I fold the picture in half and put it in my pocket, along with the piece of paper I found with Annie’s address on it. “You find anything else?” I ask, dragging my feet across the brown carpet to mask any indentations from my boots.
“Unfortunately.” He hands over a small black notebook. The spirals are bent, and the weathered pages are filled with dates and times.
“He was keeping track of her schedule.”
“I sent a picture to Fitz for verification. Park’s got him on the phone waiting to give us an update.”
I add that evidence to the others. “Let’s get out of here.”
We walk through the house, which looks like it hasn’t had a single update in at least fifty years, making it clear that this was his grandparents’ home.
When we get to the kitchen, Shep climbs through the open window first, then I follow, sliding it down behind me. We make our way around the front, then straight to the Tahoe idling at the curb.
Shep walks around to the back, and I hop in the front passenger seat. The second our doors are closed, Landon peels away. Parker holds his phone up and gives Fitz the go-ahead.
His voice comes through the speaker. “I finally got a hit on Vito’s location. I’ll give you one guess where he is right this second, and if you say anywhere other than the morgue, you’d be wrong.”
“Holy shit.” I sit up straighter. “What the hell happened?”
“Carjacking gone wrong. According to the police report, an eyewitness saw a man force Vito out of his vehicle at gunpointwhile waiting at a red light. He stole his wallet, pistol-whipped him, and then took off in his car. Vito jumped on the back of his vehicle but ultimately flew off and died on impact.”
Shep whistles. “Damn. I was not expecting that.”
“That’s not all.” I hear him typing through the receiver, and a few seconds later, he’s back. “This witness also reports that when this interaction was taking place, a black cat jumped out of the vehicle and ran away. All of this occurred about a quarter mile north of Annie’s apartment building.”
“Were they able to identify the guy who carjacked Vito?”
“They have a suspect. Colt McIntosh, forty-two. He was involved in an armed robbery at a gas station a few hours prior. He confessed to the robbery but vehemently denies the carjacking.”
“I would too, if it resulted in murder,” Shep mutters.
Fitz makes a noise of agreement. “Do with that information what you will.” He disconnects, and I take a minute to analyze what I just heard.
Landon pulls into the parking lot of Safeway and turns to face me. “You’re the lead on this. What do you want to do?”
“Not sure what else there is to do,” Parker chimes in from behind me. “Between what you found at his place and that police report, it seems like we got what we were looking for.”
“I agree. But what are you thinking, Ben?” Shep asks.
“Give me a minute.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and feel that instinct in my gut that something isn’t right about this—about all of it. Not just Vito but I keep getting warning flashes about Poe, too. His behavior toward Annie still doesn’t sit well with me, and not just because she’s mine.
She’s mine.
Dammit, I need to focus.
“I’ll be right back.” I jog through the lot and go straight to the floral department. I purchase a birthday balloon and the largest bouquet they have, then hurry back to the Tahoe and tell Landon to drive to her apartment.
Without question or doubt, he shifts gears and pulls onto the road.
I hand the vase to Parker. “Aw. You shouldn’t have.”
“Did you read my notes in the brief on her neighbor?”
His sarcasm vanishes. “I did.”
“There was a lot off about him, but the way he saidI have your catmakes the hair on the back of my beck stand up.”
