”
He shut the door and the car beeped, an indication that he’d locked her inside.
She leaned forward in the leather seat, watching as Shawn crouched by the tire, running his hand over the thick rubber before moving around the front of the car and examining the tire there before g
etting in the car.
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone punctured both the front tires.”
Addy glanced back at the door to the duplex. “Sheriff Donovan?”
“We can’t prove it,” Shawn said, shooting a glance at the sheriff’s nearby SUV.
The sheriff had parked his cruiser next to the Yukon. It would have been easy for him to slash the car’s tires before heading inside. It probably wouldn’t have taken more than half a minute to puncture both.
Shawn started the car. “All of West’s vehicles have run-flat tires. I’ll have to get new ones today, but I want to get us out of here right now.”
“You think the sheriff wants to keep us here for a particular reason?” Addy asked, her heart jumping into her throat.
If the sheriff intended to hurt them, she’d nearly given him an excuse inside.
Shawn put the Yukon in gear and backed out of the parking space. His eyes met hers as the car rolled forward. “I don’t know, but we aren’t going to stick around to find out.”
Chapter Nine
Shawn drove them back to the hotel and made a call to roadside assistance. A tech arrived within the hour and quickly changed the tires on the Yukon. Addy retreated to the bedroom in the suite.
She’d planned to get a quick nap, but her brain wouldn’t shut down long enough to allow sleep to come.
Someone had put Cassie’s things in that attic, most likely to make it look like Cassie had left town. As Cassie’s boyfriend, Ben was a prime suspect, and his nervousness this morning added to Addy’s suspicion of him. But Ben wasn’t the only suspicious actor here.
Suri was missing in action. She still hadn’t returned Addy’s call. According to Sheriff Donovan, Suri had also reported that Cassie had moved back to New York. But it seemed unlikely that all Cassie’s clothes and personal items would have made it into the attic without Suri knowing anything about it. Cassie and Suri had only met after Cassie placed an ad for a roommate with an online home-share company. The company had conducted background checks on both Suri and Cassie as part of their policy and Suri’s had come back clean, but what did that mean, really? She was glad Shawn had thought to have his brother check into Suri. She had no doubt West would be far more thorough than the home-share company.
Addy’s stomach clenched at the thought that Cassie might have been sharing a home with someone out to get her.
Addy’s phone beeped a notification that she had a new voice mail. She listened as Jarod fumed about her needing to get back to the office now. As he fulminated, she scrolled through her emails, finding that Jarod had sent several new ones in the last couple hours.
She exited voice mail and dashed off a hasty email reassuring Jarod that she had things under control. She swung her legs over the side. The thought that had been floating just out of reach when she and Shawn arrived at Cassie’s apartment crystallized.
She crossed the bedroom and opened the door.
Shawn looked up from the computer in his lap. “Have a good nap?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I just kept wondering what it means that we found Cassie’s stuff and still no Cassie.”
“We’re doing everything we can. We’ll find her.” The determination in his voice reassured her.
“What are you doing?” Addy crossed the room.
Shawn tapped several keys as she sat beside him. “Ryan sent the background checks I asked for on Ben and Suri.”
“Yeah? Anything interesting?” She leaned into him, trying to see his screen, but the reflective coating over it made that impossible.
“Here. You won’t be able to see it unless you’re looking at it head-on.” He shifted the laptop from his lap to hers.
The report on screen had Suri Bedingfield’s name on top, followed by her birth date, place of birth and other personal information.
“The interesting stuff is on the third page. Ry was able to get a current address in Garwin, but what’s more interesting is that she’s living in a condo that rents for fifteen hundred dollars a month.”
Addy felt her eyes go wide. “How in the world?”
“How much was rent on the duplex?”
“Just under nine hundred a month.”
Shawn laced his fingers behind his head. “So Suri went from paying four fifty a month in rent to over a thousand? And her new job. It’s not in food service.” Shawn leaned forward, pointing to an area at the bottom of the screen. “She’s working as an office manager for a sprinkler manufacturer.”
“How? Becky said Suri worked for her since she’d dropped out of high school. Why would this company hire her to manage their office with no management experience?”
“That’s an excellent question,” Shawn said but offered no answer.
A myriad of thoughts collided in Addy’s mind. “Part of the reason I couldn’t get any sleep was thinking about whether Suri could have had a hand in Cassie’s disappearance.” Addy waved a hand at the computer screen. “This, none of this, makes any sense.”
