I nod. ‘Yeah, just taking a break.’
I listen for a few seconds. ‘You really can’t hear anything down here now,’ I remark, touching the wall. ‘Can feel the vibrations a little though.’
Blake nods, putting his hand on the wall as well. ‘Not too bad though. I don’t think it’ll bother Daisy when she’s down here.’
I walk toward the bedroom. Blake follows me and goes straight into our Dark Lounge.
‘Planning what you want to do in there with her next?’
He glances back at me with a smirk on his face. ‘Definitely. That sensory idea of yours was perfect. She loved it.’
I shrug. ‘I thought she might. I’m putting together a list of other ideas. Textures. Temperatures. That kind of stuff.’
Blake nods. ‘Yeah, I have some ideas, too.’
I look around the room and roll my eyes when I notice the small pile of tissues, receipts, two ChapSticks, and three hair elastics that’s on the dresser in the otherwise pristine room. Daisy must have emptied the pockets of her coatlooking for her keycard. I grab the trash to throw away, and my gaze falls on part of a stamped word on a folded piece of paper mixed in with everything else.
Police?
Frowning, I pick it up and unfold it. It says, ‘Evidence Photograph’ and then a bunch of numbers written in pen. I turn it over and my brain stutters to a complete stop.
‘What the fuck,’ I mutter just as Blake comes back into the room, whistling.
‘What is it?’ he asks as soon as he sees my face.
I hand it to him wordlessly.
He shrugs. ‘Must have fallen out of the evidence folder from the file on Larson Lu Garrett got for you.
I shake my head. ‘That wasn’t in there when we looked at it. There was a reference to a keychain found at the scene, but there was no picture.’
‘So? Who gives a shit?’
I open the second drawer in the bureau where I stashed the stuff I brought from the KIP house. Inside is a small wooden box with a flip-up lid where I keep trinkets and memorabilia. I rummage around for what I’m looking for. When I find it, I bring it out and I look at it closely. The sickening realization that I was right is like a lead ball settling in my gut.
‘It’s the same,’ Blake says quietly, looking from my shining black key chain to the picture and back again. ‘I don’t get it.’
‘This was my mom’s. My real mom’s. It’s made of onyx and silver.’
‘Okay,’ Blake replies quietly. ‘And why is it in this picture?’
‘Because there was a second one,’ I murmur, almost not able to get the words out.
Blake’s eyes are wide as he shakes his head, coming to the correct conclusion quickly. ‘No way!’
I close my eyes for a moment, trying to get my head around it.
‘It was Andy’s.’
‘We need to?—’
But his words are cut off as the smoke alarms begin to blare.
Not again!
Chapter Fifteen
Daisy
