“So he wasn’t totally computer illiterate.” He shrugged. “It’s worth exploring, at least. Did you invest with him?”
She pressed her lips together. “I have no money to invest.”
“Your parents, then?”
“They wanted to, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“How do the time cards work into his paper and pen methods?”
“He puts them in the shredder after he enters them into the software.”
Nick frowned. “That doesn’t jibe with the ‘this way we won’t get hacked’ mentality. So you have some that aren’t shredded?”
“I’m too type A just to hand over the hard copies without digital accountability.”
“No,” he said with an exaggerated tone and a wink. “You? Type A?”
She smacked him playfully on the arm. He faked injury, but she ignored him and continued. “So I took photographs of each time card with my smartphone before I submitted it to Theresa.”
“Was your pay ever inconsistent?”
She shook her head. “No, I never had a problem.”
“But the photos are no longer on your phone.” He held up a hand. “Let me guess. You import them onto a backup drive every six weeks.”
She bristled. “Every week, if you must know, and it’s not a backup drive. It’s a laptop.” She sighed. “I want to have hope that there’s a clue there, but you know in all likelihood, it’s going to be nothing.”
While true, he preferred hanging onto hope rather than the alternative. The pressure from the day and the seriousness of the matter threatened to overwhelm him, as if it hovered on the back of his neck, ready to paralyze him. He needed to capture his thoughts, or at least avoid thinking about them for a while, or he might self-destruct.
Car beams swung around the corner a block ahead. He took a step backward into the shadows and tugged gently on Alexis’s elbow to get her to follow him. As soon as Raven saw they were still, she flopped down on the ground like she wanted to take a nap right there. The poor dog was overdue for a nice, long snooze.
The car blared rock music, but they remained silent. How many squirrels and birds made the wide branches above them their home? He could hardly make out any moonlight when he looked straight up. The tree at their backs had to be one of the widest cedars he’d ever seen. His gaze dropped to find Alexis staring at him curiously.
Heat filled his chest. He couldn’t look away. “You’re beautiful.” The words came out in a whisper, so fast he couldn’t stop them.
She blinked, and the moment of connection dissipated into the night.
He wanted to kick himself. What was he doing? She’d made it abundantly clear that she had no plans to date anyone in town. She wouldn’t be sticking around. He didn’t need a surefire recipe to heartache. And yet he found himself growing increasingly attracted to her.
Alexis grew prettier the more he got to know her. The opposite usually happened as he got to know women. He didn’t know what to make of it.
She scoffed, “Everyone looks good in moonlight.”
First of all, that wasn’t true, but if she thought it was... “Are you’re saying I look good?” he asked.
She pressed her lips to one side and rolled her eyes.
“If you’re not, I think I’ve just proved your theory has holes.” He couldn’t help but flash his best smile.
She put her head down, but not before he could see the smile forming. “Car’s gone,” she said and strode ahead of him down the street. Raven rushed after her, almost dragging him by the leash. Who’s walking who?
Alexis looked over her shoulder. “One more block, and then I know a shortcut through a field where we should be safe from prying eyes.”
He picked up his pace to match hers. The playful moment had disappeared, and with the reminder that they weren’t safe, the heaviness that had hung over him returned. It warred with the peace that at moments calmed his heart. The war of emotions left him exhausted. The grass up ahead looked good enough to sleep on.
She turned left onto a dirt path marred by weeds and grass. The trees around the abandoned field blocked the streetlights in the distance. Only the moon and the stars lit their way.
With concern, he watched Raven walk. “I’ll look at her paws the moment we have light. We’ll need to check her for stickers.”
“You mean goat heads.”
Within the first week of moving to the county, he’d tried to take his bike onto the rural roads. People had warned him about goat heads. He’d imagined the road must be littered with goat skeletons and wondered what kind of odd place he’d moved to, until the stickers had punctured his bike wheels and he’d realized they looked like goat heads.
Alexis looked down at Raven. “I’ll try to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t start limping,” she whispered. “You always wanted to be a veterinarian?”
“Um. No. I started in premed, but I could see the writing on the wall my senior year, so I took an animal biology class just in case. Didn’t stop me from my path to medical school, though. Didn’t even last a semester before I knew I needed to transfer to a vet school.”
“You wanted to be a doctor?” Her tone had a measure of disbelief.
“I always knew I wanted to help people, but it became clear I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
She tilted her head. “Why? The blood?” She shivered. “Sorry. Obviously, there’s blood involved in being a vet. I wouldn’t be able to do it. I can’t even stand to think about it.”
“No.” He still remembered getting the news that his grandfather had passed away from lung cancer. His death had been the final straw for Nick. And everyone at the university had figured out he was done before he had. His cheeks heated at the memories. “I couldn’t cope when patients made bad choices to the detriment of their health. I couldn’t control people.”
“I can understand that,” she said softly.
“The clients who bring their animals in to me are, ninety-nine percent of the time, good owners who will do almost anything to make sure their pets stay well.”
