I nodded, yanked out my phone, hit up the group chat I’d already programed, and texted, We’re in.
I stowed my phone and followed her in.
It became apparent very quickly that Duane didn’t harbor his reserves of energy in not doing yard work or maintenance because he was all about keeping the inside neat and clean.
It smelled like sweat, fried food and lost hope.
We entered a tiny utility room piled with so much dirty laundry, it hid the laundry machines.
This fed into the kitchen.
Ulk.
Mm-hmm.
Duane wasn’t about being neat and clean.
Or maintenance.
Raye had a Maglite too. We switched them on, kept the beams to the ground, and she jerked her head toward the front living room.
I nodded, she headed that way, and I started to look through the detritus strewn all over a beat-up kitchen table.
Bills. Fliers. Pamphlets. Used cereal bowls. Dried coffee and milk stains on the tabletop.
And porn.
In the kitchen.
Gag.
There was nothing there. No threatening messages formed from letters from magazines. No ransom notes. No bank statements I could peruse for strange deposits. No shrine to Amy Small. No diary we could read about his unrequited love and how she was in danger.
I was moving toward the beat-up and chipping L-shaped kitchen counter when my phone vibrated in my back pocket.
I pulled it out, looked at it, and read Shanti’s text, Get out.
Fuck!
I whistled and went to the door to the living room to see Raye bent over what looked like another stack of porn by a shabby armchair, but her head was tipped back, and she was looking my way.
“Gotta go,” I whispered.
We both switched off our flashlights like we had an inner sync as she hightailed it to me.
We hightailed it to the utility room.
And we slammed right into Shanti coming in the back door.
She put her gloved finger to her lips, set the door to and whispered, “Go, go, go.”
Not sure where she wanted me to go, I got sure when she shoved me back into the utility room where I ran into Raye.
Raye also wasn’t sure, so this was why I became a human Ping-Pong ball, batted back and forth between them.
After Shanti hissed urgently and jabbed a finger at the door to the kitchen, Raye got with the program, led the way into the kitchen, the living room, and down the side hall.
We followed, and we heard a man say from what sounded like the utility room, “Door’s busted.”
