Forgotten Pieces

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Even when she was being a pain in his ass.

  “Maggie, put on your clothes,” he chided, breaking out of his epiphany. He rounded the pool, already annoyed at how his clothes clung to him.

  Maggie didn’t move. At least not toward putting on her clothes. She held the bag up to him instead.

  “It’s a key,” she said.

  “What does it open?”

  For the first time that day Maggie looked tired. She shrugged.

  “I have no idea.”

  * * *

  THE SECURITY FOOTAGE was grainy and only covered the main entrance of the lobby, not the lobby itself.

  “That’s convenient, considering there’s a side entrance,” Maggie muttered.

  Matt leaned his head to the side.

  “Convenience is this hotel’s biggest selling point.” Normally that was the point of a hotel but judging by his tone, Matt didn’t seem to be a fan of the establishment.

  The mystery man who booked room 201 wasn’t seen by the lone working camera. However, Maggie was. She pulled into the front parking lot around ten in the morning in her personal car and left fifteen minutes later.

  Maggie didn’t like what she saw in the footage, but kept quiet until they were back in the car. Alone.

  “I was scared, Matt. In the security footage I looked scared.”

  Matt started the engine.

  “I know.”

  Maggie looked at the hotel one more time as they pulled away, trying to grasp the memories she’d lost by sight alone. Instead, she decided she didn’t like the place at all. She wasn’t alone in that opinion, either. Matt had had a private chat with the hotel manager while Maggie dripped water in the middle of the lobby and it had been clear neither enjoyed it. She wouldn’t be surprised if Kipsy PD made a stop by the hotel sooner rather than later.

  “So we have to talk about that bag in the pool.” Matt was going in the opposite direction of Darby, which probably meant Carpenter, and the hotel was their destination. At this point Maggie didn’t mind. She had her packed bag with her and was ready to rinse off the chlorine and change. Considering the detective was still dripping a little, she imagined he, at the very least, needed a good towel. “How did you know it was you who left it? Did you remember doing it?”

  Maggie readjusted in her seat to sit taller. She was quite proud of herself in this instance.

  “When I transitioned into working for the magazine, I toyed with the idea of trying my hand at starting a book, true crime. A nonfiction book about cases in Riker County—because you have to admit we’ve had some doozies around here.” Matt inclined his head. He couldn’t argue with that. No residents could. “Anyway, I ended up spending basically two years with my head in other true crime stories and learned a lot of interesting things. Including how this man almost got away with murder by wrapping a piece of evidence in a plastic bag and dumping it in the pool. Two days later, when he was alone, he came back for it and tried to dispose of it. He was caught and eventually went to jail. I in no way condone him or what he did but the idea of what he did never really left my mind. I’ve actually always wanted to try it, just to see if it really does work, but we don’t have a pool and it’s not like I’m about to go to the community one with a sandwich bag, rocks and a mystery item to test it. Today I noticed the rocks outside the hotel and so I figured I did yesterday, too. I don’t know where I got the bag from, though. Unless I brought it with me.”

  Matt held up his index finger.

  “I think I can help with that.”

  He told her about the sandwich she’d purchased with the cash she’d had on her, according to the hotel manager. Plus the Ziploc bag.

  “Ten bucks you only wanted the plastic bag,” he continued. “You must have sneaked around, grabbed some rocks and tossed it in. None of the hotel staff said they saw anything.”

  Maggie looked down at the bag in her lap. A handful of small rocks and one small silver key.

  “But why did I hide it? I arrived at the hotel alone and I left alone. Why not just take it with me and hide it somewhere that wasn’t in a public place?” Maggie ran her hand through her hair. Wet tangles fell against her shirt.

  She glanced at the man next to her as he laughed.

  “Listen, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past—” he made a show of looking at his thankfully waterproof watch “—four hours or so is that Yesterday You is a mystery wrapped within a mystery and crammed into another mystery. I think we’re better off working with what we have instead of trying to retrace your steps.”

  Maggie sighed.

  “Not that we have much of a choice.” She shook the bag. “This is the only concrete lead we have now... And it’s a small key that leads to where? I don’t know.”

  “Could it fit your filing cabinet?” Matt offered, coming to a stop at a light. They were definitely headed toward Carpenter. In front of them was the county road that transitioned from downtown to the rural edge of the neighboring town. “Didn’t the drawer that originally had the file in it have a lock?”

  Maggie shook her head.

  “The key to that is gold and on my key ring. I never went to great lengths to hide it because I never thought anyone would ever look for it.” Matt reached over and took the bag from her. He lifted it up to look at it more closely.

  “It could go to an actual lock. Is there anywhere you might have one?”

  Maggie shook her head again. She hated not having better answers.

  “Unless I bought one yesterday, no.”

  They sat in silence as the light turned green. Maggie was trying to list the ways she would use a lock that fit the key.

  “What if this isn’t mine?” she asked. It was more to herself than the detective. “What if I got this from our mystery man somehow? I’m almost scared to think what it might be used—”

  Maggie didn’t have time to scream.

  Something slammed into the driver’s side of the Bronco.

