“How’s it going tracking down the handwriting?” Chief Blake asked as he pulled off his gloves. He’d given the letter she found in the brown wallet back to her to study when she’d told him it looked familiar.
“No joy,” Maggs said, looking at the drawer she kept the letter in. It was hanging open. Moving closer, she looked inside, searching the contents. “It’s gone.”
“Are you sure that’s where you kept it?” Chief Blake stood beside her.
“Yes. Maybe it’s here.” She pointed to the papers on the floor.
Fin dropped down with her and started searching, but there was no sign of the note.
“When did you last see it?” Joe asked her.
“Yesterday. I was looking at it again.”
“And pretty much everyone in town knows you had it,” Chief Blake said. “No way were the Robbins sisters keeping that to themselves.”
“Do you think whoever wrote it is still in town? That they wanted it back?” Fin asked. “You think that what happened here could be connected to that?”
“It’s a stretch,” Chief Blake said. “But it is missing.”
“Why would they resort to this type of vandalism to retrieve it?” Joe asked.
“To make it look like a robbery perhaps.”
Maggs went cold.
“If the note’s not here, I’ll need you to remember as much as you can about it for me,” Chief Blake said.
“I can do better than that.” Maggs got to her feet and grabbed her phone from where she’d placed it on the counter. Flicking through her photos, she found the one she wanted. “I took a photo of it to show Pip. I didn’t want to carry the note around.”
“Nice work. You text that to me.”
“Is she in danger?” Fin asked.
Maggs hadn’t thought of that, but wasn’t sure why she would be if the note was no longer in her possession.
“I wouldn’t imagine so, considering more than just Maggs saw it,” Chief Blake said.
“But Maggie said she recognized the handwriting,” Fin persisted.
“I think from now on you say you’ve had no luck identifying who that note belonged to, Maggie,” Chief Blake said.
“I haven’t,” she pointed out.
“But make it known,” Fin added.
“We’ll watch over her,” Joe said.
“Nobody is watching over me,” Maggs said. “Seriously, there is no need. The note may turn up, and if, on the outside chance, it was this A.J. dude who took it, then it’s done with anyway.”
“It’s not done with if he thinks you can identify the handwriting of the woman who wrote it,” Fin insisted.
“Oh please, that’s ridiculous,” Maggs scoffed. “You’re being paranoid. Why would he do all this,” she waved a hand around at the destruction, “just to take a note?”
“What if in some way it is connected to Simon Linbar?” Joe asked.
“How?” Maggie demanded.
“I don’t know how.”
