Page 108 of Half Baked

Yep, she planned to drive in the grass.

I grabbed my keys and ran out, thankful she had to pause long enough to grab her groceries because it gave me time to back my car out onto the street before she pulled out. She peeled out of my driveway, and I watched her blow through a stop sign.

Who was she so terrified of?

I parked my car in the driveway and headed to the garage to close the door. Just as I reached overhead for the handle, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and then everything went black.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Noah

It took all morning and into the afternoon to work the crime scene. Surveillance footage showed a man entering the building through a side door at 10:03 the night before. He’d stood outside for a good ten seconds before opening it, presumably because he was picking the lock. There wasn’t much to see—he’d had on a hoodie that completely covered his head and knew enough about surveillance cameras to keep his face down. He headed straight for Bergan’s room and entered at 10:04. Three minutes later, he emerged and then exited the building the same way he’d come in.

We were in the process of talking to the night staff and residents to see if they’d seen or heard anything. We questioned the custodian about why the alarm hadn’t gone off. He claimed there had been a faulty connection, but the security system company said they’d fixed it.

Had the killer been behind that, or was it a lucky fluke?

I texted Maddie a little after noon to see how she was doing. She didn’t answer right away, causing me a moment of panic, but she sent a text about five minutes later.

Everything is fine.

The wording seemed odd. It wasn’t like her, but someone grabbed my attention with something connected to the case. We still hadn’t found Gina Moore, and her husband claimed he hadn’t seen her since she’d left for the store around ten. Odds were, we’d shown up at his door before she’d gotten home, and he’d warned her off.

The staff found more surveillance footage of the parking lot. A pickup truck had pulled in from the west side of the building at 9:59. The driver was the murderer, that much was clear. When he left the lot nearly ten minutes later, we got a glimpse of his license plate, but it wasn’t a clear read. Lance sent it to the crime lab to see what they could come up with.

Around three, I got a call from Margarete, who was in a state of panic.

“Noah?I was driving home from a long lunch with a friend, and I found Deidre wandering down the street, about two blocks away from the house. I tried calling Maddie, but she’s not answering. It took quite a bit of convincing to get Deidre in my car. She doesn’t remember who I am, and she claims she doesn’t know Maddie.”

My vision tunneled, and I lowered down into a nearby chair. I needed to treat this like any other case, but that was impossible. Especially when I felt like my life was about to be ripped apart again.

“Other than confused, is Deidre okay?” I motioned for Lance to come over.

“She’s wearing her house shoes and no coat, but she doesn’t seem worse for wear.”

Lance stood in front of me, and I pressed the mute button on my phone. “Send a car over to Maddie’s house.Now. Deidre was wandering down the street, and Margarete can’t get ahold of Maddie.”

“Shit.” He turned and made a call on his phone.

“Noah? What should I do?” Margarete was asking.

I turned off the mute button. “Can you take Deidre to your house? If not, I can get someone else to pick her up.”

“Don’t you want me to take her home and see if Maddie’s there?”

“No.I’m sending some officers over to the house to check things out.” My voice broke, and I took a deep, slow breath to control it.

“What’s going on, Noah?”

“I don’t know, but I’m on my way. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I clicked off the call, my ears buzzing.

I refused to let my mind consider the possibilities, because none of the alternatives I was coming up with were good. Maddie would have realized that Deidre had gotten out by now, and she would have accepted Margarete’s call, or at the very least called me.

I had to get out of here. I had to go see for myself. “I’m going to check on Maddie,” I announced, then bolted down the hall.

“I’m coming too,” Lance called out from behind me, and I heard him telling the chief we were leaving, but it barely registered.

I had nearly gotten to my car when Lance said, “We’re taking my car. Get in.”

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