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It was probably a coincidence. I hoped it was a coincidence.
Shrugging off my uneasiness as well as I could, I flagged down a cab and gave the driver the address of the old mall on the other side of town.
Jay had just been a grunt worker. He’d had no stake in the bakery. Scarlett had owned the electronics store where I’d talked to her last time, as far as I knew. Noelle had said she’d worked there for years, usually on her own. She couldn’t just flake out and not bother to show up.
She’d know more about the household than Jay would have too.
I had the cabbie stop a couple of blocks away from the mall, handed him a good chunk of my remaining cash, and meandered along the street toward the low building while giving the area a careful scan.
No one I passed looked like anything other than a regular pedestrian who didn’t give a crap about me. I didn’t notice any new cameras mounted nearby or other signs of surveillance. Even if I’d missed them, nothing about my appearance right now should tip anyone off to my identity.
I ambled through the dingy mall haphazardly, as if I didn’t have any particular destination. Just window shopping, whatever the hell that really meant. But when I came into view of the electronics shop, my stomach knotted.
All the other stores were still open. The mall didn’t close up until well into the evening. But Scarlett’s shop was fully shuttered—not like she’d just stepped out for a moment. Like she’d closed up for the day.
Swinging past it as close as I dared, I noted the faint dusting of grit along the bottom of the shutters where it’d been sprayed by last night’s cleaning crew working over the floors. She hadn’t opened up at all today, at least. Possibly the shop had been closed for longer.
The memory wavered up of the way she’d talked when I’d come to her store last week, the edge of nervousness in her voice and body language. I’d wondered who she was worried about.
Maybe she’d been right to worry. Jay and Scarlett—that couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
I kept my pace casual as I headed back toward the mall entrance, careful not to draw any attention, but my heart was thudding. When I’d made it several blocks from the building, I stopped and dragged in a deep breath. My pulse kept racing on.
The last two people I’d had contact with outside of the crew were missing. What had happened to them—and had it happened because of me?
