Sebastian clenched his hands around the wheel and kept his gaze on the license plate of the SUV in front of him. “All I’m saying is, you have to be more careful. Someone obviously has it out for you.”
Most of the drive had been spent arguing with his unruly passenger, and it had frayed his usually steady temper to the breaking point. Against her wishes, he’d called the station and reported both the goggles in her bag and the threatening phone call. As expected, Roth had dismissed his concerns, insisting the local kids were getting a thrill out of torturing the daughter of the countess of death.
He glanced into the rear-view mirror. He had no intention of allowing Elena to learn her mother’s gruesome nickname.
“Do you really think it was the killer who called?” Elena asked.
“We have to assume it was,” he replied. “The question is, why are they targeting you? Did you see anyone yesterday before I arrived at the house?”
She was quiet for a few moments, then said, “No. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary when I arrived.”
There had to be a reason the killer had targeted her. The urge to take an exit onto the interstate and drive until they ran out of gas rocked him. He had a couple hundred dollars in cash. They could stay at a motel and wait for the danger to pass.
You just want to be in a room alone with her again.
He remembered how she’d leaned into his arms, whispering promises of pleasure. It had taken all his willpower not to take her there, against the kitchen wall.
He indulged in a silent fantasy of having her spread beneath him on his bed, her dark hair fanned out on the pillows, her lips curved in a seductive smile. He shifted his legs. It was going to be a long drive.
By the time they arrived at the tall brownstone in the outer boroughs of Minneapolis, Elena was all but vibrating with impatience. They exited the car, and then she dragged him along by the arm to the elevator, then trailed behind him as they walked down the hallway. He found the correct door, then knocked.
A chubby woman with curling brown hair opened the door and grinned at them.
Elena gasped. “You!”
Sebastian looked between the two women. “You’ve met?”
“I’ll explain later,” Elena murmured.
“You look like you just crawled out of the grave,” Sandra said, leaning against the door frame. She wore a gray sweater and navy sweatpants. “Well, let’s get this over with.” She ushered them onto the couch in the sunken living room. Boxes of computer parts filled the table. In the corner, a TV was paused on an old episode of a popular British Sci-Fi show.
Sandra touched the top of the television, and it flickered, then turned off. Then she put her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong with you, letting this poor woman run herself ragged. Shame on you.”
She looked around the room. “Clear off the table. I’ll get some tea. As my grandmother used to say, a good host always offers tea.”
Before he could defend himself, she retreated into the kitchen, and then tinny, upbeat music started playing. He picked up two boxes of computer parts on the coffee table, one under each arm, and relocated them to the corner, where other boxes lay, their contents spilled out onto the floor in a tangle of cords and metal.
When there was enough space freed, they sat on the couch.
“When did you meet Sandra?” he asked.
“At the station yesterday. She, uh, rescued me. Then she made me help her steal something out of evidence.”
The image of Sandra pulling Elena along by the hand through the police station corridors made him smile.
“Her father’s the sheriff,” he said.
Elena scratched behind her ear. “And that explains it, how?”
He chuckled. “They’ve got an ongoing battle. Sandra tests their security. She believes if she can break in, someone else can.”
Sandra had always toed the line of the law, even with a father in law enforcement. But as far as he knew, she’d never stepped over that line.
Had something changed?
There was a loud clanging of dishes from the kitchen, then Sandra returned, bearing a tray with tea and cookies. Elena straightened at the sight, like a dog after hearing the word “treat.” He laughed, then laughed harder when Sandra scowled.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Tea and cookies?”
Sandra lifted the tray off the table. “I guess I’ll put these away then.”
Elena elbowed him in the ribs, hard.
“Ah, well,” he coughed. “What I meant to say is, what a wonderful gesture. We’d love tea and cookies.”
“All right then,” Sandra said. She put the tray back down and wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “Lord, it’s hot in here.” She slipped off her sweater and draped it over the back of her chair.
Elena dropped a cookie, showering the carpet with crumbs, then clutched his arm.
“What is it?” he studied her pale face. “What’s wrong?”
She opened her mouth and emitted a gurgling sound.
Is she choking?
He shot Sandra a concerned look and slapped Elena on the back a few times, but she didn’t react. Then she shot to her feet, crouching over with her hands fisted near her chest, and squinted. “What is this? Who’re you, sonny? What’re you doing with my granddaughter?”
He choked out a laugh. “What is that, an impression? I don’t get the reference.” He looked at Sandra, who was just as pale as Elena. Sandra shook her head back and forth but said nothing.
What the hell is going on?
Elena shuffled forward, toddling like an eighty-year-old woman. “Listen here, sonny—”
She cut off mid-sentence with a choking sound and then straightened. “Uh, yeah, something I saw on TV. Sorry, I thought you’d get it.” She wiped the sheen of sweat from her face with a napkin from the table, then fell back onto the couch beside him.
“Oh!” Sandra said. “Yes, I get it!” She laughed, although it sounded strained. “You must be tired. Have some tea.” She lifted the blue teapot and filled the three matching cups.
Sebastian accepted the cup she held out to him. “Thanks.”
Sandra sipped from her cup, then eyed him. “When you called, you said it was urgent. What’s going on?”
He put his cup down without trying the tea. “Elena got a weird call about an hour ago. I was hoping you could help us figure out where it came from.”
Sandra had been apt with technology for as long as he could remember. They’d met in college when he’d still been keen on joining the force. He’d helped her move out of her apartment after her boyfriend had knocked her around. She’d helped him sort out a stolen credit card that had caused Chloe some grief.
