Chapter 34
Kinsley
Chapter Thirty-Four
The café was stuffed with people when Thomas and I barged through the front door. I looked around the room for Aaliyah and spotted her in a darker corner, sitting with Cora. They were giggling about something. Thomas and I exchanged a look before he turned and sat down at another table. Aaliyah lifted her head and waved me closer. I blew out a breath and reminded myself of my number one priority. The library.
“Sorry I’m late.” I sat down at the round table.
“You are just in time.” Aaliyah grinned.
“We were just talking about Braxton.” Cora leaned closer, taking a sip from her drink.
I lifted a brow. “Braxton, Braxton?” The girls nodded in sync before Cora turned her phone’s screen toward me.
There was a picture of a torn flower in Braxton’s Instagram story with the caption Apparently girls are over flowers now.
“He’s still trying to get Samantha’s attention,” Aaliyah explained.
“Does she have a problem with flowers?” I chuckled, remembering that I saw her gardening around the gazebo the other day.
“She—”
“Hello.” A girl’s voice interrupted, and I looked up to see Lila, Aaliyah’s sister, stopping at our table. “Can I get you anything?” she asked me, as the other girls already had their drinks in their hands.
“Just an iced coffee, please.” Lila gave me a smile, then glanced at her sister before storming away.
Aaliyah scoffed. “She’s mad at me again.” She sighed. “Last night I was supposed to close up, but I left the door unlocked while I ran upstairs for two minutes to get my phone. Someone used that time to come into the café and stole the surveillance tapes.”
My eyes widened. “All of it?” I asked, and Aaliyah nodded. “Shit.”
“What?” She frowned, then her eyes rounded and she inhaled a sharp breath. “You don’t think?—?”
My heart thundered in my chest.
“I…” I glanced back at Thomas. His eyes were fixated on me, his body tense as he lifted the small coffee cup to his mouth. If I had to guess, he was drinking black coffee. The only way he liked it. “We found the rest of Lizzie’s file, and it had a to-do list from that day attached to it.” The girls leaned closer, and I did too. “She apparently visited the library and a café. It can’t be a coincidence that the tapes were stolen the day before we could get our hands on this information.”
“So, you think she came here that day?” Aaliyah asked.
“She might have. It would make sense why they stole the tapes.”
“If it was in the folder. Didn’t the police follow up on it?” Cora asked, and I sighed.
“There wasn’t anything about that in the folder. Or anything else, really. Just the rest of the official papers. But we asked Mr. Miller before we came here, and he said the case was closed too soon for them to do anything useful. After the witnesses came forward, that was that. But apparently the previous chief had a soft spot for the case; he kept the file at his home?—”
“Pa’ Lance?” Cora smiled, and I furrowed my brows.
“Almost everyone in town called him Pa’, because he was like the town’s old guardian angel,” Aaliyah explained, seeing my confused expression.
All right.
“Yes, Kevin’s grandpa might have asked around, but there wasn’t anything about that either. Sadly, Isaac couldn’t comment on that. He didn’t find anything else about this when he went through his father’s things.
“Someone might have stolen it,” Cora theorized, and I nodded. We had come to that conclusion too.
“Yes, that’s possible, but it’s best if we treat it like it didn’t exist and go over the steps ourselves.” That reminded me. “I need to talk to your sister.” I stood up. “Maybe after that we can go to the library?
“I promised my mom I would stop by anyway,” Cora agreed, giving me a warm smile.
Great.
Seemed like we were going with Connor’s idea after all. I signed to Thomas, and he got to his feet, meeting me halfway.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and I looked around the café, searching for Lila.
“The Sunnyside got robbed,” I explained. “Someone took all of their surveillance tapes.”
“Shit,” he muttered the same time Lila stepped out of another door.
“Lila,” I called. “Could we have a quick word?” I asked, glancing at Thomas, while Lila put down the tray she had been carrying.
“So we are going with Con’s plan now?” Thomas murmured, and I nodded.
“Sure?” Lila gave me a confused look.
“This is going to sound very strange, but did you happen to work here around twelve years ago?” I asked, picking at my nails at my side.
Lila furrowed her brows, nodding. “Yes, that was my first year working here.”
I glanced at Thomas. So far, so good.
“I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but do you happen to remember Lizzie Rhodes? She?—”
“Disappeared,” Lila finished, and I nodded, surprised that she didn’t use the term ran away. “Everyone in town knows her story, and she spent almost every morning in the café.”
She must have seen something else on my face, because she started to explain herself.
“She spent a lot of her time here that summer,” she said, pursing her lips. “She always talked about her sons, so I never could believe that she would have left them,” she said, and I nodded before glancing in Thomas’s direction, but he was wearing a blank expression.
“Did she happen to come here on the sixth of July too?” Thomas asked, and Lila glared up at him.
“That’s the day she went missing,” I added.
“I-I’m not sure, but I could ask my mom, she was the one Pa’ Lance talked with a few weeks later.”
Weeks? That was definitely after the case had been closed.
“Can we talk to her?” Thomas asked, and I shook my head.
“They are on a business trip.” I remembered what Aaliyah had said about the coffee beans.
Lila nodded. “I can try to reach them, but it might take a few days.”
“That’s okay,” Thomas said.
“We can wait that long,” I added.
“All right, then I will talk to them.” Lila smiled.
We were finally making progress.
“Thank you,” I said, stepping toward the exit. “Could you maybe give us a call when you find anything out?” I asked, and she nodded. “Aaliyah has my number.” Lila handed me the iced coffee, which I had completely forgot about, and patted my hand.
“I will call you two as soon as I have an answer.” She smiled, then went to take out another order.
I placed my coffee down onto the counter and pulled out the town map from my pocket, drawing a circle around the Sunnyside Hideout Café.
“You look so hot when you go full-on detective,” Thomas murmured, playing with a strand of my hair.
“Shut up.” I snickered, putting the map back into my pocket.
“What’s going on?” Cora and Aaliyah stopped next to us. “Was Cruella any help?” Aaliyah asked, and I widened my eyes with a laugh.
“Yes, Lila did help. She will contact us in a few days, hopefully.”
“So, are we going or what?” Thomas asked, pushing himself away from the counter.
The three of us exchanged a look.
“To the library,” Aaliyah said, taking the lead and stepping out into the hot street.