Chapter One #3
Ronan gently squeezed Mary’s shoulder. “I’ll walk you outside. Then I’ll make some phone calls.” The crime lab. The coroner. “Is there anyone I can call for you?”
“No. No one.”
The little catch in her voice made Ronan’s heart hurt. “Then I’ll have someone drive you home.”
“No. I’m staying, Ronan. Someone has to take care of the guests. Do what you need to do, and I’ll do what I need to do. Dianne loved this place. I’m going to make sure it keeps running for as long as I can. You find whoever did this.”
“I will.”
Willits, California
Tuesday, January 20, 9:30 a.m.
“Got a text from Felicia while we were out there,” Sara said once they’d thanked Kasey again and paid her for her time. “We need to call her ASAP.”
They got in the company Chevy Tahoe and buckled up, with Elle behind the wheel. She started the car, shivering when the air came out of the vents ice cold. It would take a moment to warm up.
I really need a warmer coat. She loved her moto—it was her lucky jacket—but it was insufficient for this weather.
Sara dialed her wife, putting the phone on speaker. “It’s me, hon.”
“About time you called me back,” Felicia snapped.
Felicia managed the office, coordinated all their technology, and dug for all the details on their bounties. She made sure Sara’s hunters were armed with the most up-to-date information when they went into the field. She was very good at her job.
She was also very pregnant and cranky. Elle gave her a wide berth these days. The baby was due in two weeks, so hopefully they wouldn’t be walking on eggshells too much longer.
“Sorry, love,” Sara said soothingly. “We were out in the middle of nowhere with a guide. I couldn’t call you until we were alone.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Felicia allowed. “Sorry. My feet are swollen and my back hurts and I want to take a nap. I should have just texted you the information, but I wanted to make sure you saw it before I went to sleep. It’s important. We got another hit on Miller’s credit card.”
Elle met Sara’s triumphant gaze. This was good news.
Miller’s card had been used only one other time since he’d jumped bail.
The first had been the week before at a pharmacy in Fort Bragg, the largest of the coastal towns, which was what had brought them up from San Francisco to search this area.
The lead had been underscored when Felicia discovered that Miller had graduated from the high school in Mendocino, the picturesque little seaside town ten miles south of Fort Bragg where they’d stayed a few nights.
It had been one of his old high school teachers who’d told them about the Willits connection. Nice lady. She’d been a big help.
“Where was the card used?” Sara asked.
“Same place. That pharmacy in Fort Bragg.”
Sara scowled. “Then he’s over there, on the coast. Not here in Willits. Dammit. We’ve been wasting our time for the last two days.”
“At least he was in Fort Bragg last night,” Felicia said. “I saw the credit card notification when I logged in this morning. You need to talk to that pharmacy tech again.”
“We will. Elle, let’s go. We can be at the pharmacy before lunch.”
Elle didn’t move. “We weren’t able to find out anything from the pharmacy last week. The tech said that even if he had seen Miller, he couldn’t tell us. Said it would be unethical. He was very firm. What makes you think we’ll get a different answer this time?”
“Because I have information I didn’t have last week,” Felicia said smugly. “I did a background on that pharmacy tech, Steve Garfield.”
The same guy Elle had talked to last week. “What did you find?” she asked.
“I figured you’d need some leverage when you went back for another interview.
Turns out that Mr. It-wouldn’t-be-ethical isn’t so ethical at all.
He owns vacation property that he shouldn’t be able to afford and his primary residence there in Fort Bragg is completely paid off.
He doesn’t make enough as a pharmacy tech to spend that kind of money, and he’s taken out no loans on the vacation property, nor has he inherited any money.
I decided to do some digging and, honestly, this guy deserves to get caught.
He’s one of the least careful criminals we’ve come across.
Took me less than an hour to find him on the dark web.
He’s got a side hustle selling controlled medications to anyone who has the cash.
And—get this—right out of his house. Folks just come to his back door.
I have his home address right here in front of me.