Sandra shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Can’t you just,” he mimed a typing motion. “Make it happen?”
Sandra rolled her eyes. “This isn’t a movie. I’m not just going to hack into some city database and find the answers you’re looking for.”
Elena paused her eating to chime in. “But you could? If you wanted to?”
“Sure. If that data even existed. But I’m not going to. It’s dangerous, Bast. I don’t take risks like that, not unless there’s a damn good reason.” Sandra stopped him from interrupting with a gesture. “A prank call is not a good reason.”
Sebastian slumped in his seat. “Damn.”
“What do we do now?” Elena picked up another cookie. “Go back to the condo?”
“I can’t just sit around and do nothing,” Sebastian said. “My sister’s killer is out there, and Roth is so focused on me as a suspect, he is probably not investigating anyone else.”
“It’s simple, then,” Elena said. “We’ll have to do his job for him.”
Sandra made a whooping noise. “Amateur detectives! Count me in.” She grabbed something from behind her chair and held it up in the air. “Surprise!”
He gaped. “How did you get that?”
“Let’s just say you owe me. Big time.”
Elena stared at the object in Sandra’s hands. “Isn’t that the laptop you took out of evidence?”
“Not just any laptop,” Sebastian said. “Chloe’s laptop. I’d recognize those stickers anywhere.”
Sandra relocated to an office chair in front of a desk. “If your sister was into something, there may be evidence on here.” She took a large black contraption out of a drawer and put it on her desk.
“What are you doing?” Sebastian asked.
“We can’t just plug it into one of my computers,” Sandra said. She unscrewed the hard drive and slotted it into the contraption. “That’s called tampering with evidence. But a cloned hard drive isn’t the same. As long as we’re careful.” She gestured to the computer tower under her desk. “I use this machine for forensics.” Then she launched into a complicated explanation of what she planned to do. He couldn’t pretend to understand half of what she said, but he nodded along. When she eventually trailed off, occupied with setting up her equipment, he turned to Elena. “Do you want to see this?”
She shook her head. “You do the tech stuff. I’m famished.”
He laughed. “Are you ever not hungry?”
Elena picked up another cookie, met his eyes, and shoved the entire thing in her mouth.
“There’s some chicken fingers and fries on top of the oven,” Sandra said from beneath her desk. “I was about to have lunch when you called. Help yourself. I cooked them in the air fryer.”
Elena raced out of the room like rabid dogs were on her tail.
“Oh, lord.” Sandra wiped tears of mirth from her eyes. “She’s precious. I see why you like her. Now, Come. Watch. Maybe you’ll learn something.”
“I doubt that. But I’ll watch, anyway.”
Their first pass of the files on the drive was not revealing. He soon lost track as Sandra clicked around the screen, navigating through windows faster than he could follow.
Then Elena turned the corner, half-eaten chicken finger in her hand. “Did you find anything?”
Sandra beamed. “Nope! Looks like she wiped the drive a few days ago. I’ve got a restore program running, but it might take a while to finish.”
Sebastian thumped down on the couch.
So much for that.
“We need to trace her last steps,” Sebastian said. “Find out what she was doing over the past few days. Maybe that will give us a clue.”
“Ah! That I can help you with,” Sandra said. “Come, marvel at my genius.” She pranced over to the couch and sat down, then waved at Elena and patted the cushions beside her.
Sebastian leaned over Sandra’s shoulder. She held her phone with a map program open in a browser.
“What is this, directions?” he asked.
Sandra tapped on the corner of the screen, where a circular icon showed a roaring lion. “Chloe’s account. She had location tracking on, so we can see where she has been. Or, more accurately, where her phone has been. Let’s start the day she died.” She tapped around the screen. Blue lines traced Chloe’s movement from town to the Cain house.
“Not much,” Sebastian said. “Although I didn’t see her phone on her body.”
Sandra hummed a sound. “She was in the water, right? If she had her phone on her, it probably died. Let’s check the day before.” She touched an arrow, and the screen changed, the lines spreading out across Stillwood. “Restaurant, hair salon, bowling alley, restaurant, grocery store,” Sandra said, scrolling through the page. “Busy girl, Chloe.” She touched a button, and the blue lines vanished.
“What happened?” he grabbed the phone. “Did someone wipe out the data?”
Sandra twisted the device out of his grip. “It’s nothing. She just didn’t go anywhere that day. Or at least, her phone didn’t.”
The screen changed again, showing another pattern of blue lines.
“Grocery store, restaurant, bowling alley.”
The screen changed for a third time.
“Can you slow down a bit?” Elena groaned. “You’re making me queasy.”
Sandra grinned at her. “Lightweight.”
Then Sebastian poked at the screen. “Look, the bowling alley again.”
“Was she part of a league or something?” Elena asked.
“Not that I know of,” Sebastian said. “The hobbies she enjoyed were more things you can do at home—reading, watching TV, stuff like that.”
Sandra clicked on the bowling alley and brought up a new page that included photos of the interior, business hours, and more. She clicked on the link to a website, then rapidly scrolled down several screen lengths before stopping. “There’s no league playing right now, anyway.” She tapped the screen with her fingernail. “See? The season starts up next month.”
“Why would she be going there so often?” Sebastian resisted the urge to grab the phone. Chloe’s movements didn’t make sense. What had she been up to?
Sandra shrugged. “I just dig up the data. It’s up to you to decide what to do with it.”
As if sensing the guilt that had settled over him, Elena wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed.
“It’s a lead,” Sebastian said. “I say we check it out.”