Chapter Six #2
Leah nodded. When they’d reached Chicago proper, Owen decided to let the guy in the sedan follow them to the apartment.
It wasn’t like he didn’t already know where it was.
Brilliantly, Owen had called a fellow Colby investigator and asked him to do a drive-by and snag the guy’s license plate number.
Leah was impressed with the idea. The sooner they found out who the guy was, the better.
She assumed he was a hired spy or maybe even an assassin working for the bad guys.
The problem was, who were the bad guys? And why was Leah their target?
Or at least one of their targets, it seemed.
Was the bad guy the person who’d dragged Raymond out of the kitchen, dead or unconscious? Or the best friend she had come to think of as a sister?
The mere thought had more of those knots twisting in Leah’s belly.
She and Owen opened their doors and exited the car.
Leah fixated on the sweltering heat and the drooping flowers in the pots on the steps that led to the entrance of her building.
This really had been a very hot summer. Sadly, it just wasn’t getting any better.
All sorts of little fires were cropping up around her as her life fell apart one piece at a time.
She entered the code and Owen opened the main entrance door.
They walked together to the stairs and climbed up to the second floor.
Thinking back on their conversation in the car, she was surprised at how easy talking to him was.
Usually, she had a difficult time discussing personal relationships or details with others—especially strangers.
And he was a stranger. No matter that he was so comfortable to be around…
to talk to. Honestly, he didn’t feel like a stranger at all.
He somehow made sharing comfortable. Then again, she supposed it was part of his job to know how to mine cooperation from a subject.
But the way their conversations developed, they never felt anything but completely natural and well-intentioned.
Bolling waited outside the apartment. The repair work was moving along. A door had been framed in, but the drywall around it had not been finished, and there was still the painting and necessary trim work. She was actually surprised it had happened so quickly.
The manager unlocked the door and passed the key to Leah. “This is the key you’ll need when the repairs are completed. Shouldn’t take more than another day.”
That really was fast. “Thank you.”
Bolling nodded and headed back downstairs.
Walking into her apartment now, knowing all that she knew, felt strange. It no longer felt like home. And certainly no longer felt safe.
Where was Isla? Had she been injured? What in the world had happened to Raymond, and what did any of it have to do with Leah?
The most damning and startling piece of this puzzle was the fact that she had been named a beneficiary on his life insurance policy. The idea was ludicrous, irrational. Totally out of left field.
How could she be a beneficiary of his when she hardly knew the man?
“Let’s start in this main room,” Owen suggested.
“We touch everything. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Whatever is here, we want to see it and feel it, as well as recognize its reason for being in this space. A piece of the puzzle could be hiding in plain sight…anywhere in this apartment.”
He was right. Deep breath. “Okay.”
They started at the door. Checked every piece of furniture.
Inside and under the drawers. Behind doors on the lower portion of the one large bookcase and inside every single book that lined its open shelves.
Every item discovered was picked up and examined.
Leah found a couple of appointment cards she’d forgotten about entirely.
One was from the dentist’s office for her annual cleaning.
The other was for a meeting with her mother’s doctor.
When they had handled every item in the main living area, they moved on to the bedrooms. There were only two, and each had its own bath.
“I’ll take your room,” Owen said. “You take Isla’s. It’s important to determine if anything looks out of place. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never met Isla or been in her room. As for your room, I’m sure you would have noticed anything out of place already. I’ll just be a fresh second look.”
Made sense, even though Leah was embarrassed at the idea of him going through her things. “Sounds good.” He was right about her needing to be the one who went through Isla’s things.
In Isla’s private space, Leah first got down onto all fours and looked under the bed, the night table and the dresser.
All stood on legs that left about fifteen inches of space beneath them.
Prime territory for storage, particularly under the bed.
Nothing but a few dust bunnies. Isla wasn’t one to hoard, even a little bit.
Then Leah moved on to the window. She checked the drapes and the chair and the table that sat in front of it.
Isla’s desk was on that same wall. Leah surveyed the cluttered desktop and awakened her friend’s computer in hopes of perusing her email and having a quick look at her search history.
