Page 36 of Twin Threats In Austin
“Is there anything else you remember about your customer?” Rochelle asked.
“Just what I already said,” Millie said. “I never had a problem with him. Not even when a machine acted up. Some people get upset. This one never did. He was always polite.”
He’d done his time. Paid his debt to society for his crime.
“Did he ever come here with anyone?” Rochelle continued.
“No,” Millie answered. “He kept to himself except when I came out and said hello.” She shrugged. “He’s the last person I would suspect to commit such an awful crime. Or any crime.” Her gaze shifted from Rochelle to Camden and back. “What do I know?”
“Thank you for your time,” Camden said, hoping the tech guy could find something in the picture to send them in a new direction. More and more, he found himself rooting for Kage.
Was it because Camden could see himself taking matters into his own hands if he believed law enforcement was unfairly targeting him in a murder investigation? Camden would likely strike out on his own to find answers too. He’d always had an independent streak a mile long, and his stubbornness was legendary in the family.
All of this had him thinking about second chances. Did Kage deserve his?
What about Camden’s mother?
Whoa! Where did that come from?
After thanking Millie a second time, Camden walked out of the Laundromat behind Rochelle. Once inside the truck, he said, “I keep thinking Kage took off because we’re missing something.”
“I have the same feeling,” she said, buckling into the passenger seat.
“Guess we just have to keep pecking away at it until we get a breakthrough,” he said.
“You aren’t used to that, are you?”
“Investigating?” he asked.
“Yes. I keep forgetting that your primary job is to serve warrants once you get a location on someone,” she said.
“I do more stakeouts than interviews,” he said.
“We’ll figure this out,” she reassured.
He didn’t feel the need to point out that Kage’s life depended on it. They might be the difference between a life behind bars and freedom for a crime Camden was more and more convinced Kage might be innocent of.
Either that, or Kage was one of the best actors of his time. He’d be wasting his talents in Austin if that was the case.
“We could stake out Kage’s apartment,” she said. “See if he returns to pick anything up.”
“Okay,” he said for lack of a better idea.
They’d wait and see what turned up.
Hours passed asRochelle and Camden sat in the truck nestled in between two vans, waiting for any sign of life coming from Kage’s apartment.
The silence was almost deafening after getting to know Camden and all that he’d been through, revealing those fractured parts of himself to her and only her. To have him suddenly close off to her at this point hurt.
Relationships hurt.
Opening her heart to someone hurt.
After losing her mother recently, she didn’t have the resolve to allow her heart to be broken again. Whatever was happening between her and Camden needed to stop. Especially because they were coworkers. Starting a relationship while on assignment would be horribly unprofessional.
Rather than sit there and idly stare out the window, she decided Camden could handle watching the apartment while she studied the photograph of Kage at the Laundromat on her phone. The grainy photo made details a little difficult to make out. There were no other photos with that time stamp, so there wasn’t anything else to use as a basis for comparison. Maybe sheshould go back and ask Millie for every Tuesday-night photo for the past few weeks to compare.
Deciding it was an idea worth chasing, she sent the email request and informed Camden of what she was doing.
