Chapter Thirty-one
Mia didn’t sleep well after the party. Roman remained peaceful by her side while the hours ticked away, and she lay there with her mind combing through the Eliza case. Something was lodged in her gut. Some sense there was a crucial piece of information, and it was right in front of their faces but they were still somehow missing the big picture.
She also remembered how, during the confrontation in Thomas’s office, Eliza had stared at her so intently as if trying to send a message. Surely, she wasn’t planning more vengeful actions against her and Roman? She’d won, after all. The marriage had happened just like she’d wanted.
Somehow Mia wasn’t convinced it would be enough for a woman like Eliza.
When she finally drifted off to sleep sometime close to four o’clock, it was to enter a landscape of tension-filled dreams about lost dogs and fires and the feeling of danger at every turn.
She woke a little after eight to an empty bed. Mac popped his head onto the duvet, and she sighed and stroked his nose before dragging herself into the shower. Moments later, Roman burst into the bathroom.
“You know I love shower sex as much as the next girl, but I’m too tired right now, babe,” she said.
“I can’t say I’m ever to tired for sex, but I hear you. Rough night, huh?”
She tipped her head back and thoroughly wet her hair before grabbing the shampoo bottle. “It wasn’t the best. The fact you slept like a baby only pissed me off more.”
“What can I say? I’ve trained my mind to turn off like a finely tuned machine. It’s a combo of discipline and maybe the fact my brain doesn’t have a whole lot going on most of the time,” he said with a grin.
“Right. You’re nothing but an airheaded boy toy.”
“You called it.” His gaze swept slowly down her wet, naked body. “God, you look … good enough to eat.” He shook his head. “Anyway, Thomas wants a team meeting at his office. Can you be ready to go in an hour or would you rather sit this one out?”
Smoothing a handful of conditioner through her long hair, she shot him a smile. “I’ll be ready.”
The headquarters for Best Bag was housed in a warehouse not far from Quantum Mind Technologies. There was only one car in the lot—Thomas’s gold Porsche. He let them in and stood back. His eyes were heavy and there was an air of deep fatigue about him.
“Thanks for coming. I can set you up with coffee, tea, or water.”
“Coffee for me, and Mia will have a tea.”
They followed him out of the reception area to a small hallway where he turned through the first door on the left and into a kitchen. The aroma of coffee was strong.
“Smells great,” Roman said, lifting his nose to inhale.
Thomas stepped up to a serious-looking appliance and after calling out the choices of beans and herbal teas began making Roman’s coffee.
“Do you usually work on Sundays?” Mia asked.
“Nope. But I was so on edge I had to do something this morning. I talked to Scott. He’s at work too, funnily enough. And, let me tell you, it was a huge relief to know he’d made it out of his house alive. One night down. Thousands more to go, I guess.”
He handed Roman the coffee and turned his attention to brewing Mia’s tea while also making himself a couple of shots of espresso. When all the drinks were prepared, he gestured them to a small round table.
“This place is as good as any. I’m the only one here so we don’t have to worry about privacy.”
“Jennifer’s not coming?” Roman asked.
“She’d planned to but called only a few minutes ago to say something came up. There’s a lot going on at the house with breaking down the party stuff and one of us needs to be there. I’d have held off and pushed you until this afternoon, but we have an appointment with our lawyer. Jenn’s idea. We’re hoping against hope there’s something we can do about protecting Scott’s assets so Eliza won’t have anything to gain by harming him.”
“I know you’re worried. I would be too. But for right now, I can’t imagine she’ll do anything. Not with the spotlight so firmly pointed at her face. I think the best use of our time is to keep trying to uncover whatever we can about her past. Determine, once and for all, if she’s actually a threat,” Roman said.
“Maybe Eliza did marry Scott for his money.” Mia shrugged. “But could be she’s only planning to spend like a trophy wife and not actually kill him.”
“At this point, I’d be thrilled. Don’t get me wrong, it’d still stick in my craw, and I’ll never be able to warm to the woman, but at least my boy would be okay.” He took a sip of his espresso and nodded. “Tell me, what’s the next step in the investigation?”
“We have the credit card fraud to follow up on. I’ll touch base with my police contact and see if we can’t push that along. It won’t prove she killed anyone, but maybe Scott will start to see her in a new light,” Roman said.
“We’re also planning a trip to her sister’s college. Roman has already talked to some students, but we thought it might be useful to see the location in person. Maybe we’ll dig up more leads or find something the police missed first time around,” Mia said.
“Okay. That all sounds fine. It might not net anything though. Then what?” Thomas asked.
