Chapter 16
“Good morning,” Evan said.
“Hey. How ya doing?” the guy asked.
“Fine. Just getting my day started. How about yourself?”
“Another day of the grind. What can I help you with?” The man wore a name tag that read Mike W., and his title was manager.
“I’m looking to rent a storage unit,” Evan said. “A garage-sized one if available, and I don’t need one of the climate-controlled ones. I got the rates a few months back when I came in, but I wasn’t sure if I actually needed a unit. And, well, now I do.”
“Sure, sure,” the guy said. “Let me see what we have available.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Evan turned his back to the front counter and looked out of the glass doors toward the parking lot.
He’d seen a report of the homicide on the news about an hour earlier, and against his better judgment, he’d come for a look.
As the man tapped away on his computer, Evan watched a white Ford pickup truck pull up by the office and saw a guy hop out.
The bell on the door rang as the man entered the building.
“Hey, I was out here last night with everyone,” the guy said. “I just need to get back by that unit. We put our own lock on it, so we should be good with the actual getting inside.”
“All right. Yeah, I can get the gate for you. Are you guys going to be out here all day?”
“I imagine a good chunk of it, yeah,” the man said.
“Okay. I’ll get the gate for you. You can just pull over there to the gate, and I’ll open it from here.”
“Thanks,” the guy said and left the office.
“Sorry, give me one second,” the guy working said.
Evan watched as the employee looked out the windows and opened the gate for the man Evan assumed was a cop.
“All right. I apologize again.”
“It’s not a problem,” Evan said.
The man retook his spot at the computer and ran his finger across the screen. “I can put you in twenty-two. That’s going to be right over there.” He pointed to his left. “The rate for the ten-by-twenty is one-twenty-nine a month, and we just go month to month on that.”
“Okay,” Evan said.
“I’ll need you to start filling these out.” The guy handed him a clipboard with a bunch of papers attached. “You can grab a seat right over there if you want.”
Clipboard of rental papers in hand, Evan walked over to the small waiting area with a leather couch and glass coffee table.
From all the signage in the building, he figured that the waiting area was for customers getting trailer hitches installed.
Evan had a seat on the couch and gave the paperwork a look.
“Damn,” he said beneath his breath.
Evan hadn’t planned what exactly he was going to do when things progressed to that point in the rental talks.
He’d simply seen the news coverage and headed out.
All he really wanted was to see what the cops were doing, if anything.
He had no intention of signing up for a unit and surely wasn’t going to write down any of his actual information.
Evan simply sat there in thought, and then it came to him—he would say that he’d forgotten his wallet.
He didn’t forget it, but that was what he would say after another minute or two of sitting around.
Ideally, he wanted to get into the grounds for a look at what the cops were doing before he left.
Evan thought that maybe he could have the manager show him the unit before he made his decision and inevitably gave the guy the forgotten-wallet ruse.
Evan stood and walked to the counter with his paperwork.
“Done already?” the manager asked.
“Um, nah, not yet. Is there a way I can look at the unit first to make sure it’s big enough? I’m kind of thinking that I may want to put more in here than my project car, so I want to double-check first before I lock in a certain size.”
“Ah. The ten-by-twenty are the largest we have at this location,” the manager said. “But we have another location that has a couple ten-by-thirty units. Let me see if—”
The manager’s words were interrupted by the bell as another person walked in the door.
“I just need to get through the gate,” said the man who’d walked in.
Evan turned to get a look at the guy—another cop, but that one looked like a detective. He turned away.
“Sure,” the manager said. “I can open it from in here. Just drive up, and I’ll get you through. One of your other guys just went back.”
“Appreciate it,” the man said, and Evan again heard the bell as the man walked out.
Knowing that cops were definitely on scene, Evan was even more eager to get into the property for a look at what they were doing. He waited as the manager got the gate for the cop then walked to the counter.
“Okay. Where were we? Larger units, right.” He again started tapping at his computer. “Let me see what they have for available units at the other store.”
“You know what. Let me just take a look at the one you have here, and then we can go from there, if that’s all right.”
