Chapter Twenty #3
“Well, we couldn’t let you sleep in your car. It’s a shitty situation. I understand why the innkeepers would be wary of having you stay there, because, y’know, murder, but it’s not your fault.”
“See?” Alexis pointed her fork at Elle. “Listen to the smart cookie. She’s right.”
“Of course I am.” Penny pointed to the wall. “The alarm panel is by the door. I set the code as zero-six-one-zero.” She winked. “That’s my dad’s birthday, in case you ever want to know. Sleep well, ladies.”
She left through the front door and Elle set the alarm before returning to the table and her meal.
Alexis was grinning. “I think Penny’s matchmaking.”
Elle thought so, too. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“Right now, you don’t have to say anything. After this is all over, if he asks you out on a date, you say yes. It’s very simple. One syllable. Yes.”
“You’re impossible,” Elle said fondly.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence, Elle stealing glances at Alexis’s laptop, which was still running the facial recognition software on the body cam footage she’d taken in Spokane.
“Anything?” Alexis asked.
“Not yet, but my program is slow. Felicia’s is light-years faster.”
“Does Sara have access to your files?”
“Yep. I have them on my personal cloud account, but Sara keeps them on the company’s server, too. Hopefully one of us will get a hit soon.”
“I’m going to need the laptop tomorrow when I go into the city,” Alexis said apologetically.
“I don’t know if there’s anywhere to buy one here or if you need to drive to Ukiah for one.
” She wagged a finger at Elle. “Don’t even think about driving yourself there alone.
That lonely road is made for serial killers to hide in the trees and jump out at you. ”
Elle frowned. “That’s not funny.”
“Not intended to be. I’m serious. You’ve got a serial killer after you.
I don’t want to be standing over your body next.
If you go anywhere, you stick with Detective Clarke or Simpson.
Now I have to go to sleep. The deputy is picking me up early, but I’ll be back tomorrow evening.
Leave the laptop on the table. I’ll get it on my way out the door. ”
“Okay.” Elle put the leftover casserole in the fridge, marveling that there was barely enough left for one of them to eat for breakfast. They’d fallen on the casserole like ravenous dogs.
She made a mental note to do something nice for Penny when this was all over. Ronan said she’d liked Elle’s jacket, so maybe something like that.
“I miss that jacket,” she said to the empty kitchen as she rinsed their dishes and put them in the dishwasher. She’d worn it nearly every day for more than two years. She felt almost naked without it.
But she wouldn’t wear it again. It held too many bad memories now.
She made herself a cup of tea, standing at the window along the back wall while she sipped it. It was pitch-black outside so she couldn’t see the waves, but she’d heard them when Ronan had dropped them off earlier. It had soothed her. Just a little.
They’d really lucked out tonight. Elle honestly didn’t believe they’d have been able to book a room anywhere else. She and Alexis had a safe place to sleep in a fabulous location.
She wished she could go outside. Stand on the bluff, watch the crashing waves below. She missed those evenings with Ronan, just standing there. Talking.
She thought about the slight brush of his hand against hers tonight. If Alexis had noticed, she hadn’t mentioned it.
It made her wonder why he’d done it.
It made her want him to do it again.
It made her want him to do a lot more.
A strident ping came from Alexis’s laptop. The program.
Elle sucked in a breath and rushed to the table to see what it had found, because she’d watched a few hours of footage while waiting for Ronan tonight and hadn’t seen the guy she was looking for.
Trying not to get her hopes up, she touched Alexis’s keyboard, waking up the screen. And exhaled, both excited and terrified.
A match. It had found him in Spokane.
He’d followed her there.
She enlarged the frame the program had returned, instantly recognizing the location.
They’d caught up with the skipper near the community college, where he’d been trying to blend in with the students, which had been a problem since he was thirty years older than most of them.
He’d taken a job in a diner getting paid under the table, so when Elle had taken him into custody, there’d been a sizable crowd gathered.
Elle had watched this same footage earlier that evening and had missed the mystery man. He’d blended well into the crowd, unlike the skipper. But there he was.
She texted Ronan with the place, date, and time of the sighting. Then she texted Sara the same information.
If they knew where he’d been, they could track his movements, but two years was too long ago to expect anyone to remember him.
The most recent murder was in Bakersfield, California, at the end of October. That was only three months ago.
Better.
She set the program to search the Bakersfield files and went to bed.