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The tension that had been wrapped around my chest all day dissipated. As much as I would’ve loved to have been her hero, I was honestly more grateful she hadn’t needed one. A strange, insistent urge to reach out and take her fingers, just to squeeze them supportively, enveloped me. But I shut that shit down by facing the road again and concentrating on where I was driving.
Gabby continued to face me, though, turning in her seat and bringing one foot up in order to tuck it under her so she could hug her knee to her chest as she talked with cheerful animation.
“I swear,” she went on. “She must’ve given him a strip tease show or something on the kitchen island.”
“Okay, enough.” Grimacing, I lifted my hand again. “That’s more detail than I ever wanted to know about my mother.”
Gabby sent me a devilish grin. “She left a bra dangling from the coffee machine, and I cleaned what looked like a shoe’s scuff mark from the countertop, and…” Trailing off, she squinted at me. “Does Lana do cocaine?”
Eyebrows shooting upward, I glanced over. “Say what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. There was some powdery, white residue from something on the countertop, but it was too chunky to be baking soda or powdered sugar.” Tipping her face to the side in deep thought, she asked, “Is cocaine chunky?”
I could only blink, not at all expecting this turn in the conversation before I answered, “I have no idea.”
“Oh.” Gabby seemed to think that through before she brightened. “Or maybe Lana was so enthusiastic in her strip dance that she somehow bumped the tiled ceiling and some of it flaked off and dusted the counter.” With a nod, she finished, “Yeah. That sounds more feasible. Because the way she left the bedroom—”
“For fuck’s sake!” I growled, sending her a harassed glance. “Can you please stop putting that image in my head? I don’t give a shit if my mother strip dances in her kitchen for some asshole who’s probably younger than me, but I certainly don’t want to picture it, either. I’m already fucked up enough as it is, thank you.”
Gabby laughed and lifted her hands in surrender. “Okay, fine. I’ll stop harassing you about that. In other news, I found absolutely nothing involving wills or any kind of legal paperwork.”
“No paperwork at all?” I asked suspiciously. “Or not unusual, out-of-place-looking paperwork.”
“None at all,” Gabby complained. “I mean, how is that even possible? We have bills, and flyers, and receipts, and schoolwork piled up everywhere at our place.”
“Lana’s always been fastidiously clean about her paperwork.”
“Well, she has to keep it somewhere,” Gabby argued. “I mean, in a filing cabinet, or a desk, or hell, an office. But I found nothing.”
“Maybe she keeps everything in her office at JFI,” I murmured, frowning over that thought. How was I going to get past her alarm system to sneak back into her office and check there again? “
Maybe it’s a waste of time to have you search her apartment.”
“Meh.” Gabby shrugged. “I’m getting paid either way, so trust me, it’s not a waste of my time. Just give me another couple days. I’m sure something will turn up.”
Nodding, I grew pensive.
In another couple of days, I would be talking to the detective at the police department about Finley. And if he acted before I could find something concrete against Lana, she might get jumpy, lawyer up, destroy any evidence she had against herself, and slip the noose. That was a risk I didn’t want to take.
We needed to find something sooner.
“So…” Gabby removed her sucker from her mouth and drew me from my thoughts by asking, “How was your day? Busy and hectic or pretty laid-back?”
I glanced at her, confused. The last time someone had asked me how my day had gone had been—shit, I couldn’t even remember how long it’d been.
Had anyone ever asked about my day?
I was so thrown by the question that the answer eluded me at first. “Well…” I started, fumbling like an idiot who’d forgotten how to talk. “We, uh, we have a presentation this Friday to decide which designs will go into our spring lineup. So every department’s been working around the clock to complete their portfolios to show to the two heads, which means, it’s been hectic, I guess.”
Gabby nodded, taking in my answer before saying, “Cool. Which department are you in charge of?”
I glanced at her, lifting my eyebrows. “What makes you think I’m in charge of any department?”
With a laugh, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re way too cocky and sure of yourself not to be in charge of something.”
I had to chuckle at her answer before I said, “Shoes. I head the Shoes department.”
“Shoes?” She wrinkled her nose as if surprised by that. “Okay, I never would’ve guessed Shoes.”
