Page 97 of Last Seen Alive
“You ask me, Graves is eating some humble pie,” he said. “She has Logan charged for murder, but then openly admits in front of the chief that you and I are getting close to solving this mess.”
“She never called it a mess.”
He smiled at her. “It was implied.”
She laughed and gestured to the front of her house. “That’sa mess.”
“I can help you board it up right now.”
“It’s not just the window.”
“It’s about the rosebush again. It means something to you?”
“Yeah, I guess. The trellis too. Looks like the idiot trampled over it. The plant was here when Kevin and I bought the house, but we made the trellis together.”
“Impressive. You have carpentry skills?”
“No. Kevin cut, I nailed.”
Trent laughed, then went serious. “I meant it when I said I’d help with the window. You can’t go to bed with it like that.”
She wanted to come up with a slew of excuses that would have Trent leaving, but she said, “I’d appreciate it. Kevin has some boards in the garage. One might work.”
“All right then.”
They got out of Trent’s Jeep and found a piece of plywood that suited the job perfectly. He held it in place, while she nailed it into the frame. She flashed to the past when she’d worked around the house with Kevin. They’d laughed more than they fought and when they did, it was always fun making up.
They finished up and had Zoe’s chair back in her room, and were in her kitchen facing each other.
“Thank you, by the way. How about a beer? Least I can do.” She moved and swore that just as she had, Trent did. He had come toward her, though, while she’d stepped to the side, headed to the fridge.
“Sure, ah, a beer sounds good.” He flashed a smile, moved aside awkwardly.
Was he going to kiss me?She swallowed roughly thinking that’s exactly what he might have been about to do. She fished out two bottles and stuck one into his waiting hand. “Here you go.”
They snapped off the tops and clicked the bottles.
“To catching this guy tomorrow,” he said.
“Amen to that.”
They went out to the patio and looked up at the stars. They didn’t say much. Something was about to happen in her kitchen before she’d messed it up—or maybe the universe had stepped in to save them from making a huge mistake. Not that she really put faith in things manifesting to plan or by intent, or in some grand being directing affairs on Earth. But she and Trent could never be more than friends, no matter how many times she fantasized about more.
THIRTY-SIX
The next day, Amanda was up before the sun with a case-breaking epiphany. But maybe she was getting her hopes up too high. She knew where else she’d seen a silver Toyota Camry and with any stroke of luck at all, it would get them to their mystery man.
She met Trent at the station at eight in the morning, and they went over in a department car to Lux Suites, where Claire had been staying. She beelined for the front desk, Trent sticking right with her.
“You’re sure?” He had asked that question a few times on the way over and the drive wasn’t a long one.
Oh, she was sure. Now whether it wasthesilver Camry in question, she couldn’t be certain until she looked at the hotel surveillance, but she was following her gut. She’d seen the car from the window in Claire’s hotel room. What they had at Central didn’t cover the Monday when they were here—the time in which she was interested.
She held up her badge to the clerk, a different man than the one they spoke with before. “Detectives Steele and Stenson with Prince William County PD. You have camera surveillance that covers the lot. We need to see it from Monday afternoon.” She gave the clerk the approximate time of when she watched two police cruisers enter the lot. They had passed a silver sedan. Her mind had tucked it away as useless information until she woke up this morning.
“Not sure if I should hand that over without a warrant.”
“You may have heard by now that the PWCPD is investigating the murder of a woman who stayed here, at your hotel. We already received approval for some footage, but what I’m asking for now could very well lead us right to her killer.”
