Page 56 of Fatal Witness

Alex chuckled. “He hasn’t known you long enough to know better than to tell you that.”

Mae grinned. “That’s not my fault.” She sobered at the top of the steps near the bullet holes from Saturday night and studied them before turning to Dani. “Too high—whoever fired this wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“You think he was trying to scare me away?”

“Possibly.” She pushed open her door and walked inside. After a few minutes in the living room, Mae shook her head. “I don’t see anything missing here. How about fingerprints?”

“There weren’t any unknown prints anywhere—he probably wore gloves.”

“Let me check the rest of the house.”

Dani lingered behind while Alex and her grandmother moved on. Something about the room called to her. She walked to the mantel. There was a photo of a man that Dani instinctively knew was her dad. Next to it was one that looked very much like herself.Mom.She picked that one up and hugged it to her chest as she closed her eyes briefly, soaking in the atmosphere.

She’d been here before. Her mom worked at a factory in Pearl Springs and her dad worked construction ... was it possible she’d stayed here more than she had stayed at home? She tried to return to the memory, but it was gone. Maybe more memories would come in the rest of the house.

Dani returned the photo to the mantel and joined the other two in her grandmother’s office, where Alex stood in front of a whiteboard like Dani had seen in cop movies. She turned to her grandmother. “Is that a crime board?”

“It is,” Alex said, answering for Mae. “And a good one.”

Dani stepped closer and examined the board, recognizing her dad’s photo and her mom’s. She shifted her gaze to a girl who looked to be nine or ten standing on a front porch. With the red ponytail and freckles, it had to be Dani, but she had no recollection of ever looking this young. The only photos of herself she remembered were taken by Laura, and Dani had been almost a teenager.

She turned as Alex tapped the board. “Can I borrow this?”

“Sure, just don’t lose it,” Mae said absently. She brushed her fingertips. “Why is there such a mess?”

“Taylor and Dylan dusted for prints.”

She nodded. “Did they move anything?”

“If they did, they would’ve put it back like it was. Why?”

“I left my journal here Friday night after I wrote in it.” She pointed to a place on the other side of the computer. “And the magazine with Danielle’s article and photo is missing.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asked.

“Yes. I laid the magazine to the right of the computer, where the journal is now, when I returned from your office Wednesday.” A smile curved her lips up. “I took a couple of photos with my phone so I could look at Danielle’s picture while I worked in the studio.”

“I didn’t read your journal Saturday. Would there have been anything in it about Dani or Keith?”

Mae nodded. “I wrote down everything Mark told me. That she was in Cincinnati and that she was coming Sunday.”

“If someone read the journal entry, they wouldn’t expect anyone to be around your house Saturday night,” Alex said. “They were looking for something besides you.”

Dani wasn’t so sure. “Did you mention my name was Collins?”

Her grandmother picked the journal up and handed it to her. “I did, but see for yourself. There’s nothing I wouldn’t want either of you to see.”

Alex took the leather-bound book and flipped to the last page. “There’s nothing in here about where Dani and Keith lived, or any other pieces of information he could’ve used—just that she was coming Sunday.”

“It’s probably why he didn’t take it,” Dani said.

“The magazine had your name and website in the article.”

“But he couldn’t have found Keith that way—our location is nowhere on my website.”

“But the name of your business is, and the murderer could’ve checked state records and found the address,” Mae said.

Alex laid the journal back on the desk. “Would you mind booting up the computer so I can see the website?”

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