Chapter 10 #2
Garrett sighed and it was a long-suffering sound. “Serena, I need to process the scene, and it’s harder when you’re here. What I need from you right now is another walk-through to see if anything else is missing, then I need to do my job.”
Now that she could understand. She squeezed Walker’s hand, and stood, steady on her feet now.
“Okay, I can do that. The keys were in a standard mason jar, and were a conglomeration of stuff Madeline either bought that way, or collected. They don’t mean anything, are something folksy I wanted on the back wall.
We should probably look at the storage unit as well, to make sure he hasn’t been there. ”
A deputy she recognized as Addie’s younger, dumber brother burst through the front door, excitement plain on his face.
Garrett sighed. “Do your walkthrough but don’t touch anything.
We’re going to canvass the exterior and figure out how he got in when Grady, here, was sitting surveillance last night. ”
Grady’s face fell from excitement into despondency. “I didn’t see anyone,” he protested. “I watched the front door all night.”
“And yet something’s missing. Serena, can you doublecheck that Gena didn’t take it last night, even though we both know that isn’t the case?”
She started to protest that Gena would never do such a thing, especially with the police tape still up, but Garrett held up a hand. “I need to rule everything out. Do your search and we’ll head outside to see if we can find a different point of entry.”
Serena nodded and pulled out her phone as the law enforcement officers left.
“Hey boss, how are you feeling?” Gena’s perpetually cheerful voice gave Serena a boost.
“Better,” she said. “Hey, you didn’t happen to come in last night and take the mason jar of keys, maybe to show Jackson?” The boy was endlessly inquisitive.
“The key jar? Why in the world would I do that? Plus, as far as I knew, it was still a crime scene. Jackson and were in Flagstaff at a doctor’s appointment, and then we went home.” She paused and suspicion filled her tone. “What happened?”
“I’ll fill you in later,” Serena promised. “I needed to verify, even though I knew that probably wasn’t the case. Have a good night, and see you in the morning, okay? It promises to be a barnburner. Everyone wants to know what’s going on.”
“They’re not the only ones,” Gena muttered as Serena disconnected.
“You had to ask,” Walker said, having heard enough of the conversation to figure out what they’d already known. “Now let’s do the walk through. I agree that going to the storage unit is a good idea, and it gives Garrett time to do his thing.”
“And hey, maybe I can look for Mr. Higgins’ statuette while I’m at it,” she joked, anything to push away the disquiet raging through her body and mind, then realized it was the perfect opportunity to do just that. There’d be something good to come out of this after all, dammit.
They took Walker’s truck to the storage yard, in case she decided to bring something back bigger than her sedan could manage.
Plus, Walker wanted to be in charge of the situation until they had a better idea of exactly what had happened last night or this morning, and that included being the one to do the driving.
The storage facility was on the Rimrock Creek side of Cottonwood, so close enough to make the trip easy and fast, but not right around the corner.
It was a typical set-up, with climate-controlled indoor units, standard outdoor units, and RV and boat storage.
Serena’s unit was outside, near the back gate.
She spun the combination--her birthday--and lifted the gate.
Walker vowed he’d get a much, much better lock and then braced himself for chaos.
He was shocked to see that entryway of the unit was orderly, with a neat row of clearly labeled boxes. He knew it had to be Serena’s doing, because Madeline Blackstone had never been so organized.
Then he looked past the stack and into the interior and fought back a grin, despite this morning’s drama.
It was an explosion of boxes and bags and fake greenery and taxidermy on the walls. An overloaded coatrack of hats and handbags looked like a bizarre tree of different textures and shapes and colors. Yeah, this was more what he’d expected.
Serena stood with her hands on her hips and looked past the boxes and into the fray. “I swear, it keeps growing every time I’m in here, like there’s a portal at the back or something.” She sent him a sly look. “Maybe one of the vortexes everyone talks about?”
He snorted in response. This venture into Madeline’s madness was exactly what they’d both needed to take their minds off what had happened.