Roman shrugged. “Investigations aren’t always linear. I can’t usually jot down a plan and simply work through the steps to a happy conclusion, because I don’t know what I’ll stumble over along the way. In this case, we keep our fingers crossed and hope we uncover a new thread. Something else to tug on.”
“For instance. Whoever’s targeting my online business must know their way around computers. Have you seen or heard evidence Eliza has that skill?” Mia asked.
“Hm. Let me think. All told, Jenn and I have only met her a handful of times. Computers haven’t come up a whole lot. Still, whenever I talked to Scott about the latest and greatest things going on with Quantum, she didn’t show much interest. In fact, it seemed like she wasn’t fully aware of what’s being developed by his company,” Thomas said.
“Could be an act,” Roman commented.
“Maybe so. When will you go to the college?”
“First thing tomorrow. It’s a good drive from here and we’re already halfway through the morning. I’ll stick with the credit cards for today and also try to run down the origin of those one-star reviews on Yelp.”
“Has there been any more of that sort of thing in the last twenty-four hours?” Thomas asked.
“I had a few bogus orders yesterday, but otherwise nothing else. It makes me nervous. Like this is just the lull before something big and bad gets thrown at us,” Mia said.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Thomas said grimly
***
Back at home, Mia took the dogs for a walk while Roman headed straight for his office. As much as she tried to enjoy the time spent wandering through the cool forest at the edge of her property, the sense of foreboding followed her like a shadow. Every time she turned around, there it was.
Her appetite was gone and she finally settled on a handful of carrot sticks and hummus for lunch before hunkering down in her workroom and trying her best to focus on the five jewelry orders she’d earmarked for completion that day.
An hour or so later, Roman came dashing into the workroom. His face was set in hard lines, and he held his phone in his right hand.
“Jennifer’s gone,” he announced. “The party cleanup crew reported she walked out of the lake house just after nine a.m. and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Thomas claims it’s not like her.”
Mia’s senses started pinging and skitters of electricity raced up and down her spine.
“Maybe she needed some quiet. Or retail therapy. Or maybe she just went to get a massage. It’s been a stressful time and who could blame her for wanting to step away for a moment?” she said, even knowing it was probably the last thing Jennifer would do right now.
“Remember she was the one who set up the meeting with the lawyer? He’s there now and there’s no sign of her. She’s not answering her phone, and the tracking app is disabled.”
“That can’t be good. Doesn’t she drive one of those fancy Teslas? I’ll bet they have tracking stuff on that, too,” Mia said.
“You’d be right. Apparently, her car is parked in an industrial lot in Nashville. He’s heading over there now. I said we’d meet him.”
“Give me a sec. I have a couple of things to do, including calling Sheryl to see if she minds coming over to feed the dogs later in case we’re held up for a while.”
Within ten minutes, they were in the Escape. Mia glanced at the four dogs lined up in their run and staring out forlornly.
Roman followed her gaze. “Don’t worry. They’ll be fine. You said Sheryl was coming in an hour, right? They love her. She’ll take them for a walk and no doubt play with them too.”
“I know. They just look so sad. Especially Mac. It hurts, you know?” She rubbed her fingers up and down her breastbone. She sighed then waited until he’d backed out and pulled away from the house. “You know, I’ve been thinking. If we find proof Eliza really is a murdering monster, she’s likely going away for a good, long time. JP will need a loving home.”
His eyes flicked over her face. “We already have four. I think that’s more than enough.”
“But he’s so little we’d hardly even notice him.”
He turned onto the main road and punched the accelerator. “How about we actually solve the case first. We can worry about the dog later.”
“Okay. But just know he’s on my mind. Anyway, what the heck do you think happened to Jennifer?”
“Dunno. It’s a strange time for her to drive to an unfamiliar location and walk away from her car.”
“Yeah, I guess. I wonder if she and Thomas had a fight. They’ve seemed pretty solid, but remember how she told us the marriage was rocky?”
“It has been crazy for them. I have to think emotions are running high,” he said.
“Hopefully by the time we get there, she’s already turned up.”
But when they angled into a long narrow parking lot outside a manufacturing building, there was no sign of Jennifer. Thomas pushed off his Porsche and gestured to a blue Tesla.
Roman pulled up beside him and he and Mia got out of their SUV. “What’s the word?”
“No word. Nothing. She’s just gone. Her purse is right there on the front seat. She’d never leave one of her bags behind. She loves those damn overpriced things.”
He was wearing the same navy dress pants and golf shirt that he’d had on when they met at Best Bag that morning. His hair was partially rumpled as if he’d been running his fingers through it but also remembering to pat it back down.
Mia approached the Tesla and glanced inside. Sure enough, a tan Hermes bag remained on the passenger seat.
