Page 56 of Midnight Secrets

I heard papers rustling.

“Sure. What’s going on?”

“What kind of car does Warren Hammond drive?”

His sharp intake of breath was loud in the confines of the car. “You found a car? Where?”

“In the woods. Near the property I’m getting ready to list. It’s a silver BMW X5.”

“Of all the…” He stopped and drew in a breath. “Warren drives the same car. Did you touch it?”

“No. Just looked in the windows. It’s empty.” Thank goodness common sense kicked in when I was in the woods. Having my fingerprints on the vehicle wouldn’t be a good thing. I found Marie’s body and now Warren’s car. What were the odds?

“Good. Keep it that way. Give me those directions you mentioned.”

“I’ll text you a pin to my location. I think you should have enough signal to get you this far. I had to drive a bit to call you.”

“Okay. Stay put. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.”

The line clicked, and the infotainment screen returned to the main screen.

I picked up my phone and dropped a pin in my location, then texted it to him.

A gust of wind blasted the side of my car. I glanced through the windshield at the dark sky. Nothing much was visible thanks to the heavy cloud cover. Another storm system was on the way, and the heaviness of promised snow hung in the air. Even my headlights had a hard time cutting through the darkness.

Normally, I wasn’t one to be afraid in the bush at night. But this evening was different. The specter of what that car could mean loomed over everything.

Was someone lurking in the woods?

Watching?

Waiting?

A shiver ran down my spine. The car locks had disengaged when I parked, so I stabbed the button to lock them again.

My theories were far-fetched, but not out of the realm of possibility.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

CHAPTER 20

Ozzie

Jaw cracking with a wide yawn, I blinked the moisture from my eyes as I turned onto a dirt road from the highway. The last two days had been busy. After delving into Warren Hammond’s brother, Darren, I’d worked on some of my other active cases, prepped for court for one of them, and caught another for a stolen car. Last night, I thought I would sleep like the dead, but Claire invaded my dreams, and we’d acted out that elevator scenario. Multiple times.

When my alarm went off this morning, I jerked awake, still aroused and exhausted.

The arousal part had improved as I dove into work, but the exhaustion hadn’t. I’d been an hour, tops, away from going home and crashing when she called.

Now, I was not only lengthening my day—probably considerably—I was most likely guaranteeing another restless night by having fresh memories of Claire front and center in my mind.

Maybe I should just say screw it and take her up on her offer.

Minus the elevator.

I inhaled a breath and let it out on a groan. Would Riggs believe we were seeing each other before the murder?

Immediately, I slapped down that idea. Lying to the boss was never a good plan, especially in my profession. Besides, Riggs already knew from the conversations we had about this case that I didn’t know Claire beforehand.

---