“Don’t you have to deal with bad owners sometimes?”
“There are laws on my side in that event. There aren’t any laws that say people have to stop smoking after they’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer.”
Raven lifted her nose and nuzzled his hand. He pushed the painful memories into the back of his mind. “And animals are easy to love and forgive. It seemed like an easy choice to go into veterinary medicine.” He lifted his gaze. They were coming to the edge of the clearing. Now that they were visible through the thin line of trees, they would have to be on guard again. He sighed. “I would ask you why you became a lawyer, but—”
Her entire body stiffened, and her stride grew longer. “You’ve figured out that’s a topic I don’t like to talk about.”
He nodded but let her words hang in the air.
She eyed him right before she stepped in between the trees. “You do look good in the moonlight, by the way.”
He stumbled over a tree root as he processed her words. She must have finally decided she didn’t want him poking holes in the theory of hers that said everyone looked good in the moonlight.
He caught up to her as she moved onto the sidewalk, but before he could respond with a flirtatious quip, the surroundings took him by surprise. A block away, a hollowed-out shell of a building with a caved-in roof stood as a reminder that, if they couldn’t prove their innocence, his entire life would crumble.
“Nick,” Alexis whispered. “The silver car that was at the corner before the fire is back on my street.”
* * *
Alexis stood paralyzed at the tree line. Her insides shook just seeing the car. True, they had no proof it was associated with the fire, but the least the police could do would be to ask th
e owner of it a few questions. It had to be the same car, but when she called, she would reveal her and Nick’s whereabouts. She needed to be sure it was worth the risk.
Nick pulled her back into the shadows. “Call the police.”
“You’re sure it’s the right move?” Alexis envied the certainty in his voice. She used to make quick decisions with confidence. She fumbled to get her phone.
“No, I’m not, but I think at this point, we’d better be safe than sorry.”
Alexis stared at him. She wanted to hear him say that if they called the police, everything was going to be all right. Because people who did the right things were supposed to end up having a good life, not to get hauled off to prison for something they didn’t do.
It was the very reason she’d never wanted to be a defense lawyer. Somewhere deep inside, she assumed that all accused people were likely guilty or they wouldn’t have been accused in the first place. If this was to be the year in which God put a spotlight on every corner of her heart to reveal all her prejudices and misguided notions, she prayed He would just write her a detailed letter instead. The Bible instantly came to mind.
She hesitated to dial the emergency line. After her last conversation, she didn’t want to call the chief, either. Jeremy’s contact information was at the top of her list. The phone rang two times before he answered. “Jeremy, the silv—”
“Stop calling me,” he interrupted. “I mean it. Unless you’re ready to have me pick you up or come in of your own accord, I’m not helping you.”
“But—”
“You of all people should know that I can’t make concessions for friends. The law is the law. Don’t put me in this position again.” A dial tone sounded in her ear.
“Sounds like that went well,” Nick said drily. “Maybe we should take a peek before we call again. It’s possible it’s someone visiting one of these houses, right?”
“Not very.” They would’ve parked closer or in the driveway if that were the case.
They stuck to the shadows as they crossed the street and neared the vehicle. Over her shoulder, her parents’ house beckoned her. The fridge was full of leftovers and cold iced tea and—
A flick of light through the bay window made her breath catch. But it was only for a second. She blinked to make sure her eyes hadn’t played a trick on her. She turned around, searching for another source of light. “Nick, did you see—”
Raven barked at the driver’s side door of the silver car.
“Shh,” Alexis and Nick both hissed at the dog at the same time.
Raven responded by nudging her nose at the bottom of the door and barking again. She sat down, wagging her tail.
Alexis tugged on Nick’s elbow as they ran around the end of the car. “Get down,” she whispered. “I saw a light inside my house.”
Nick groaned. “Call the police now. If they find someone in the house, that’ll give them probable cause to search this car. And Raven seems very sure something is in this vehicle.”
Alexis dialed 911. “There’s a burglary in progress at 1415 Jefferson.” She hung up before the dispatcher could ask any more questions. Light reflected on the street underneath the car. “Why can’t they train the dog to sniff loudly instead of bark?”
“Let’s just pray that the burglar doesn’t have a gun.”
The light disappeared as fast as it appeared. Nick straightened painfully slowly until he peeked through the windows of the car. “I don’t see anyone approaching.”
Her heart sped up. “What if he’s getting away? He’s probably Theresa’s murderer.”
Nick’s eyes widened. “Why would someone be searching your house?”
Her throat seemed to close. She choked out, “To kill me.”
Nick blinked, unfazed. “Or?”
“The time cards?”
He nodded. “I like that option better, but how would they know you have some? Did Theresa know you took pictures of the time cards before you turned them in?”
Alexis racked her brain. “One time I forgot to take a snapshot until I reached her office to turn them in. She witnessed me taking the photos. So, yes. She didn’t mind. She teased me about it, in fact. It’s...it’s possible she told Gerald or someone that I kept digital copies. Maybe that’s why she was frantically searching for her copies.”
