Page 71 of The Vacancy In Room 10

“Hard to explain. But you can see what’s on it, and it will explain everything,” I say.

While he takes out his laptop and boots it up to plug in the thumb drive, I continue babbling about everyone seeing Callum threaten Eddie by the pool one day and not knowing what they were arguing about, but there was some history between them. I explain that Eddie’s wife, Rosa, will tell you that Henry and Eddie were friends, so maybe Eddie knew something or maybe Henry confided in Eddie about the affair—that I’m not sure what the motive was, but everyone at The Sycamores will tell you that absolutely nobody knew who Eddie really was. And they will all confirm this, and Rosa will back up my story.

He’s only half listening as he connects the drive and starts to click around on it, but I’m still establishing the points I want him to remember. Then, it’s clear when he sees it. He is pretty good at masking his shock, but I see the glint in his eye and the way his eyebrows rise, knowing this is a holy shit moment and the “missing cartel guy” is now a “murdered cartel guy,” and it’s all being accidentally uncovered by this quiet little maintenance girl from The Sycamores who stumbled upon some things she wasn’t meant to see.

At least I hope those are the inner workings of his mind. It’s what I’m trying to lay the groundwork for anyway. I just hope he takes the bait.

Harrison excuses himself. I can’t even imagine all the boots on the ground he’s gathering up right now to execute a warrant or whatever it is they’ll do next, but he still keeps his composure, trying to get every bit of information he can gather from me.

When Harrison comes back into the room, I already hear the chatter and movement outside the door behind him: scratchy radio communications, urgency, bodies up and moving. He sits down. The laptop and thumb drive have been handed off, and he’s remaining calm and slightly placating, if I’m honest.

“So, where the hell did you get this exactly?” he asks.

And I know I’ll probably be here a few more hours for recorded statements and questions and all of that. But as I sit here and tell them all they need to know, everything behind the scenes has already been set in motion, so I’m patient. And I know that there is a last little detail they need to find on their own. And when they do, I’ll be free.

29

CASS

When I arrive back at The Sycamores, police are all over the place, their red lights flashing like strobe lights in the darkness. The door to Callum’s apartment is open, and I see the silhouette of a couple officers inside. Another stands by a squad car on a radio, and yet another is talking to Babs by the front gate. There are a couple more in the front office going through the desktop computer. All to be expected. I park in the lot, and nobody notices me in all the chaos.

I go straight to Anna’s apartment. I can’t tell her the truth about Eddie, but I can tell her I started to suspect Callum was involved with Eddie’s disappearance and there might be some snowball effect at play here. Maybe Eddie knew something he shouldn’t about Callum’s wife—got himself killed that way perhaps. There’s a lot I can’t tell her, but I can tell her that it’s over, and Callum will be charged. I can finally give her closure, at least.

I knock and she’s not answering. I open her door. She left it unlocked, and I call in. Nothing.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I see many of the residents gathered on the pool deck, watching, asking each other questions, concerned looks across their faces. Rosa is among them. We agreed she would keep playing the part of the grieving wife and act accordingly as one would...especially if there are cops surrounding the building.

She sees me at Anna’s door. I give her a flip of my palms in a what-the-hell gesture, and she shrugs.

This isn’t good. Callum’s car is gone, and the officer on the radio is talking about “an attempt to locate,” and I hear Callum’s name.

He’s gone. He got away, and they don’t know where he is. I feel like my legs are going numb, and my heart beats against my rib cage so hard I feel like I could faint. I hold on to the railing and try to steady my breath—to think. I see Rosa hand off her child to Crystal, who’s sobbing for whatever reason, and she takes the toddler on her lap, and Rosa gestures with her head over to the parking lot.

I rush down the stairs and pass through the crowd. I pause a moment and watch the police around his apartment. I see one officer hand another something they have placed inside a clear evidence bag. It’s something I recognize—a woman’s makeup case, pink, with tulips on it. I close my eyes in a moment of pure relief, and I suck in a deep breath, because I know what it means.

Then I go quickly and meet Rosa behind the building. “She’s gone. He has her. My plan was fucking stupid, and she wasn’t safe.”

“Let’s go then,” Rosa says, as calmly as ever.

“Where? They could be anywhere. She could be dead already. He has Anna, and he knows she fucking knows. I sent her that video of Henry, so he has everything to lose now if he doesn’t get rid of her. Fuck.”

“Drive,” she orders, so we get into my car and just go, with no plan or direction. I just obey and drive because everything seems to be backfiring already, and I don’t know what else to do in this moment.

“Go north on 84,” she says, looking at a map on her phone.

“Why? Rosa, they could be anywhere, Jesus!” I slam my fist into the steering wheel and then notice she’s turned her phone around and is showing me a red dot moving on her Google map.

“Holy shit,” I say.

“Well, how could I know whose car you were going to take when you made your trip to the desert that night? I had to track both of your cars to be safe,” she says, and I let out a bark of shocked laughter.

“Oh, my God. Oh. My. God!” I howl.

“They stopped! They’re in Diablo Canyon, it looks like. No movement.”

“Oh, my God,” I whisper as I speed up. The cliffs. He could do anything to her out there. How could I let this happen? “We have to find her, we have to. We have to save her from that...”

I speed over dusty clay roads and know I have no real plan when I get there, except that we outnumber him. I searched his apartment for a gun more than once when I was in there fixing something, and I knew he’d be at work. I never found one, and why would he bludgeon Henry to death if he did have one? No gun. No pills to overdose Anna, because that would be a pattern and a death sentence for him. Two women drugged to death? No. So what is his plan with Anna? I shudder thinking of what he might do to her—how soulless he is and what he’s capable of.

---