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I lifted the edge of the bed to look underneath, surprised when the weight suddenly lessened. Malcolm was lifting the corner of the mattress.
I didn’t find anything underneath on either side, nor under the pillows or covers. I got down on my knees to search under the bed, and Malcolm handed me his much better flashlight.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I took it and searched the floor, only finding a few dust bunnies. “Nothing.”
“The closet,” he said as I got to my feet. He walked over and slid a wooden door on tracks to the side. After handing back his flashlight, I searched between the hanging clothes and pockets, inside shoes and on top of the shelf.
“Nothing,” I said, my mouth twisted to the side. If Eddie was a pedophile, I would have expected to see something hinting at that, especially since he lived alone. “Did you see a computer or tablet anywhere?”
“Nope.”
“Me either. Did you see any place where he might have kept one? An empty spot surrounded by dust?”
“As clean as this place is, not likely. But I’ve seen him with a tablet at the tavern, though, so I know he has one.”
I looked up at him. “What if whoever took Eddie took the tablet too?”
“To see if he has photos of little kids?”
I grimaced. “Yeah.”
“Sounds logical to me, except they left his phone, but we’ve already established that they’re sloppy. Or it could have just been in his car.”
“Which is missing too.”
He shrugged, looking pissed, but I suspected he wasn’t angry about me or my questions.
I stepped back into the hall. “Did you see a door to a basement?”
“Nope. Pretty sure the house is built on a concrete slab.”
“Let’s check the attic.” I headed toward the kitchen. “The access is probably in the garage.”
The garage smelled faintly of gas and had shelves on one side covered in paint cans and various odds and ends. A quick search didn’t reveal anything useful, so I turned my attention to the nine-foot ceiling. A cord hung from a rectangular door, just out of reach over my head. Malcolm walked over and easily grabbed it and tugged it down. A fold-up ladder descended onto the concrete floor.
“You goin’ up?” he asked in a mischievous tone.
“Yep.” I started up, and he handed the flashlight back to me. It was skinny enough to hold while I climbed up. It occurred to me that I was wearing a dress and he was directly beneath me, holding the sides of the ladder. But it was dark, the skirt hung to just over my knees, and I was wearing underwear. More power to him if he got his thrills checking out my blue cotton panties covered in tiny flowers.
I shifted the flashlight when I started to emerge from the hole, shining it around the space and resisting the urge to sneeze. Pulling down the stairs must have disturbed dust in the unfinished attic space. Insulation was stuffed between the rafters, and from what I could tell, there wasn’t anything else.
“Nothing,” I said as I climbed down and handed the flashlight back to him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he slipped it out and read the screen. “Eddie drives a ten-year-old white Jeep Cherokee.” He snuck me a dark look. “Easy enough to stash someone in the back.”
“Don’t you think the LaRues would have had a plan for carrying him away if they did this?” I asked dubiously.
“The LaRues have two luxury sedans. The trunks are large enough to stash a body, but it would be easier to use the back of the SUV.”
I still hoped Casey’s parents weren’t involved, but they seemed more likely than Nate or Drew. “How would they know about his Jeep?”
“They would have seen his car in the parking lot after school,” Malcolm said.
Shit. I’d seen the SUV there, which meant Eddie had been there when I’d gone by the school earlier. I should have tried to go in and talk to him.
But something else caught my attention.
I narrowed my eyes. “How do you know they would have seen it?”