“So if our theory is correct, then your nighttime visitor might be after the cards. Theresa said you were probably in danger. It’s possible she knew. Maybe that’s why she was frantically trying to find her copies of the time cards.”
She nodded toward the house. “Well, if that’s what he’s after, he won’t find them in there.”
“He won’t?”
“No.” She chanced a look through the car windows to catch a view across the street. “Most people assume I live in the house. I don’t. I have an apartment above the garage.”
A beam of light illuminated the kitchen for a brief moment, enough to see a dark figure lurking about the house. “I don’t think he saw us,” Nick said. “He must have thought a dog in the neighborhood was barking.”
The police were on their way. Alexis hoped the cops had sense enough to keep the sirens off when they approached. The light beam went off again.
“Can you see the house from your apartment?”
She nodded. “Let’s go get the time cards. If the cops don’t get here in time, we can watch and see where he goes.” Nick crossed the street with Raven at his heels before she could object.
She rushed after him. “What if he has a gun?”
Nick’s steps faltered. “I wasn’t going to confront him. I’m hoping he doesn’t see us at all.”
“I like that plan.” Her heart raced faster the closer they got to her parents’ house. They crouched in front of the bushes as they slipped past the bay window. While it served her purposes not to have motion-detecting lights at the moment, if she got out of this alive, she would install some herself. Maybe that would’ve been enough to deter the intruder. Though if he’d murdered Theresa, she doubted it. A chill ran down her spine at the thought.
Nick led the way, but she realized he didn’t know where he was going. She tapped his shoulder, and he let her pass him and Raven. Once she rounded the corner, she’d be at the house threshold. The entrance to the garage was almost directly across from the front door. The space in between acted almost like an outdoor hallway.
She held a hand up to Nick to indicate he should stay put and keep a look out while she opened the side door to the garage. Her eyes strained to see more as she watched the front door before she stepped up to the entrance to her garage apartment. She slipped her apartment key from her jeans and inserted it into the lock.
A steel arm wrapped around her neck, closing off the oxygen. She shoved her elbow backward. Her attacker shifted and her arm thrashed into thin air. He pressed harder into her esophagus. Something sharp dug into her right side. She couldn’t think straight enough to decipher if it was a gun or not.
A deep voice rasped into her ear. “Where are the time cards?” Something sounded familiar about it, but the panic and lack of oxygen made her thoughts muddy.
His arm went slack as shards of ceramic rained over her shoulder, stinging but welcome compared to the vise around her neck. She sucked in a deep breath. The attacker fell to the ground. Soil and wilted geraniums littered around his face, which was covered by a ski mask.
Nick’s hands dropped from the air.
Alexis cradled her neck with her fingers, desperate to ease the tight pain in her throat. “Gun.” She could barely get the word out as a croak. Raven barked at the man but didn’t move to attack.
Nick stomped on the man’s right forearm, so he must have heard Alexis over Raven’s bark. The man howled and released the gun. Nick kicked it aside, but the attacker took that moment to swipe at h
is other leg, and Nick fell back. Alexis lunged and braced Nick with her outstretched arm.
He regained his balance, but when they both turned, the man had disappeared. Nick grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the door. “He might’ve found the—”
A bullet shot into the night before he could finish his thought. It whizzed past them and found its mark in the headlight of a police cruiser pulling up to the scene. Nick shoved her inside the apartment entrance and closed the door behind her. “Let’s hope they realize we weren’t the ones who shot at them.”
She held on to the possibility that the officers hadn’t even seen them since they were in the shadows, but her throat hurt too much to voice it. Sirens sounded in the street. The police weren’t keeping their presence on the down low now after being shot at.
“Keep a watch out, I’ll be right back.” Alexis ran up the steps inside the garage to her apartment. She flung open the door and flipped on her smartphone’s flashlight function. There were only two small windows in the back of the apartment, both facing the backyard, but they were covered with blinds and curtains.
From the street, the building likely looked like a tall garage for an RV. That was, after all, its function before her parents had renovated it into an apartment, intending it at one time to be a possible income source. They had no idea that their only daughter, a lawyer, would end up moving back home to lick her wounds.
The furniture fit in the one-bedroom, one-bathroom studio like a game of Tetris. Her desk sat between the table and the bed. She launched across the strip of tile and shoved the laptop into the computer bag. At least she knew someone wanted those time cards, so they had to be on to something. If she could just get a moment of peace and quiet, maybe she would figure out the motive behind Theresa’s murder and have proof of their innocence.
She felt before she saw a figure looming in the doorway. Her muscles tensed. Her fingers reached for a glass paperweight as the only weapon she could find. Her beam of light focused on Nick and her shoulders dropped. He was supposed to have stayed put. Her poor heart couldn’t handle another scare, and her throat still wasn’t ready for her to try talking.
Tracking Secrets Page 13
