Page 65 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Uh…” I hesitate. “I have no idea, but I’m going to find out and look super smart.”

“Perfect,” he says. “I don’t think there are many… you could call the scrapyard. They might have seen something like this if they got the scraps in. If they have, they might know exactly which company it came from.”

A young woman comes out and Liam looks at her as she rushes over to her father.

“Dad, what’s going on? I pulled in and saw all the police cars… they said you needed my help finding Puppins.”

“No wonder the dog doesn’t want to come. I sure as fuck wouldn’t respond to a name like that,” Liam mutters.

“If I called you Puppins…”

“I would run forward with my tail wagging,” Liam realizes. “Damn… you’re good.”

FOURTEEN

Gabriel

Liam seems okay so far. He even had to interact with Kenny before he was taken back to the department for his statement. Liam actually insisted that Kenny remain present until they found the dog, which the daughter ended up finding after about twenty minutes. Sadly, the dog didn’t seem to have any answers for us.

The origin of the steel tube was easier to locate than I ever fathomed it would since I had Liam’s quite specific details to run with, which makes me question how he even knows half of this shit. Matthew takes us back to get my car before Liam and I, tube in tow, head to the company who we’ve asked to keep our presence quiet so we don’t spook anyone into fleeing.

When we arrive, a man meets us out front, immediately confirming that the tubing is something they’re currently manufacturing.

“Yeah, this one would have ended up in our scrap pile. It’s definitely one of ours.”

“Does everyone have access to the scrap pile?” I ask. Liam is busy nosing around while I question the man, but I can tell he’s listening intently.

“They do. I mean, we have our zones, and I can tell you exactly who is working these machines, but anyone can grab something out of the scrap pile, even office workers or the cleaning crew. They’re notallowedto, but it doesn’t mean they can’t.”

“Do you have a time frame during which this would have been made?”

“We started manufacturing them about one week ago. Let me talk to the floor manager to see if he noticed anything.”

“Everyone clock in on time today?” I ask. “We know that the husband of the missing woman came home at ten this morning where he found his wife missing. She left the house a little after seven if she left after she’d texted Kenny.”

“So… if it was one of my employees who took something, we’d be looking at someone who either took today off or worked second or third shift.”

“Possibly. Do you have cameras in the section the scrap is in?”

“We do. We caught an employee taking scraps to the scrapyard and making money off company materials, so we started recording it. I can send that information over if it’ll help.”

“That’d be fantastic,” I say. “Could we get a list of people who weren’t here this morning?”

“Of course. It’ll take me a few, but I’ll get it sent.”

“While you do that, do you mind us walking around? Can you have your floor manager show us around and pretend we’re here for a different reason?” Liam asks. “We just want to get a good idea of things before we start investigating and don’t want to scare anyone off or give them time to come up with a story.”

“Of course. Let’s get you some hard hats, eye protection, and badges. We get people in all the time, so no one’s going to find your presence odd,” he says.

He flags down a man who gets us set up, and I realize that I never expected to find Liam pulling off a hard hat like he is right now. He even gives me a wink from beyond the safety glasses that make me feel things that I shouldn’t be feeling on a factory tour.

“This is Jax; feel free to ask him any questions you’d like. He was in a meeting with me all morning, so I know he couldn’t have been involved,” the boss says.

“Were there any managers out on the floor if there was a meeting?” I ask.

“No,” Jax answers. “Thankfully, the crew is pretty self-sufficient. Anything specific you’d like to see?”

“I’d like to see it all,” Liam says.

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