“So,” she said, returning her scrutiny to the task at hand. “If you were an antique figurine from one of the gazillion estate sales Madeline went to, where would you be?”
Walker had exactly zero idea how to answer that, so waited for her direction. It seemed safer. He would lift things all day long if it’d help her keep her mind occupied.
They spent an hour rifling through odd-sized boxes, including another treasure trove of some truly outrageous purses, a suitcase full of vintage used postcards and, what truly caught his attention, a shoebox stuffed to the brim with pristine baseball cards.
While he could certainly appreciate them, Malcolm would be over the moon at such a find.
“I’ll pay whatever you want for these,” he said, knowing she wouldn’t overcharge him, and that if something valuable was in there, they’d pay her back appropriately.
“They’re yours,” she said without even hesitating as she rifled through a storage bin full of dolls. “For everything you’re doing.”
He set the box down and moved into her frame of vision, standing there until she looked up.
“Let me be clear, Serena,” he said, “I’m doing this because you’re one of my oldest friends and my first love. There is nothing I’d rather be doing than helping you out. Any kind of compensation is completely out of the question.”
“Oh,” she said, her voice going soft before she blew out a breath.
“I didn’t mean it that way, I need you to know that.
Just like you’re helping me, I’m happy to give you anything you want or need.
Because you’re one of my oldest friends and my first love as well.
” Her tone was nakedly honest. “You being here means the world to me.”
Walker nodded his head, satisfied that she’d understood, and even more satisfied by the way she’d seemed to feel the words as she repeated what he’d said.
They stood there, halfway into the storage unit, surrounded by pure chaos, for a long, long moment, and then both turned away, as if on cue.
Walker grasped for something to fill the silence. “So, tell me about your regulars,” he said. “Since I’m going to be around and we’re trying to figure out who could be responsible for hurting you.”
“I don’t want you hassling my customers,” she warned, all the mushy stuff burned away from her tone.
“But I understand what you’re asking. From an ‘everyone’s a suspect’ standpoint, I guess you’d want to know about Bobby.
He’s harmless, and I’ve peeked over his shoulder enough to see that he’s not doing anything nefarious using my Wi-Fi.
He’s basically there all day, doing whatever it is he does.
I’ve told him more than once he could do it at the library and not have to pay for food and drink, but he says he likes it there.
” She shrugged and pushed aside a coat rack filled with what looked to be muumuus in every imaginable color.
“Adam Scott comes in most days,” she said, referring to the nurse who’d met them at the ER.
“Grabs something on his way home from work. Most everyone is there to get their stuff and go. We also have a woman who comes in and works on her laptop. I’m pretty sure she’s writing a book.
But I have no idea who she is, only that she likes espresso and the almond Danish. ”
“What about Marlon?” he asked, shifting a stupid-heavy storage tote to one side. What the hell was in there? A suit of armor?
She waved her hand. “He’s exactly what he looks and sounds like.
A hottie who knows it and is more than willing to use his looks to get what and who he wants.
But I can’t see him ever being smart enough to break in not once but twice and get away with it.
He’s right up there on par with Deputy Nixon when it comes to smarts. ”
Yeah, Nixon wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. Walker had gone to school with Addie’s brother, though Grady had been a few grades behind him. And what she’d said about Marlon tracked, though his stint in jail down in Phoenix certainly moved him to the top of the suspect list.
Serena moved onto a new box, and a moment later crowed in triumph.
“You found it?” he asked incredulously.
“Not what Higgins is looking for,” she said. “But the necklace and earring set Marlon was asking about.” She held them up and Walker scrutinized them. He supposed they were pretty enough, but not something he imagined a guy like Marlon would spark to.
She looked up at him. “That’s enough for today. I’m starving. Want to grab a bite?”
He sure as hell did. Breakfast felt like a lifetime ago. He followed her out and secured the storage unit, rotating the lock spinners as far away from her birthday as he possibly could.