“We found her in a back-office closet,” Shea said as they walked through the business. While it was bright with sunshine outside, inside the business the light was low. In the darkness, they walked past a gloomy, silent wash area. A closed car wash was certainly a creepy place to be in, Lainie thought.
“From the drag marks, she was shot in the doorway and then pulled back to the office. Her purse is missing, maybe so we would think theft or burglary.”
“There was blood leaking under the door,” Bryce told them as they reached the office.
He pointed to an open door. Shea went in first, Lainie followed him, and Ben brought up the rear. Bryce hung back; it was a tight space.
The office was dimly lit, and it was a mess. Drawers were opened; papers were strewn everywhere. The closet was shaded. Shea stopped short of the blood puddle and shone a flashlight into the space. The light illuminated the body. Lainie saw a hand first, fingernails painted green. Red hair spilled out like tendrils from a mop. She stepped closer and bent down.
Relief swept over her. “That’s not Evie.” She straightened up and stepped back.
Ben leaned in. “It’s Moffit’s payroll person, Taylor Abbott. She was only hired a month ago. Most likely she was here early to open the place up.”
“She must have had something on Moffit,” Shea said. “He certainly shut her up.”
Lainie shot Shea a side glance, not sure that what she was seeing indicated Stan was the perpetrator. She stepped back and surveyed the office. It had been torn apart, as if someone was searching for something. She remembered a conversation with Stan from years ago. “There’s gotta be a floor safe somewhere.”
“How do you know?” Ben asked.
“I’m guessing. Years ago, when Stan tried to get a YouTube channel off the ground, he found a sponsor who sold floor safes. He wanted to install one in his house, but it’s on a concrete slab so he couldn’t. He settled on a wall safe, but I remember him often saying that he thought floor safes were the most secure.”
Ben stomped on the floor, and it sounded hollow. “He could definitely put one somewhere in here.”
Lainie and Ben moved back to the doorway while Shea and Bryce began inspecting the floor. It wasn’t long before Shea found the safe.
“Unfortunately, whoever tore up the office found it first.”
The safe had been under a carpet. When he exposed the opening, it was obvious the lock had been broken. Removing the lid exposed an empty container.
CHAPTER 26
“You’re thinking Stan was here to remove things from his office, Ms. Abbott walked in on him, and he killed her?” The whole thing was odd to Lainie.
“That’s what I’m seeing,” Shea said, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“Stan wouldn’t have to destroy the safe; he’d know the combination,” Lainie said.
Shea folded his arms. “He should know it, I agree. But I believe that we’re dealing with a desperate man. He’s on the run and he needs money. He tried the scam in Hawaii to get money and it failed. He somehow knew we searched his home; he came here looking for something, and Abbott surprised him. If he doesn’t have a motive to clean out his office, then who?”
“Benton,” Ben said, and Lainie and Shea turned to him. “She didn’t work here; she came here often to collect paperwork and money for Vine. Maybe she entrusted Moffit with important items and wanted them back before you found them or him. Right now, Benton and Vine would be the only ones who’d be concerned about you searching this business, especially if they knew Moffit was about to be arrested.”
Lainie considered this for a minute before asking Ben a question. “You see Benton as the killer? Not Vine? Not Stan?”
“Vine never does his own dirty work. And I’m not convinced Moffit is a killer.”
“I’ve got nothing on Vine,” Shea said. “But I can put out a BOLO for Benton.” He punched in a number and put the phone to his ear.
“As much as I dislike Stan, him murdering someone in his own business seems too obvious. Did you figure out when Benton came back from Hawaii?” Lainie asked Ben.
He shook his head. “We don’t know what alias she would have used.”
Just then, Bryce yelled out from the bathroom, “I found another one.”
Lainie and Ben let Shea precede them into the room. It was a large space, handicap accessible. She looked over his shoulder when he bent down to see what the tech had found. A square of the flooring had been removed in the corner to reveal another floor safe. Lainie saw that the trash bucket had been over the patch.
“Well, I’ll be,” Shea said. “How did you find this?”
Bryce fairly beamed. “The linoleum square was off a tad. Searching every corner of the space paid off.”
