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“I wanted to surprise her.”
“And was she?”
“Yeah, but not in a bad way.” I paused, staring down the long hallway, the master bedroom visible through the open door. Which I remembered was closed back then. We never closed the bedroom door.
“What is it?” Nikko pushed, eyes intense. “No matter how small, it could be useful.”
“The bedroom door was closed.”
“That was unusual?”
I nodded. “And Piper… She was…uneasy.”
“Uneasy?” His brows creased. “Uneasy how?”
“It’s hard to explain, but I remember thinking she was a little jumpy.” I blinked, my stomach roiling slightly. “I blamed it on my jet lag. But her behavior was…off. Especially when I kissed her.” The more I spoke, the clearer the picture in my head became. “She only halfheartedly returned it. I’d just come home after being promoted to the majors. Not to mention it was the first time she’d seen me since I pitched that no-hitter…”
Nikko nodded, needing no further explanation. Everyone knew about the famous no-hitter I threw that made me one of the most sought-after players in all of baseball. I was brought up to pitch one game in the majors when the scheduled pitcher was injured. The managers repeatedly told me that no matter what happened, no matter how I did, I’d be sent back down after the game. That I wouldn’t be staying.
They didn’t expect me to throw a no-hitter, though. So after two days of intense negotiations between my agent and team management, I was officially promoted.
“Piper acted like it was any other day,” I continued. “Like I hadn’t just told her I’d finally achieved the one thing I’d worked my ass off for my entire life.”
“What happened next? If I remember correctly, according to your statement, you took a nap.”
“In the rental unit downstairs.”
“Why didn’t you nap in the master bedroom?”
“She claimed she was in the middle of reorganizing the closet and the bedroom was a mess. In her defense, she wasn’t expecting me home for three more days. Still, the door was closed, which she never did. She fostered all those kittens. They tended to not like closed doors.”
“Do you think she was hiding something? You said she was jumpy, acted uneasy. Do you think maybe—”
“I don’t know,” I barked at him, tugging at my hair. “All right? I don’t fucking know.”
“Okay,” he responded evenly, ignoring my outburst.
I always marveled at his ability to remain so calm, even when delving into personal territory. This was his sister we were talking about. Yet his demeanor didn’t change, remained professional. He often said that sometimes you had no choice but to keep an even head if you wanted to catch the bad guys. I assumed the same was true here.
“Let’s move on. You often rented out the in-law apartment as a vacation rental, correct?”
“It was typically booked all year long.”
It was the perfect setup for two people just starting out who’d achieved some success — Piper as a professional surfer, me in baseball. But we were still making our way. Being able to rent out the bottom level of the house, especially since we were only a few blocks from the beach, helped us financially.
“But it wasn’t that week?”
I shook my head. “She never rented it out during the All-Star Break, since I was always home. It was nice to have the privacy.”
“And the in-law apartment had a separate entrance, correct?”
“Yes. And its own driveway on the side of the house. There’s a door separating the downstairs unit from this one with a lock on only one side, like adjoining rooms in a hotel.”
I walked through the living area and toward the door to the far left. Taking the set of keys from Nikko, I put one into the deadbolt and turned, opening the door to show him.
“What happened next?” Nikko asked. Thankfully, he didn’t ask me to go down those stairs. I doubted I could.
“Piper called down as I was getting settled. Said she needed to run to the store and pick up a few things for dinner. Then she left.”
