Chapter 18
I leaned forward, snatched a beer can from the coffee table, and dropped it in the bag. Bud continued to just watch from his spot on the couch. “How loud? Did the police get involved?”
If Casey and Selene had a domestic dispute, and there was police evidence of it, that would give us more clues. I made a mental note to get a copy of any reports and include it for Delaney. She’d love me even more.
“Selene and Casey fought about little things here and there like any couple, but last month was a blowup of grand proportions. It sounded like they even broke a glass or two. I kept my nose out of it.” He sounded proud of his decision to mind his own business, but I really wished he’d been nosy.
I discarded another beer can. “You don’t know what they fought about?”
He shook his head. “No idea. Selene spent a few days with her sister, and they eventually made up.”
Hmm, a big fight and then a month later, Casey ends up dead. It had suspicious written all over it. We had to find out what they argued about that day. But how? It’s not like we could just ask.
What would a good reporter do?
* * *
I yawned as I paced in our living room later still thinking of our options.
The case details were circling my head, but the lack of sleep and inexperience This nein solving murders muddied the waters.
The pacing seemed to help Reed, but the longer I walked, the less it helped me sort out the details.
“If I Google how to make a death look like an embolism, am I going to end up on a watch list?” I asked, before making a turn to restart my circle.
“Probably, yes.” Reed lifted his head from his phone from where he sat on our couch. “Why don’t you come sit down?”
I shook my head after he patted the couch cushion beside him. “No, I can’t. Parts of you distract me.”
He made a quick snort sound. “What?”
“Your chest. It’s all…” I waved my hand at him to encompass the area in question in case he forgot where his chest was located. “Muscular.”
His T-shirt moved. Was he flexing at my comment?
“See!” I said, pointing at it. He knew what he did. I widened my pacing circle. The alternative path put me into the front room where I had to make the step over the uneven floors without falling. It took more concentration than I wanted to admit.
Reed laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I chose to ignore him. If we got into a discussion about his pecs, we’d end up in the bedroom again. It already happened once after we finished the interview with Bud. I couldn’t have any more distractions, even if he argued an orgasm would help clear my mind.
I made another full loop of the room, making sure to pick up my feet at the uneven lip of the floors. “Bud gave us everything and nothing. Selene killed Lisa and Casey over the house. I know it.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Reed said, watching my path from his spot on the couch.
He gave me a head tilt as I walked over the lip on the floor and stared at him with narrowed eyes. No one was jumping to conclusions. These were cold, hard facts.
“Or do,” he said, flipping his head the other way. “It’s up to you. No judgment.”
It felt judgey. I turned the bend in my path at the end of the living room and started toward the front of the house while I ran through the clues again. “It just seems like we’re missing the last piece.”
A quick turn in the small front room as I headed back toward Reed. I closed my eyes in concentration and tripped over the stupid uneven floor. Who made two connecting rooms at different heights?
My eyes flashed open in panic. I pitched forward, my arms flew out to catch myself, and I stumbled, regaining my footing before I made contact with the floor. What the heck?
A silver piece of metal flickered as it lay right in the corner of the floors connecting. “What is this?”
I bent down to pick it up as Reed left the couch to meet me. He leaned over as I held up the silver pushpin between us. We stared.
“Where did it come from?” he asked.
I pointed to the floor. “Someone probably dropped it at some point and couldn’t find it.”
It probably happened across America daily, but the part that made this important was the connection.
“It matches the ones from Casey’s note and the threatening newspaper,” Reed said as I dropped it on the table next to the other two.
I laid all three of them out in a line. “Exactly.”
Until right then, I hadn’t noticed the note and the threat were both tacked into the door with the same type of pushpin.
Reed moved away from the table. “There are probably thousands of those.”
“Maybe millions. Even so, they have to be a connection. How did this pin get here?” Did someone use it to attach a threatening note to Lisa’s door when she was alive?
Or did the pins belong to her, and when she died, Selene took them to her home after they went through Lisa’s belongings?
Either option worked for me. “This is even more evidence. Selene did it, Reed.”
“I’ll admit it doesn’t look great for her,” he said with his hand on his chin.
Not great at all. Poor Selene. She seemed so nice. No, wait. Poor Lisa and Casey. We didn’t have sympathy for murderers.
“But how do we prove it’s her?” I asked the room in general. If a ghost wanted to take that opportunity to weigh in with some advice, I’d happily accept. Ghost Lisa couldn’t expect us to do all the heavy lifting.
Reed, who was hovering over the table, hit his fist against the wood and stood up straight. “I have an idea, but I need Torin.”
“The surfer SEAL?” I asked, surprised by the sudden change of direction. I guess living SEALs would probably be more help than dead ghosts.
He twisted his entire body, put a hand on his hip, and tipped his head in disbelief at me. “Is that what you think he looks like?”
Oops.
“Ignore me,” I said and forced out a quick laugh before turning back to the pushpins on the table.