“Sure,” the manager said. He grabbed some keys from beneath the front counter and waved for Evan to follow him out. The moment the pair stepped out of the office door, the manager turned and locked it behind them. “It’s just me this morning, so I apologize if this has to be kind of short.”
“That’s fine,” Evan said. “I just need a quick look.”
To Evan’s disappointment, the manager headed for the gate on the opposite side of the facility that he’d let the cops through.
The guy ducked beneath the gate, and Evan followed.
Just a pair of doors down the aisle on his left, Evan saw Unit 22.
He looked straight ahead down the aisle at the dumpsters where he’d entered the property, and left it, via the downspout just two nights before.
He would have no view of the cops at work.
The sound of the lock coming free and the metal garage door rolling up brought Evan’s attention back to the manager, who’d stepped inside the unit to turn on the lights.
“Here she is,” the manager said. “What kind of vehicle are we talking about that you wanted to put in here?”
“It’s a seventies Cadillac,” Evan said.
“I’m guessing that is pretty long.”
“Yeah.” Evan looked down the aisle toward the dumpsters.
He had eyes on a couple of smaller units near the end of the aisle, but with the story he had fed the manager, he’d already shoehorned himself into the unit he was looking at, or a larger one at another location.
Asking to see a unit that couldn’t fit a vehicle would seem odd and possibly raise suspicion.
And there was nothing to guarantee that anything was available or, even if there was, available in a location that would give him a look at the cops.
Evan stood with his face scrunched. “None of the larger ones here on site, eh?”
“No. Sorry. This is the largest we have here.”
Evan nodded as if making his decision. “You know, I think this will be fine.”
“All right. Let’s go get you squared away inside, then. I mean, if you’ve seen enough.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Evan said.
The manager rolled the door down and replaced the lock, and the pair started toward the office.
“What’s with the cops out here this morning?” Evan asked.
The manager groaned.
“Is that a touchy subject?”
“Nah, no. We just…” Having reached the office door, the manager unlocked it and held it open for Evan, who stepped into the store.
“You just what?” he asked.
“Someone passed away in the back the other night.”
“Passed away?” Evan asked. “Like, died in one of the storage units or something?”
The manager nodded, not offering anything further.
Evan slid the paperwork from the clipboard onto the front counter. He’d jotted down a fake name and address, but that was about as far as he’d gotten. He figured he would press the topic.
“What, did someone have a heart attack or something? Homeless person living in a unit or what?” Evan asked.
“Someone was killed,” the manager said.
“Killed?” Evan balked. “Like, someone was murdered back there? On your property?”
“Unfortunately. This seems to be an isolated incident, and aside from the cameras that we have, we’re installing a couple more and are going to hire a nighttime guard.”
“Yeah,” Evan said, stretching out the word.
The manager had just given him his reason to not only pass on taking the unit without giving him the forgotten-wallet story, but he’d also given him a reason to pry into the topic to see what the manager knew.
“Do the cops know who did it? Do you have the guy on video or anything?”
“They are investigating. That’s all I can really say. I’m sure it will all be on the local news.”
Evan let out a puff of air. He shook his head. “Man, I’m sorry. That’s probably going to be a pass for me. My fiancée wouldn’t be my fiancée anymore if she found out I rented a storage unit in a place that someone was just murdered at.”
“Again, there’s no reason to think that this was anything other than a single incident,” the manager said. “We’ve got law enforcement investigating, and I’m sure they’ll get the guy within a day or two.”
Evan shook his head as he folded the paperwork and stuffed it into his pocket.
“Sorry,” Evan said. “I just can’t.”
“I don’t suppose the first month free would change your mind?” the manager asked.
“Nah,” Evan said. “But I appreciate the offer. And thanks for showing me the unit anyway.”
“I understand. If something changes, we’ll be here.”
“Thanks for your time,” Evan said. He headed for the door and walked out.
Aside from seeing two of the cops working the investigation and showing his face to them, which he hadn’t planned to do, the trip had been a bust.