“Did you touch anything?” Roman asked.
“No. I thought … well, just in case there’s evidence or something.”
Roman clapped a hand on Thomas’s shoulder. “Good man. Okay. I’m gonna take a couple of snaps real quick, then we’ll see if there’s anything pointing to Jennifer’s whereabouts.”
He took out his phone and Mia, well versed in the routine, turned to the Escape and opened the back door where she retrieved a box of latex gloves and a small tarp. She waited for Roman to take pictures from the outside. Then she slid on a pair of gloves and carefully opened the driver’s door before walking around to do the same on the passenger side. Roman continued documenting the scene.
“Open the purse,” he told Mia. She did and he photographed it from the top down before sliding his phone into his back pocket.
Mia spread the blue tarp onto the asphalt next to the Tesla. She set the handbag on it and carefully removed one item at a time, lined them up on the tarp. There was a lot of stuff. Makeup. Hair pins. Multiple pens. Note pads. Hand cream. Trail mix and dried fruits in small Ziplock baggies. Three Cliff bars. Jennifer appeared to favor blueberry. A pair of Tory Birch sunglasses in a case. Advil. A Kindle Fire along with a paperback copy of Frieda McFadden’s The Boyfriend . Pink linen handkerchiefs with JL embroidered in the bottom right corner. Breath mints. And finally, a small, folded rain poncho.
When she was done, she glanced up at Thomas. “Can you see anything obviously missing or, on the other hand, something that shouldn’t be here? For instance, is it normal for her to have a book?”
“Oh, yeah. Jenn’s a big reader. The only thing I don’t see is her cell.”
“Yeah. I noticed that too,” Roman said. “Okay. Let’s go through the rest of the car.”
Like Mia, he slipped on gloves then returned to the driver’s side door. Since the Tesla was as neat as a pin, it took less than five minutes to clear the interior. They found little more than a gum wrapper caught down by one of the seats and a pencil. The glove box held all the usual ownership and insurance docs along with a small green container of liquid Stevia.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Thomas said when they finally stepped back from the car.
“Why would she come here?” Mia asked, glancing around the industrial area. There weren’t any other cars in the lot. “What is this place, anyway?”
“I looked it up. Zertex was a company that made high tension springs and coils,” Thomas said.
“Was?” Roman asked.
“According to Google, they went out of business a few years ago. I’m surprised the building is sitting empty. I checked the names of the board of directors and none of them meant a thing to me. I doubt Jenn knew any of them.”
“This is going to sound like an obvious question, but are we sure Jennifer is the one who drove her Tesla here? Could it be that she was taken somewhere else and the car was simply dumped afterward?” Mia asked.
Thomas’s lips pressed into a grim line. He nodded. “I’m almost certain it was her. I checked the navigation log, and the car came straight from the lake to here. No other stops. Then I brought up our door cam from the house. FedEx delivered a package just after nine this morning and Jennifer picked it up a few minutes later. She came back out fifteen or so minutes later. It was hard to be sure, but she looked like she was crying. A few seconds later you can just catch the edge of the Tesla going through the camera range as it went down the driveway.”
“And she didn’t contact you?” Roman asked.
“She did not. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out what she could’ve gotten in that package to send her rushing out of the house the way she did.” Thomas blew out a breath. “It must have been something about Scott, don’t you think? But she damn well should’ve called me ....”
Mia stepped over and patted Thomas’s arm. “The important thing is to figure out what happened. Since there isn’t any FedEx package in the car, maybe it’s still at the house. We should go there and see if Jennifer left any clues.”
“Do you want to bring the police in on this? We’re in Walkerton PD jurisdiction and I know a guy who’d be good. He already has some of the background on Eliza,” Roman said.
Thomas’s gaze flicked to Roman. “Eliza? What does she have to do with this?”
“Think about it,” Mia coaxed. “You hired us to investigate her, and in the week since we started, Roman and I have been attacked in a variety of escalating way. Then there was the surprise elopement of Scott and Eliza, and now a possible kidnapping. It’d be strange if this is an unrelated incident. Unless there’s something you’re not telling us?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” he insisted. “Why would I when my wife’s missing?” He paused and glanced around the deserted lot. “Let’s go back to the house and see if we can find any clues like you suggested. After that, I guess we should call the police.”
“Sounds like a plan. First, we’ll pack this stuff up.” Roman gestured to where the contents of Jennifer’s purse lay spread out on the tarp.
Thomas suddenly jolted and he snatched his phone from his pocket. His eyes tracked down the screen and his breath gasped out while all the color leached from his face.
“Oh, my God. No. Why is this happening?” He held the screen out to show Mia and Roman the text message.