“Mr.Morris, we need to speak with your wife,” Amanda said in a firm voice.
“She’s not here. Go away.”
“Where can we find her?”
“Probably lying underneath some prick in a hotel somewhere.” The man slammed the door in their faces.
Trent banged, but Amanda put a hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll come back another time.”
“We need to find out where Brianna is and talk with her.”
“We don’t even know if she’s going to have something to tell us.”
“So we’re just giving up?”
“Just postponing. Let’s leave Mr.Morris to sober up, and we’ll come back in the morning. He could be more helpful then.”
“If you think that will make a difference.” He wasn’t eager about walking away when it felt like they were so close, but Amanda was right. Richard in his current state was utterly useless. And even sober, he might have no clue where his wife was. “Popcorn and movies then?” She’d know he was referring to the hotel surveillance video.
“Guess so.”
They got back in the car, and he took them to Central, an eye out for anyone following them. Again no one he could single out.
Trent got the USB drive ready and the list of times the clerk from Lux Suites remembered seeing Claire leave. He also checked his email, and there was one from Paula Ferguson. It didn’t include a guest list from the shelter’s charity event but came with the assurance she was still looking. He wasn’t going to hold his breath. An event from fifteen years ago. It would be more of a surprise to him if she found it.
Trent could overhear Amanda on the phone with Libby. Her tone of voice gave away how much she hated to tell the woman she needed her to stay with Zoe longer. He could tell the ask hurt his partner, as if she was failing the girl, but being a single parent couldn’t be easy. He’d been fortunate to have two loving parents who were there for him and his sisters, but not everyone was so fortunate. Zoe had been through hell after her idyllic life was shot to pieces. Amanda sometimes talked about how the girl was her savior, but Amanda was just as much the girl’s.
“All right, we ready to go?” Amanda came over to his cubicle rubbing her hands together, overeager and compensating to hide her disappointment.
“You know I can handle this if you want to go home to Zoe.” He paused there, and when she said nothing, he added, “I’d understand.” He could have brought up the cryptic note left at Amanda’s door. Surely that had to be weighing on her and causing concern. He knew better than to ask why she didn’t let Zoe stay with someone else until this case was over. He figured what Amanda’s response would be to that: she had things under control, and she wasn’t about to cower at being threatened. “Amanda?” he prompted.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” He added a smile to stamp it home.
“I’ll owe you one then. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. We’re partners. That’s what we do.”
After Amanda left, he got himself a coffee and started watching the video, forwarding to the times the hotel clerk had mentioned. He was watching footage from a camera placed at the front counter that also covered just outside the main doors.
Claire entered the camera’s line of sight, and she went over to the phone that the clerk had pointed out to him and Amanda. As Trent waited it out, he wondered who else Claire might have called from the phone.
Claire replaced the receiver after less than thirty seconds, offered a pleasant smile to the man at the desk, and stepped outside. She got into a yellow cab that showed up a few minutes later.
Benji’s Taxi, number 2352.Trent wrote this down with the time in his notepad.Wednesday, 1:15 PM.
He watched as the car pulled out and left. Trent then went to the next time that the clerk gave them. Thursday, Claire made a call and left in Benji’s Taxi, number 1510, at 10AM.
Then Thursday afternoon.Benji’s Taxi, number 2352 again.
Trent forwarded to Friday afternoon, even though it wasn’t on the list of days and times he had from the hotel clerk. Amanda had said Claire had been at Locked Up Tight about four thirty that day. About four PM, Claire walked out the front doors, but she hadn’t called for a ride at the front desk like the other times.
He switched over to the exterior camera and watched Claire continue down the street. She kept looking over a shoulder until she left the reach of the camera. But Trent caught something else of interest in the Lux Suites parking lot. Claire seemed to have an audience. A person behind the wheel of a silver sedan.
Trent zoomed in, trying to make out the license plate. No luck. It was concealed by one of those tinted plate covers. The emblem on the hood told him it was a Toyota. A Camry like the one he thought was following them the other day? It was likely ridiculous to even think that. There had to be hundreds of silver Camrys in the area.
