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It was Harris’s turn to look down at the phone. “So, you think this is David?”
“I don’t know—” Cassie broke off when the waitress arrived with their check.
“Thanks.” Harris beamed as she handed over her card and sent the server away again.
Cassie barely had a chance to reach into her purse. “I could’ve paid for my own.”
Harris waved her away. “Are you sure it’s not David?”
“I’m not sure of anything.” Cassie took another sip of water. “But I do think it’s weird I saw someone covered in shadow in New Orleans, and now here I am seeing another shadow in Chicago.”
“There’s no reason to not think it’s him.” She leaned forward. “We’re investigating his murder. It would make sense.”
Cassie regretted even bringing it up. Harris wouldn’t listen to reason now. “Adelaide—”
“We have to go back.” The fire in Harris’s eyes battled against the tears that had gathered in the corners. “We have to make sure.”
7
The streets in this neighborhood were at least starting to look familiar. Cassie still had no idea where she was in Chicago—though she did remember seeing the sign for Market Street—but she trusted Harris to get them where they needed to go. The detective didn’t even use her phone to navigate, and Cassie couldn’t figure out if she’d memorized their route prior to coming to the city or if she just knew Chicago as well as she knew Savannah.
Harris barely put the car in park before she swung open her door and marched toward the shop. Ca
ssie jogged to keep up, unbuttoning her jacket in anticipation of feeling the invisible tendrils of flame licking at her skin. But as they got closer, the sensation never arrived.
The detective stopped when she got to the back door. It was wide open.
“Didn’t we close it?” Cassie asked. Their brisk walk had caused the question to come out through gasps.
Harris pulled out the gun she’d hidden under her jacket at the back of her waistband. “Stay behind me.”
“Where did you get that?” Cassie hissed. “Aren’t you suspended?”
“This one’s mine,” Harris said with a fondness in her voice. “Not police-issued.”
Cassie wasn’t sure how that made her feel. She was no stranger to guns or gunfights at this point, but she didn’t love the idea of being caught in the middle of yet another standoff. She trusted Harris with her life, but Cassie admitted the detective’s one-track mind concerned her.
Harris didn’t wait for Cassie’s approval. She slipped into the building with her gun ready, but not fully raised. As an off-duty cop in a different city—in a different state—breaking and entering with a loaded weapon could be grounds for serious disciplinary action. Not just here, but also back home.
Cassie only hesitated for a few seconds before following Harris inside. She expected to be hit with the same wall of heat she had felt earlier, but the shop was as cold as the outside. Was it because the door had been left open? Had the cold air seeped inside, or had whatever caused the heat finally escaped?
Whatever it was, Cassie didn’t have time to explore her options. She flattened herself against the wall and followed in Harris’s footsteps. Her eyes darted around the room and her ears strained to hear anything out of the ordinary. The front room didn’t look any different than it had before. And it was still dead silent.
Still, the air felt like it had shifted in the last hour. Cassie couldn’t put her finger on it, let alone find the words to describe it to Harris. The cold penetrated her sweatshirt, so she buttoned her coat against it, confused, grateful, and a little disappointed that whatever had been here before was now gone.
Harris made her way along the wall and turned into the room on the right. Cassie peeked her head in and noticed the metal desk and chair were gone. “It was empty, though,” she whispered. Harris held a finger to her lips and kept moving.
The room ahead was also empty. The remaining filing cabinets were gone, including the one the shadow had been standing beside. Harris cleared the room, then lowered her weapon. She turned back to Cassie. “Anything?”
Cassie pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the general area where the cabinet had been. When she looked down, there was no shadow. Not even a suspicious dust particle floating through the air. Cassie shook her head. “Nothing. The shadow’s either gone or—”
“Was tied to that filing cabinet.” Harris started for the doorway. “We need to find out where it went.”
“Wait, Adelaide.” Cassie was nervous, and not just because someone had been here while they were at lunch. An absence in the building set her on edge. “We don’t even know if it was important. Or related to this case.”
“You’re right, we don’t know.” She looked over her shoulder at Cassie. “So, we need to find out.”
Cassie opened her mouth to respond—to say what, she wasn’t sure—when they heard the back door to the store open again. Male voices infiltrated the room, and before Cassie could comprehend what was happening, Harris had pushed her around the corner and against the wall with one arm and raised her weapon with the other.
