Page 43 of Just Now

She made a note of their names. Two had paid cash. Three had paid by card.

Now, Gracie. She’d been here twice. Once at lunchtime and once in the evening. Were any of the same people there?

Not at lunchtime. There was no overlap there at all. But in the evening, Cami saw, there had been. Two of the same customers. Toni Gregor, who’d paid cash, and Zack Overton, who’d paid by card. They’d both been there on the same night as Gracie, and also when Kate had been there.

Now to find out if Priscilla, who’d eaten at this diner three evenings since starting her new job, had any of those customers in common.

Cami took a look, searching through the bookings, feeling her heart pounding in anticipation as she waited for a result.

Then she drew in a deep, quick breath.

There was one!

Zack Overton had been at this diner when every single one of the three victims had been there. On Tuesday night, he and Priscilla had been at the diner at the same time. That made it a hat trick. They had answers now, and those were staring her in the face.

She narrowed her eyes, her mind racing, already reaching for the phone to let Connor know.

And then she jumped as the office door banged open and the owner rushed in.

“Sorry, sorry,” Gaynor said hurriedly. “Did I startle you? I’m just getting the spare credit card machine. Have you found anything so far?”

Cami nodded. Now that they were so close, it couldn’t hurt to ask, could it?

“Your customer Zack Overton,” she said. “He was here at the diner at the same time as every single victim.”

She’d expected shock, horror, or maybe irate defensiveness from Gaynor. But she hadn’t expected him to look sad.

“I know, it’s such a tragedy,” he said.

Cami stared at him, feeling as if her reality had shifted.

“I’m sorry, did you say a tragedy? What tragedy?” she asked.

Gaynor sighed. “Zack was seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash on Wednesday morning. He’s in the hospital with a punctured lung and several broken bones. I feel so bad for him, because he’s such a good guy. I went to visit him yesterday on the way to work, and he’s in so much pain.”

Cami felt as if she was on a rollercoaster ride here.

Zack, the only customer to have been at the Zesty Kitchen when all the victims were taken, the prime suspect, couldn’t have done it.

Her solution had been ripped away just as she’d been thinking they had found the killer.

Gaynor headed out of the office with the card machine and Cami sat, feeling bludgeoned by that backlash of fate.

She didn’t have a suspect at all. She had a big, fat dead end with nowhere left to go.

And then a ping from the computer distracted her. In the hunt through the customer records, she’d all but forgotten about that password protected folder marked “Private.” Now, her software had cracked the code.

She could access this folder, and whatever was in here, it was her very last chance.

Hoping that the folder held answers, and that there was a reason why it was so carefully hidden away, Cami clicked on it.

A moment later, it flashed open, and she stared at the screen in astonishment.

She couldn’t believe what was here.

Names. And not just names, but addresses with them.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

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