  And then the world flipped.

  Chapter Eleven

  The world was dark. At least Matt’s world was.

  It also was painful. His entire left side ached, including his head. It was throbbing.

  But why?

  He opened his eyes slowly and didn’t understand right away. Instead, he blinked at broken glass and metal. He was lying on his side. Glass and metal beneath him there, too.

  What had happened?

  Noise began to filter in as his head swam, lost in a sea of confusion.

  Someone was screaming.

  “Matt! No!” It was a woman. “Matt!”

  The fog of confusion lifted in an instant and he knew what had happened. Someone had hit them, they’d flipped and now the Bronco was lying on its side, the driver’s-side doors pinned against the ground.

  And the woman screaming was Maggie.

  Matt turned his head so fast the pain tripled. He fought the urge to get sick. Though the empty passenger’s seat hanging above him wasn’t helping. The door was also missing.

  “Matt!” Maggie shrieked in the distance. She sounded terrified.

  What was going on?

  Matt tore the seat belt off him—probably the only reason he was still alive—and scrambled to pull himself up to stand. Pain surged across him. Not only was his left side hurting but so were his ribs. He sucked in a breath, grabbing his side on reflex. His hand brushed against the butt of his gun. Thank God for holsters.

  “Help! Matt!”

  Maggie’s yells were pitching higher.

  Matt readied to answer when a new voice entered the mix.

  “Shut up or I’ll go back and kill him,” a man yelled. It seemed like their mystery man had found them.

  Again.

  Matt grabbed the passenger seat, pain no longer something he cared about, and pulled himself
up through the truck. The fact that he was having to use the Bronco as a jungle gym meant that they had indeed flipped after the initial hit. And the fact that the passenger’s-side door was completely gone meant that it had been violent. No wonder he’d lost consciousness.

  He hoped Maggie hadn’t been seriously hurt.

  Matt unholstered his gun and used the seat as a foothold to push himself out of the vehicle. The Bronco was in the middle of the intersection. No other cars were around but one. It was a truck and Maggie was being pulled toward it.

  Matt threw his legs over the side of the Bronco and jumped to the ground. The noise caught the man’s attention. He whirled around, pulling Maggie against his chest like a shield. Matt’s gun was up and aiming within a heartbeat.

  Immediately he noticed two things that weren’t great.

  The man had his own gun and it was pressed against a wincing Maggie’s stomach. She looked at Matt with fear clear in her eyes and blood across her face. A new cut had stretched above her right brow and was bleeding at a good clip. It had to have been stinging her eye.

  The second detail that kept Matt’s stomach tight was the fact that he could see the man’s face clearly. He wasn’t wearing a mask. Nothing to obstruct their view. Which was never good for a hostage. And that was exactly what Maggie would be if Matt didn’t stop him.

  “You move any closer and I’ll shoot her,” the man yelled. “I mean it!”

  Matt didn’t lower his weapon. But he also didn’t move from where he’d stopped at the front of the Bronco.

  “If you shoot her, I’ll shoot you,” Matt replied. “Simple as that. So let her go.”

  Matt clocked the man’s age as midforties. He was tall but broad; Matt guessed he would be able to do some damage if he had to go one-on-one. His hair was thick and black, his skin tan, and he was dressed not unlike Matt was. He looked like an everyday man. One whose hand was steady.

  He wasn’t nervous.

  Which made him even more dangerous.

  “I’m not going to do that.” His voice carried over the few yards between them with ease. Like he was a man used to talking to people. Maybe even giving them orders. There was no awkwardness in the way he addressed Matt. Perhaps he’d even done this sort of thing before.

  “And I’m not going to let you take her,” Matt promised. The man wasn’t the only one with a steady hand.

  “Then we have a problem.”

  He pressed his gun harder into Maggie’s stomach. She winced. Matt reacted on instinct and took a step forward. The man pulled Maggie a step backward.

  “What do you want?” Matt tightened his stance, already contemplating if he could get a clear shot without harming Maggie. “Who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter who I am, but what I want is simple.” The man pulled the gun up to the side of Maggie’s head. Her eyes locked with Matt’s.

  “To be left alone,” he bit out. “Once and for all.”

  Matt shook his hand.

  “Listen here, buddy. You’re the one who’s been following us. You threw the first stone. Brick, if you want to get technical. You can’t blame us for trying to find you.”

  The man snorted. Matt was too far away to hear it but he saw the expression of disbelief clearly enough.

  “Considering this one here hasn’t let me go in five years, I’m afraid I can’t shoulder the blame of starting things first.”

  Matt’s blood went cold.

  “Five years?” he asked. Maggie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean by that?”

  The man’s face went blank. Like an invisible hand had taken an eraser to the emotion that had just been there and scrubbed it clean. He didn’t answer and for a few seconds the only noise in the intersection was the sound of two broken vehicles whining. It wouldn’t be long before some motorist came along. They were in a slow part of town for the time of day but not that slow.

  “Let her go,” Matt repeated. He didn’t like the change in the stranger. If he was becoming unbalanced then that only lessened Matt’s chances at getting Maggie back unharmed. “Let her go and we can talk.”

