AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ethan barely waited for her to hang up before launching his own line of questioning. “Something happened?”
She explained it quickly, filling in as many of the details as she knew while he sat pensively and shook his head.
“This guy is one step behind us.” He looked more frustrated than she’d ever seen him. “It has to be someone from work. How else would they know the power goes out like that when it rains? No one else would be able to get into the building.”
“It was a weekend when Kim died. I got locked out because there was no one there to push the door open from the inside. On a weekday, near closing time? Completely different. You would just have to wait for someone to leave and slip in behind them before the door closed.”
“Then it could be someone who knows an employee.” He acknowledged defeat but didn’t look happy about losing the potential clue. “A friend or a spouse or something.”
“Or a boyfriend.”
He frowned when he caught her eye and realized she was looking at him speculatively. “Very funny.”
“If it was an employee or someone close to an employee, then they would know exactly what they were trying to hide and how to get rid of any evidence. They weren’t stumbling around in there looking for clues like you were.”
“So now they’re one step ahead of us and not behind.”
“Unless we can find some answers here.” She tossed her phone back down onto the table beside the USB stick. “That’s all we’ve got to go on now.”
He sighed as he got to his feet and opened a kitchen cupboard. “Looks like we’re gonna spend most of tonight going over all this. You want some coffee?”
“Yeah.” She was already pulling out her laptop and plugging in the USB stick. “Detective Chen still hasn’t called me back. Maybe if I call her tomorrow and I’ve got some real evidence, it’ll get her attention.”
“Then we’ll get to work.”
Twenty-Four
Eloise woke the next morning with her face stuck to Ethan’s dining room table. He was asleep beside her, head pillowed on his arms and face relaxed after a fruitless night. They hadn’t made it through half of the pictures and files from Kim’s office before she’d laid her head down to rest and slipped off to sleep. He must not have been far behind her and if he’d found anything, he would have woken her, so she was sure he hadn’t had any luck, either.
The sun was just starting to creep through the windows, and she was exhausted and sore from spending the last few hours asleep sitting up, but she was going to be late for work if she didn’t get up now. Ethan spent far more time at her house than she did at his, so she hadn’t built up a stash of clothes or personal items here like he had at her place.
He was the only man that had ever had a toothbrush in her bathroom or a drawer with underwear and T-shirts in her dresser. It had happened so quickly that she hadn’t noticed how intertwined their lives had gotten until now. If he’d woken up with his face pressed to her dining room table, he would have had everything he needed upstairs to go about his day without ever having to go back to his own house.
Neither of them had questioned it and Eloise wondered if he even realized that he had made a second home with her. Had he simply drifted into her house because he was drawn to her? Or had it been more intentional on his part, a calculated way to escape the painful memories of his grandfather’s house?
Once they figured out the motive behind Kim’s murder, there was a lot that they were going to have to talk about. Her own resolve to keep emotions out of their relationship was being eaten away and she wasn’t going to fall in love with someone that didn’t have the same feelings about her. Clearly, she was going to have to sit him down and discuss what the future might look like for them. It was simply the logical thing to do before she got in too deep and allowed herself to get hurt.
“Ethan.” She rubbed his shoulder, still marveling slightly at how firm the muscle was beneath her hand even when he was fully relaxed. “I’ve got to go.”
“Hmm?” He sat up and rubbed his face. “Is it morning already?”
“Yeah.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek and smoothed the hair that was sticking up at odd angles from where he’d slept on it. “I’ve got to get ready for work and I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”
“I’m sorry I fell asleep.”
“We both did.” She stretched and tried to ease the ache in her knotted muscles. “There was a lot to look over and we got started late. Should we plan on doing the rest tonight?”
He grimaced—not that she blamed him for not being excited about the prospect of another night of fruitless searching—but nodded. “I’ll pick up something for dinner and come over after you get home.”
“Pizza?”
“I’ve created a monster.” He chuckled when she swatted softly at his arm. “Yeah, I’ll swing by Paula’s place.”
“Thanks.” She leaned down to give him a quick kiss, her mind already pivoting to the office and the long day ahead of her on precious little sleep, but he caught her chin between his fingers. Warmth skimmed along the surface of her skin, pushing away the aches and fatigue and replacing it with a pleasant buzz. “I need to go.”
She mumbled it against his mouth and felt his lips curl in response as his hand slid up to cup her breast.
“You can be a little late this once.”
