Page 59 of Midnight Secrets

“PL-two-twelve, Dispatch, copy. Contacting A-1 Wrecking to dispatch to your location and contacting Chief Riggs. All correct? Over.”

“Dispatch, PL-two-twelve, all correct, over.”

“PL-two-twelve, Dispatch. We’ll contact you when resources are en route, out.”

I hung up the mic and looked at Claire. “Did you find the vehicle information?”

She pointed to the open folder.

“Great.” I turned on the camera. “Let’s see if we have a match.” I pulled up the stored photos and found the one I took of the VIN. “I’m going to read it off. You ready?”

“Yep.”

I read off the combination of letters and numbers, then glanced up, meeting her gaze.

“It’s a match,” she said.

“That’s what I figured.” Switching the camera off, I stretched an arm between the seats and slipped it back into the evidence collection case. “I’m not sure what good it’ll do to have it, though. It looked clean. Too clean.” I chewed on the corner of my mouth, staring through the windshield at the darkened forest as my mind turned. “Who owns the property you were out here to list?” I glanced at her.

“Robert McGuffey.”

“What do you know about him? Is he a long-time resident? Did he say why he was selling?”

“He’s elderly, and his health took a turn. He decided to move in with his son in Seattle. Are you thinking Warren knows him?”

“Maybe.” I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. From the sound of it, though, I doubted the two were acquainted. “Has he been out of town a lot? You said his health was poor.”

Claire nodded. “I actually met with his son tonight and talked to Robert via FaceTime. He’s in Seattle, recovering from heart surgery.”

“Do people know his house is vacant? That no one’s out here?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Probably, some, yes. But there are so many places to dump a car up here, it’s not even funny. Why would he pick a place where someonemightfind it sooner rather than later?”

That was a damn good question.

“Unless he wanted it to be found.”

I frowned in question. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe he needed to ditch it, but wanted it found. It could be Warren isn’t the killer, and he hid the car to throw off the real murderer.”

“But why hide it?” I asked. “And clean it? If he wanted the killer to think he left town, why not just abandon it at the airport, or even just leave it in his driveway and call a taxi to the airport? And there would be no reason to detail it before dumping it.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Who’s to say he didn’t detail it before Marie died? That’s entirely possible. You saw their house. It was neat as a pin. And it always looks like that. If anything, it was sparse. Lynne was going to add furniture because they didn’t have enough. Normally, she has to take pieces out and then add some décor to give it a cohesive look.”

I thought about the Hammonds’ house. Claire wasn’t wrong. It was exceptionally clean and well-organized. I’d chalked that up to the fact they were selling it, though.

“You’re sure it was always like that?”

“Yes. From what I saw, anyway. I asked Marie about it too. She said they didn’t like clutter. And since they didn’t have children, two of the bedrooms weren’t needed, which is why they were empty. There was an office downstairs where Warren worked sometimes. Marie only brought grading home and could do that on the couch or at the dining table. The third spare bedroom was their gym.”

The more I learned about the Hammonds—Warren, specifically—the more I wondered what they’d been up to. Their daily habits and the way they lived were just… strange. From their spartan house to the secrets they kept from each other and the people in their lives, it all screamed they had bigger things to hide.

Tomorrow, I needed to put the screws to the IRS and Customs. The answer to what skeletons lurked in the Hammonds’ closet was likely in that information.

“They never mentioned anyone who might have been a friend? Someone who might check on their house while they’re away? Bring in their mail? Or maybe just be someone they talked to on a regular basis?”

She glanced away for a moment, her forehead furrowing, then shook her head. “No. I don’t think either of them mentioned anyone except their family.”

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