“I think we should take a ride to Garwin tomorrow.”
“Can’t we go tonight?”
Shawn ran a hand over the shadow of stubble on his jaw. “I can’t. I have a meeting I have to go to tonight, and I want to look into Suri a little more before we question her.”
Addy crossed her arms. “What about the report on Ben?”
“The associate’s degree in business is legit. He’s got a couple pops on his record for marijuana. Using, not selling. I’d bet there are a few more on a sealed juvie record somewhere. But nothing that stands out.”
She set the laptop aside and got to her feet. “But the way he acted this morning? And now with finding Cassie’s stuff hidden in the apartment. That proves he and Suri were lying about Cassie moving.” She fisted her hands on her hips.
“It doesn’t prove anything.” Shawn stood. He held up a hand. “I’m not saying Donovan and the others are right. But Cassie could have put those things there herself. We have no proof she didn’t.”
Frustration swelled in Addy’s chest. She had to be back in New York in two days, and so far she’d only managed to find more questions and absolutely no answers.
“I remembered what was bothering me at Cassie’s apartment. Her scooter is missing.”
“Scooter?”
“Cassie bought a little scooter to get to and from work. It wasn’t in the apartment’s parking lot.”
Shawn ran a hand over his head. “We should call Donovan and see if we can get him to put out an APB on the scooter.”
Addy frowned. Their last encounter with the sheriff hadn’t gone well. “You really think he’ll help us?”
“I don’t know, but it can’t hurt to ask. After we do that, I want to go talk to Ben again.”
She glanced at her watch. “It’s quarter after four. If we hurry, we might still catch him at Spectrum. I can call the sheriff on the way.”
“Great. Just give me a minute.” Shawn rose and disappeared into the bedroom.
She scanned a few more pages in the report on Suri, then moved the mouse to the task bar. The cursor hovered over Ben’s report, but the document next to it caught her eye.
She left clicked, bringing up a background report bearing her name.
It contained more information about her than she’d have thought possible for someone outside law enforcement to get—where she lived, worked, even banked. The report contained details of her father’s illness and death; even a copy of her divorce settlement appeared as an attachment at the end of the document.
Comment bubbles appeared throughout the document identifying their author as Ryan West. Little notes about one thing or another in her life. She scrolled through them, stopping at a note made in the paragraph highlighting her father’s $100,000 life insurance policy and the amount of debt her divorce and her father’s illness had left
her with.
100k reasons for A to disappear C? Ryan had commented.
A wave of anger rose inside her that turned unexpectedly sharp as she read Shawn’s typed response.
Look into who gets the money.
The rational side of her brain attempted to interject reason. One amazing weekend together six months ago didn’t give Shawn a reason to trust her. He didn’t know her, and when a person went missing it was most often at the hands of those closest to them, right?
Still, she found it hard to be rational. Hurt stabbed her in the chest.
Shawn thought she was capable of hurting Cassie. It felt like a betrayal.
The bathroom door squeaked as it opened.
She minimized the report with her name and brought Suri’s back on screen.
“Ready to go?” Shawn asked.
“Yeah, sure.” She set the laptop aside and got to her feet.
A crease bloomed above Shawn’s brow. “You okay?”
“Fine. We should go before Spectrum closes.”
Chapter Ten
The temperature had fallen another ten degrees by the time Shawn and Addy arrived at Spectrum just before five. He’d spoken to Ryan while Addy had attempted to take a nap. Ryan had agreed that finding Cassie’s things wasn’t a good sign, but he hadn’t been ready to let go of the theory that Cassie might be somehow involved in the chip fraud.
He’d given serious thought to coming clean with Addy about the possibility that Cassie’s disappearance had something to do with a multimillion-dollar scheme to sell fraudulent computer chips. In the end, obligation to the client won out, and he said nothing.
Not that Addy appeared to want to talk to him. She’d been silent for most of the drive, only speaking in response to a question or statement from him, and only with the briefest of responses.
He’d been around enough women to know when one was angry, although he couldn’t imagine why she’d be angry with him. If anyone should be upset, it should be him.
When she’d kissed him, he’d stupidly allowed himself to think, for just the briefest of seconds, that they might have a chance. But then she’d pulled away like his lips had turned to molten lava and had avoided even looking him in the eye.
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