  Maggie opened her mouth to say something but Matt gave her a look that kept her quiet. The man’s eyes narrowed.

  “I know her.” The hand gripping Maggie’s arm must have tightened. She winced again. “She won’t let this go.” For the first time the man’s gaze shifted away from Matt. He looked down at Maggie, his expression still blank, but she only had eyes for Matt.

  They widened and then trailed to the side, away from the man and to the ground. Before he could question it she did it again. Eyes on him and then jumping to her side. All within the space of a few seconds. By the time she started to do it again, Matt realized what she was trying to tell him.

  “Maggie,” he warned. But he should have known better. When their mystery man’s attention went back to Matt, the infuriating woman went into action.

  She stomped down on his instep with a small war cry. The man matched it as he howled in pain. It was enough of a distraction to take advantage of. Maggie threw all of her weight to the side she’d been looking toward. She broke free of the man’s grip.

  Then everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

  The man recovered enough to know he needed to do one of two things. Shoot or run. Fight or flight.

  Matt had to make the same choice in less time. To fight was to put Maggie, who was out in the open, in danger. To flee was to leave her in danger. Two roads but the same scenery.

  If Maggie was at risk either way, then Matt was going to choose the former.

  He needed to stop the man once and for all.

  Matt stepped forward and pulled the trigger.

  The man didn’t have time to retaliate. Instead, he tapped into his flight reflexes and moved. Still, the bullet found his arm. He yelled out in pain but kept his head. As he turned to run he shot back blindly.

  “Matt!” Maggie yelled out.

  Pain burned across his thigh as a bullet must have grazed him. He didn’t have time to check. He dived to avoid another shot and fired back. The man, however, was faster than Matt would have thought. He made it to the cover of the truck.

  “Maggie, run!” Matt yelled, moving full tilt toward the vehicle. There wasn’t much else in the way of cover unless he wanted to fall back to the Bronco. And he didn’t want to create distance; he wanted to close it.

  Out of his periphery Maggie did as she was told but not without making a little noise.

  “He took the key, Matt,” she yelled back as she ran. “He took the key!”

  Matt almost stuttered in his movements. Not only had this man repeatedly put Maggie in danger, but he also potentially held the literal key that could help explain Maggie’s theory about Erin’s death.

  He made it to the truck without another shot being fired. Matt didn’t have to be a mechanic to know that the vehicle was a lost cause. The man wouldn’t be able to drive it anywhere, let alone use it to escape this situation.

  “Come out with your hands up!” he yelled.

  The sound of a car door slamming behind him drew Matt’s attention. An elderly man was standing beside his car, stopped at the intersection next to the Bronco.

  “Get back in the car!” Maggie yelled, changing direction to go right to him.

  Another noise brought Matt’s attention back to the truck. Footsteps. Retreating footsteps.

  Fed up with hide-and-seek, Matt rounded the front of the truck with his gun raised just in time to see the man running over the sidewalk and to one of the buildings by the intersection. It was two stories and run-down, abandoned, he’d guessed, since no one had come outside at the sound of the crash or the gunshots. Or maybe they were playing it smart and were staying put. Hopefully calling the cops while they were at it.

  “Stop,” Matt yelled. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

 
The man sidestepped around the front of the building until he disappeared along its side. He didn’t shoot but that didn’t mean that Matt wouldn’t. If he got another clean shot, he’d try to take the man down. To temporarily disable him so he couldn’t run anymore. This needed to end. For Maggie. For Erin. For the truth.

  Matt paused at the corner of the building and looked around the edge, keeping his head low. The man wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Matt cursed beneath his breath as he tried to catch up.

  His adrenaline was on high, surging through every muscle in his body. When a door at the back corner of the building flung open, he nearly shot the teen who walked out.

  “I—I heard a—” He started to stutter, stopping so quickly that he nearly toppled over. He was looking at the gun as if it was the first time he’d ever seen one in person. And maybe it was. Either way, Matt hoped it would be the last. At least for the day.

  “I’m a cop. Get back inside,” Matt barked, lowering the gun. “Lock this door!”

  The boy didn’t have to be told twice. He scurried back into the building in a flash. Matt kept his gun low just in case more civilians were about to spring out at him. He’d never accidentally shot a civilian and didn’t want this to be his first time.

  The building led to an alley that opened back out into the street. Matt paused, heart slamming against his chest. The man could have easily gone around the next building or out to the road. He didn’t want to lose him. He couldn’t.

  A scream cut through the air, making the choice for him.

  “Maggie!” he yelled, running full tilt down the alley. How had he already gotten to her so fast? Matt didn’t think his lead had been that large.

  He skidded to a stop the moment he hit the sidewalk along the road.

  It wasn’t Maggie who screamed.

  “Stop or I’ll shoot!” the man yelled, opening a repeat of their earlier conversation. However, this time the scene had changed. The man was standing next to a running car, the driver’s-side door open and the driver standing at the end of his gun. He must have made her stop and pulled her out.