The computer required a password.
Leah wasn’t even going to attempt figuring it out. Instead, she surveyed the notepad and two sticky notes posted on the sleek wood surface. One was a list of personal items she needed. The other sticky note reminded Isla to talk to her boss about a raise.
“You go, Isla,” Leah murmured.
Leah moved on, checking the drawers in Isla’s dresser. Nothing unexpected or seemingly out of place so far.
Next, she checked the closet. Lots and lots of clothes. Isla really was a clotheshorse, but she shopped smartly, never paying full price for anything, she often bragged.
Even after a thorough second look of the room, Leah found nothing that didn’t belong.
She walked out of the room just as Owen exited hers.
“Anything?” she asked. “I found nothing in Isla’s room.”
“Is this yours?” He opened his hand, revealing a black cell phone. Smaller than the one she carried.
“No.” She pulled her phone from her pants pockets. “This is my phone.”
“This one,” he said, “was tucked into your lingerie drawer.”
The idea that he had touched her lingerie, as he’d put it, made her heart thump hard against her sternum. She hadn’t even considered he would have to filter through her most intimate apparel. Ridiculous. Of course, searching each drawer was necessary.
She shook her head, not daring to touch the phone. If she didn’t touch it, her prints wouldn’t be on it. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“The battery is dead. We should charge it up and see what we find.”
“I agree.” She folded her arms over her chest and suppressed a shiver. The idea of what else they might find was terrifying.
Owen had been so smart and definitely one step ahead to suggest they come here and have a look. If not, Lambert would have found that phone and assumed it was hers. How had it gotten into her room? Given all that had happened, she could just imagine what kind of incriminating “evidence” was on it.
Owen slid the phone into his back pocket. “If you need to get anything else while we’re here, you should pack it up—and have a look around just in case. Then we’ll get going.”
She nodded and went into her room. Leah tried to center on what she might need and not think about what he’d found, but it wasn’t easy.
She grabbed a dressier shirt in case she needed something more than the T-shirts she had taken to the safe house.
Then she remembered she had forgotten lotion, so she picked that up too.
And a nightshirt; she’d completely forgotten to take anything for sleeping.
With a final quick look around to ensure nothing was missing or there that shouldn’t be, she decided she was done.
Her overnight bag was already at the safe house, so she opted to just carry the three items.
She went to the living room, where Owen waited.
“Got everything you need?”
“I think so.”
He grinned. “Now to ghost our nosy friend.”
That made her smile. The guy in the black car wouldn’t be happy, she imagined.
But when Owen opened the door for her, her smile died.
Detective Lambert and his forensic team were standing in the corridor.
“What a surprise,” the detective said. “Did you find whatever you were looking for?”
Leah held her breath…didn’t dare speak.
“Just dropped by for a few items she needed,” Owen said with a gesture toward the items she clutched.
Good grief. She’d completely forgotten she was holding anything. The craziness was getting to her, making her paranoid.
“I needed a few more things,” she said, her voice a little high, a little shaky.
Lambert nodded. “Well, if you’re quite finished, we’ll get started on our search.”
“Of course.” Leah slipped past him, her heart pounding way too fast.
What if he spotted the bulge of that cell phone in Owen’s pocket? What if he decided it was necessary to pat them down like the police often did to suspects in the movies? The phone would only make her look guiltier.
Worry twisted like razors inside her.
Owen joined her in the corridor, and they walked casually toward the stairwell.
He set the pace. Slow and steady. She forced her respiration to slow and followed his example.
No one hurried after them, demanding to check their pockets.
But she didn’t relax until they were out of the building and in his car.
Once they were driving away, he said, “I have to make a quick stop before I lose this guy.”
She frowned. “Where?”
“Anywhere.” He shot her a grin. “Just long enough to make sure our shadow didn’t put a tracking device on the car.”
She hadn’t even considered the person watching her—following them—might do something so obviously smart in a situation like this. Good thing she had this man on her side.
Her gaze lingered on Owen’s profile. A really good thing.