Miranda reached back into the box, there were various items in it that would be found in a car like a tire gauge, ice scraper, old style phone charger, sunglasses. Just…a man’s things. Underneath that, a stack of receipts held together with a rubber band. She pulled them out and slipped the rubber band off, after Pierce had photographed and documented everything. They all knew how this was played. Investigations were incredibly time-consuming events.
"I'll get these to Dani. Have her compare them to the timeline we have for Aimee in the weeks before. And check his bank account." She set the stack on the table. "Derek's movements have always been harder to pin down. Aimee was the one who kept every detail. It looks like Derek was the exact opposite—and I bet he carried cash most places.”
She looked at another man she knew well—Knight always had a roll of one hundreds in his wallet. She’d seen them before.
They’d had trouble creating a full timeline for Derek, but Dani was still working on it. That woman was tireless at times. Knight grabbed the next stack of papers from the box—the man had a bit of an impatience problem, no denying that. It would probably get him in trouble one day. Miranda would probably have to rescue him or something.
"Anything?" Miranda asked.
"Nothing yet." He set them on the table.
Miranda pulled out a pen from a bank and an old, faded menu. “Bo-Mac’s? What is a Bo-Mac’s?”
"That's a drive-in over in Shoals. Been there decades. Seasonal, only, though. Menu is probably just one he had lying around. They wouldn’t have been open at the time of the murder,” Pierce said. “Great onion rings, and Kai loves the ice cream, of course.”
“I will have to check it out if I am ever through here during operating season again.” She set the menu aside. There was a notebook there, the small pocket-sized kind. The kind Dr. Allen Knight used all the time. She flipped through it quickly. There was a phone number, no name, note, or date on the last used page.
"Dani might be able to do something with the phone number," Knight said. He took a photo of it quickly.
"Maybe." She set the notebook aside. Her next find was a soft lunch bag. There were familiar cartoon characters on the front. "This still has crumbs in it. Eww. Hate it when that happens. And this thing is really well insulated. Surprised garage mousies haven’t gotten to it."
"Derek was using a kids' lunch bag?" Knight asked.
"Probably borrowed it from Cruz." She looked at the Hot Wheels racing across the front. "I get it. I've used a Prince Rufus and Princess Rikkie one this month. Bentley didn't mind too much. He now informs me that he has to put it on the shelf and save it so it will be worth lots of money someday. Since…his cousin Dusty is related to Princess Rikkie now and everything.”
"Scraggle Popps. My boy is obsessed with Jilly Silly.” Pierce sent her a look that said the man totally understood. “For some strange reason.”
"Surprise, surprise." Of course it wasn’t—Payton was the sister-in-law of the woman who had played Jilly Silly on the Scraggle Popps, after all. "Has he ever met the real Jilly Silly?"
"Once. At Payton's. He was too shy to talk to her. He just hid behind my leg the whole time, then talked about her non-stop on the way home. He says he’s going to marry her someday. I didn’t have the heart to explain she’s already married to Uncle Luc’s brother."
"That's so adorable."
"He eventually warmed up enough to wave at her. The idea that Aunt Payton is related to Jilly Silly just thrills him."
"I bet. Jillian is awesome. She video-chatted with Bentley once when she learned he was a fan. Has Kai seen the latest movie yet?" The man who owned the rights to Scraggle Popps now was a friend of her cousin Charlotte’s. They were animating Scraggle Popps digitally—Jillian was doing some voice work for him, as was Charlotte. They were on the second movie now.
"Not yet. I did see the movie Gretta, though. There was this very beautiful redheaded elf warrior princess that stood out to me."
Miranda looked at Knight. He was just sitting there, that stony look on his face that said he was finished with the chitchat and they should get back to it now. "You know I am a movie star, right, my dear handsome Knight? Jac was in it, too."
"One Rowland Bowels movie doesn't make you a star.”
"Bowles, not Bowels. Aren't you so clever.” Rowland Bowles was a movie director Miranda had met multiple times. He was a good friend of Charlotte’s. It was how Miranda and her sisters and cousins had ended up in his movie. And Jac—Jac had been there with her. It had been a fun experience Miranda would probably never repeat. It was now one of Masterson’s claims to fame.
"The lunch bag," Knight said. "Stay on task."
"You're no fun at all." Miranda looked at Pierce, and smirked. "He's no fun at all. My costume was seriously badass.”
“No kidding. I greatly enjoyed it.”
“What was there of it,” Knight added.
Well, that was a personal comment. Surprise, surprise. Miranda was in shock. Still, they had a real purpose here. And it wasn’t to needle Knight. “Thought you didn’t see it.”
“I’ve seen photos.”
Oh, interesting. Something she would delve into later. Cyber-stalking her, perhaps?
