Chapter 26
They walked in silence until they reached the parking lot, the humid air pressing against Kara’s skin the second the doors slid open. The sky was streaked in bruised purples and orange.
Colin unlocked the truck. Kara climbed in, shutting the passenger door with more force than necessary. The facility disappeared behind them in the side mirror.
Kara leaned her temple against the cool window glass, replaying Frank’s expression in her head.
You’re George Nicholls’s girl.
“So.” He kept his eyes on the road. “You want to tell me what’s going on in that head of yours, or should I guess?”
Kara folded her arms. “I think Frank knows more than he’s admitting.”
“That’s the easy answer.”
She looked over. “You disagree?”
“No.” Colin turned onto the coastal road leading back toward town. “I think he knows a hell of a lot more than he’s admitting. But knowing it and getting him to remember are two different things.”
Kara sighed. He wasn’t wrong.
“We need those records,” she said quietly.
Colin nodded once. “Exactly where I was headed.”
Her eyes narrowed. “The old municipal building.”
“Mm-hm.”
The structure had been abandoned for years after the county built the new offices farther uptown. Most archived paperwork had supposedly been transferred, but supposedly was a dangerous word in towns like this. Things got misplaced or were hidden to be forgotten.
Kara stared ahead as the pieces aligned. “There’s a chance a lot of documents were buried there before digital filing.”
This was the first tangible lead that felt less like chasing their tail and more like digging in dirt.
“When do we go?”
Colin gave her a sidelong look, one brow lifting. “You mean when do we illegally break into a condemned government building?”
“Yes.”
His mouth twitched despite himself.
“Nightfall.”
Kara straightened. “Tonight?”
“Has to be tonight. If there’s anything in there, we don’t sit on it.”
He drummed his fingers once on the steering wheel before adding, “But we can’t just stroll in.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m ninety percent sure there’s a roaming security guard that loops the municipal lots and surrounding offices after dark.”
She frowned. “For an abandoned building?”
“For the whole county property. Storage garages, records annex, utility shed, and old municipal buildings included. The town may be lazy, but they’re not stupid enough to leave it wide open.”
“How late?”
“Midnight should do it.”
She turned to him. “You’ve done this before?”
Colin smirked without humor. “You ask too many questions.”
She snorted softly. For the first time all day, some of the heaviness loosened.
Colin slowed as the lights of the resort came into view, shimmering gold against the darkening mountains beyond. He pulled beneath the covered entrance and shifted the truck into park.
“We meet here,” he said. “Eleven fifty. And don’t be standing outside like obvious bait.”
She unbuckled. “You say the sweetest things.”
“I’m serious, Kara. If we go in there tonight and find something, things will be moving fast after that.”
“Good.”
“Get some sleep if you can.”
Kara stepped out of the truck. The valet near the entrance did a double take, as if he recognized her. He probably remembered her from the fight she’d had with Isaac days earlier.
“Eleven fifty,” Kara repeated.
Colin tipped two fingers off the wheel before pulling away into the sparse evening traffic.
Kara stood beneath the resort lights until his taillights vanished. Then she turned toward the revolving doors. The hotel lobby swallowed her in cool air, soft piano music, and the distant clink of glasses from the bar.
A thrill of anticipation swept over her. In less than seven hours, she would be crawling through a dead government building hunting for secrets her father had taken to his grave. She headed for the elevator; the night couldn’t come fast enough.
A housekeeping cart stood outside her room, but no one was there. A man in a maintenance uniform stood near the stairwell door, holding a clipboard. He smiled politely.
“Sorry—just doing a quick check on the AC units.”
Something about him made her skin crawl.
“That’s fine,” she said carefully. Kara didn’t move until he was gone. Then she rushed into her room, glanced to confirm it was clear, then locked the door and secured the chain.