“Do you like surfers?” Reed asked.
Oh, that’s what this was about. I smiled. “No, I prefer the rough get-to-business type for my former SEALs preference.”
He gave me a head jerk that I took to mean he accepted my answer.
“Anyway, Torin is great with computers. We can get into their system through the Wi-Fi and see what Selene’s been searching.
Best case, they’ve got one of those home devices and we can have Spencer hack into the database.
Maybe get a voice recording from the big fight. ”
Wow. All that stuff sounded super spy and scary but impressive. Plus, highly illegal, but if it helped us solve the case, I wasn’t one to complain about it.
“If we get all the pieces together, you can package it for Delaney and the police,” he said, walking to his room.
“Smart thinking.”
“Okay, let’s go,” he said, returning from his room. “He’s close by.”
The air in the room sizzled with energy. We were finally getting close to solving this thing. I wanted everything to go perfectly. And I wanted to beat the police to the punch. I’d always been a little competitive.
“Wait,” I said, holding my hand out. “You go. I want to stay here and type up what we have already for Delaney. Then it will be easier to add what you and Torin find when he gets here. It will save a ton of time once we have this figured out and gather all the evidence.”
His forehead furrowed. “What about staying by my side at all times?”
Hm, I agreed to that. Didn’t I?
“I’ll lock all the doors and not leave this couch.” We could even pull all the curtains so no one could see in or out. It would be evening soon and even harder to see.
Reed took a moment to weigh the options before he gave me another chin jerk. “Okay. I’ll be quick. An hour tops.”
We paused by one another, each of us unsure what to do.
Then with one sweeping motion, Reed wrapped his arm around my middle and pulled me close to him.
I glanced up to meet his gaze and his lips came down on mine, strong and branding.
This wasn’t just a kiss. This was a mark of ownership.
The feminist in me wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but everything else from my toes up was quite okay with it.
He pulled away first. Stars circled my vision around his head, and it took me three deep breaths to regain my breathing.
I held the door for his good-bye and waited as he started down the sidewalk away from Bay Street on foot.
Torin must have been super close. I closed the door, found my laptop, and took a spot on the couch to work on my report for Delaney.
Ten minutes later, she called as if my hurried typing brought her into existence. It was probably our bff connection.
“I’ve got bad news,” she said as I answered.
My stomach dropped. “What happened? Is your dad okay?”
“Oh yeah, they’re sending him home tomorrow morning.” She sucked in a breath, and I found the little piece of thread remnant I’d left when I broke off the longer piece. “The bad news is for you.”
“Just tell me.”
“Stupid Dennis turned in first notes on his assigned story today. It’s great, Elenore. Hits all the main points and works in ghosts. The boss loves it. He wants you and Reed to come home. We’re going to run Dennis’s story on Halloween.”
“But what about Lisa? I can find ghosts.” It wouldn’t even be hard. We can definitely work on a ghost story from what I had already.
“We’re running Lisa’s story in November as a regular spot. Hopefully, the police will have more on Casey’s death by then and we can feature it as an unsolved.”
“But, Delaney, we’re so close. We’ve got tacks now. Reed and I can solve this if you just give us a little more time.”
“Sorry, babe. You’re out of time, and it’s not your job to catch the killer, just profile the facts. I’ll send over new flight details. Reed is headed to Maine, and I’ll pick you up at the Detroit airport so you don’t have to ask your mom for a ride.”
My mother hated driving in Detroit.
An ache in my heart grew as I thought of Reed returning to Maine. He promised we were a thing now. At least that’s how I’d taken it. We had to figure out our shit. How did he feel about long-distance relationships? Something told me he probably wasn’t in favor.
“It can’t finish like this,” I said, the grief at losing giving me a spike of anxiety.
Delaney promised me it could and was ending this way. We hung up with an agreement she’d have both of us on flights out of town tomorrow.
“No,” I said to the empty room and laid my fist on my knee in defiance. It wasn’t going to end this way.
But how? Short of committing a serious felony to shut down the airports, I couldn’t think of a way to get Delaney to give us a few more days.
A scratching sound out the window brought me from my thoughts. The sound of wheels rolling on an uneven surface brought up memories of my childhood. I stood up and glanced out the front window to find the source.
Selene had two big black suitcases—they were almost as tall as her—behind her as she struggled to roll them over the worn sidewalk. She left one behind and pushed the taller of the two to the curb before going back for the second.
She was on the run!
Shit. I ran from window to window trying to get a better view. I couldn’t go outside because Reed wasn’t back yet. Wait, maybe he’d come in and I’d missed him. I darted to the empty kitchen and back to the front when he didn’t magically appear.
I had to do something.
But I promised Reed I wouldn’t leave.
I also couldn’t let her get away.
Shit.
I slipped on my shoes by the front door. Reed was going to kill me.
If Selene didn’t get me first.
I grabbed the recorder off the table and hit the on button before stepping outside.
“Selene, wait!”