The detective slipped it into an evidence bag. “We’ll run it.”
Evan stood.
The room felt wrong. Not because it was empty. Because whoever had cleared it out had done it fast.
A corner of packing foam remained near the wall. One crate mark cut across another. The neat arrangement shown in the freight records was gone.
The removal had been hurried. Almost frantic. That mattered.
Caleb wasn’t acting like a man with a buyer. He was acting like a man trying not to get caught.
That was different. And desperate people made mistakes. They always did.
Harker spent another twenty minutes with the facility manager and deputies.
The result was exactly what Evan expected. No ornaments. No arrest. No miracle. Just another lead.
Eventually they headed back to the truck.
The drive toward Harbor’s Hope passed beneath a bright afternoon sky. The ocean flashed blue through gaps in the dunes.
Margot sat beside him, quieter than usual. Not discouraged. Thinking.
He recognized the expression by now.
The gears turning. The contingency plans forming. The determination settling back into place.
The expo’s closing gala was tonight. A few hours.
Then the vendors would leave.
The guests would leave.
And Margot would leave too.
That thought had been following him since the beach.
Not the case. Not Caleb. Not the ornaments.
Margot.
Five years ago, he’d buried half his life and convinced himself standing still was the same thing as healing.
Then a woman from Raleigh showed up carrying clipboards and impossible schedules and somehow turned his entire world sideways in two weeks.
The unfair part was that he didn’t want it turned back.
He glanced at her. She was looking out the passenger-side window. Watching the coastline roll by.
The sunlight caught strands of hair the wind had escaped from her ponytail. He wondered what she was thinking.
Probably ornaments. Probably contingency plans. Probably lawsuits and insurance and vendors.
His thoughts weren’t nearly that professional. Raleigh wasn’t that far away. Four hours. Maybe five if traffic was bad.
People commuted farther than that for things they cared less about. Not impossible. Difficult. Different things.
The compass rested in his pocket. He rubbed his thumb against the worn edge through the fabric.
