Page 26 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“Okay, so Lance took most of those. And Sierra took some selfies. And I think Jared may have taken a few shots at the end…”

Finally, we got to looking at the pictures. Most of them were useless, either blurred or too tightly focused on the group. But a handful showed vehicles, and one in particular caught my eye.

“Stop. Go back, would you?”

“Oh, I remember this one! Lance tripped over Jared’s foot and almost dropped the camera.”

And in the process, he’d gotten the perfect shot of a big black sedan. A Mercedes, from the badge on the back.

“Can you zoom in on the vehicle?”

“Sure.”

There it was. The licence plate. Light blue with a darker concave stripe at the top. Fuzzy, but when I squinted, I could make out the number. DWZ 0196.

At that moment, I should have been elated, right? Brittney certainly thought so.

“Yee-haw! That’s the car, isn’t it? So we’ve got the guy? What next? Do you call the DMV? Hey, this is so exciting! We should open a bottle of champagne. Well, fizzy wine. What do you think?”

“I think there’s still work left to do.” Because I recognised that plate, or at least its type. And it wasn’t good news. “Can you copy that picture onto this memory stick?”

“Sure I can. You don’t have to do more work tonight, though? I could order a pizza.”

I glanced at my watch. A quarter to ten. What the hell was Rome doing?

“Thanks, but I can’t.”

“You’re still going out for dinner? But it’s so late.”

“I’ll pick something up on the way home.”

“There’s a great—”

My phone rang. Rome calling. Thank goodness.

“Hey, sweetie,” I said.

“Sweetie? What the fuck you on, man?”

“Just leaving. I’ll be home in fifteen… Chinese? Sounds great to me.”

I quickly turned the volume down as Rome guffawed. “Home? I’m in the damn bar.”

“You know how much I love crispy beef.”

“You’ve lost your damn mind, buddy. Get out of there.”

I was only too happy to comply.

CHAPTER 9 - KIMBERLY

“YOU DID WHAT?” Annie asked on Tuesday morning.

“Hired a private investigator. I just thought I should mention it since he’s supposed to be coming by with an update. I didn’t want you to be alarmed since he doesn’t look like our usual clientele.”

Kayla put down her low-fat strawberry shortcake. “Then what does he look like?”

“Uh, big.”

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