Page 11 of Seductive Secrets

“You don’t need to come out here,” she protested.

“I’ll be there in six hours,” he said blandly, ignoring her comment entirely. His headquarters were in Las Vegas, Nevada because he loved the heat. He always complained about the cold of the East Coast winters as well as the humidity of their summers. Plus, Dash loved to gamble and was freakishly good at blackjack.

“See you soon,” she replied with a small sigh before ending the call.

James glanced at her. “I take it Dash came through once again?”

She rolled her eyes. “Dashalwayscomes through,” she said.

He chuckled, nodding. “Okay, where do we go?”

She looked up the address on her cell phone, then gave him directions. They arrived at a small bungalow twenty minutes later. Parking on the street, they eyed the house, noticing the mail that was overflowing from the mailbox beside the front door.

“Doesn’t look like anyone is home,” Angela said what they were both thinking.

“I think you’re right. But should we knock anyway?”

Angela nodded. “If she’s not home, then maybe we could talk to some of the neighbors and find out if they’ve seen her recently.”

“That’s a good idea.” They stepped out of his sedan and walked up the short sidewalk. The house was small and well maintained. It was recently repainted and there were tworocking chairs on the front porch with decorative pillows and a small table. Obviously, this was a well-used space.

“I’d love to have a front porch like this, where I could watch the neighbors walk by,” Angela commented as they climbed the short stairs.

“What kind of house do you have?”

Her lips twisted. “I live in a townhouse a few blocks from my office. I didn’t want to waste time commuting, so I purposely bought something close enough that I could walk to work.” She lifted her hand to knock on the door, but they could already tell that no one would answer. The place looked and felt quiet. Too quiet.

James waved towards the window closest to her. “Peek through the window. See if the place is as neat and tidy as Marks’ apartment,” he suggested.

Angela looked up at him, startled by his words. “Why don’tyoulook in her window?”

His lips quirked in amusement. “Because if anyone sees us, it will look a lot less weird if they see a woman peeking in than if they saw a man.”

She thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “I see your point.” She peered in through the glass, cupping her hands around her face to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun.

Pulling back, she shook her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Either Melissa Abernathy is a slob, or her house has been ransacked.”

James rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “Okay, let’s go talk to the neighbors. Maybe one of them saw something.”

They went to the neighbors directly across the street, but no one answered the door. Same with the neighbors on the right, but a harassed mother with a six or seven month old baby in her arms and a cranky toddler clutching her leg answered the door to the left of Dr. Abernathy’s home.

Angela smiled brightly at the woman, tilting her head to smile briefly at the toddler before directing her attention back to the mother. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but we’re friends of Dr. Abernathy’s fiancé and we were wondering if you’d seen her recently.”

The woman squinted into the sunshine, pushed her hair off her forehead and sighed. “No. I haven’t seen her in a while. Why? Is something wrong? I don’t really know her all that well. She works a lot of hours and she has someone to take care of her yard. So I don’t even see her when I’m out mowing the grass.”

Angela smiled and nodded. “Okay, well thanks anyway,” she replied, then waved to the woman as they stepped off of the front porch.

The woman was just about to close the door but she hesitated. “Wait. I don’t know if this helps, but I saw a couple of men over there a couple of days ago. They looked nice, in suits, and they had an expensive car. Does that help? Could that have been her fiancé?”

James squinted up at the woman from where he stood on the sidewalk. “Do you remember what they looked like?”

The woman sighed, blew a breath out that fanned her bangs as she thought back. “They were just normal. Average looking guys. On the taller side. One had sandy blond hair, theother…I think he had brown hair? There wasn’t much about either of them that stood out in my mind.”

“That’s a big help,” he replied, smiling and adding in a wave. “I appreciate it.”

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