He’s very well liked by his customers. The chatter is frighteningly close to a Yelp review.
They use his real name and everything. I’m thinking he’s stealing from the pharmacy to supply his little cottage industry.
If you go there tonight, you might be able to catch him in the act. Take photos, even.”
Sara laughed, delighted. “He does deserve to get caught. Once we’ve squeezed him for information, we’ll turn him in.”
That sounded good to Elle. “If Miller’s visited that pharmacy twice in less than a week, he’s probably sick. It’s possible that knowing what he’s sick with could lead us to him.”
Because if he wasn’t holed up on his family’s former property, Elle wasn’t sure how else they’d find him. They’d be looking for a tiny needle in a huge haystack. There was simply too much ground with too many hiding places to cover.
“Exactly,” Sara said. “Let’s get back to the coast. I want to bag this guy so I can go home. Was that all you had for us, Felicia?”
“Yeah. I’ve just sent you his home address over the secure link. I’m going to sleep now. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” Sara ended the call.
Elle pulled out into traffic. “We’ll get there by noon.
” The trip from Willits to coastal Fort Bragg was only about thirty-five miles, but it took at least an hour, sometimes longer.
The road over a small mountain chain was extremely twisty, and Elle had to drive more slowly than she normally did.
“What do you propose we do while we’re waiting for Steve Garfield to come home tonight and deal drugs from his back door? ”
“We’re going to put cameras around his house.”
In her former life as a lawyer, Elle would have grimaced at the idea of planting cameras without a warrant. It was done, she knew that. Todd had done it all the time as a PI. She just never thought she’d be doing it.
But that was what happened when one started out fresh. The old dog had to learn new tricks.
She realized she hadn’t replied and Sara was watching her with raised eyebrows. “Problem, Elle?”
Because it wasn’t the first time she’d been bothered by the everyday things they did. The laws they broke.
“No, just thinking logistics. Do you have the cameras or do we need to buy some?”
“I’ve got some in my kit.” Sara reached over the console and squeezed her arm.
“Reece Miller shot two people during that robbery, Elle. That art gallery guard will never walk again. We need to find Miller by whatever means necessary. If that means recording Steve Garfield without his permission, so be it.”
Sara knew her so well.
“I know that.” At least she knew they needed to find Miller. She still had trouble with whatever means necessary. But she’d adapt.
She had to. This was her job now.
This was her life. She’d lie to nice young women like Kasey and she’d trample over Steve Garfield’s Fourth Amendment rights.
And she’d like it. Eventually.
She wasn’t a lawyer anymore. She wasn’t a Floridian anymore. She wasn’t a wife anymore, either.
She’d fled to California after Todd had died, after his family and their friends and the entire community had accused her of driving while drunk. They’d accused her of murdering him and the people in the other car.
And when the truth had been proven—by cameras in Todd’s car, ironically—no one had cared. She’d become a scandal.
So she’d fled.
Sara had welcomed her with open arms. Had given her a job. A new purpose.
She owed Sara so much.
So stop worrying about things that no longer matter. Put cameras in Steve Garfield’s backyard. Threaten him with exposure. Get the information that might lead us to Reece Miller.
She turned the situation over in her mind as she drove, looking at the possible scenarios. If she were Reece Miller, what would she do?
I’d make everyone think I was somewhere else.
“Hey, Sara? After we place the cameras in Steve Garfield’s yard, I think we should have a snooze before confronting him.”
“Okay,” Sara agreed. “I like snoozes, but why?”
“Because we need to go back and search Miller’s old property.”
“Okay,” Sara said again, more slowly. “But why?”
“Because it’s too convenient that he goes to the same pharmacy twice, leaving a credit card trail. It might be a ruse to get us looking at the coast so we don’t look here.”
Sara frowned thoughtfully. “You could be right. Okay, let’s do that.”
“You got night-vision goggles in your kit?”
Sara sniffed. “Of course I do. How could you even ask?”
Elle chuckled as she made the turn into the forest. “I don’t even know.”