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Eventually, I stepped back and said, “Fine. I believe you.”
She started when I moved, and it took her a few seconds to register what I said. Then, she frowned doubtfully. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah. As I said, I’m not a murderer, and if you say your dad never left you anything, then I believe you.” I flashed the pocketknife again, playing with it distractedly as I added, “It goes without saying, though, that you’re fired. I don’t really take kindly to people stealing from me.”
She stood there for a few seconds, her eyes trying to scan for a good reading of my mood. Then, she swallowed, nodded, and left without saying anything else.
I watched her retreat, immediately guessing where she was going.
I hadn’t accidentally dropped the knowledge about the will, nor had it been a mistake for me to let her go. Everything that happened had been calculated to bring her to this point.
I had told her the truth, though. I wasn’t going to hurt her no matter what, and it seemed she was determined to protect the cop’s ass, although God knew why. Maybe she was in love with him or something, as annoying as the idea was.
Either way, the straightforward way wasn’t likely to work with her.
So I had to make her lead me to the letter herself.
I placed the call about two minutes after she left, and Ferro picked up on the first ring.
“You on her tail?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “But I don’t think she’s heading home.”
“I know.” I already knew she wouldn’t be. Her aim right now would be two things…heading to get the letter from where she’d stashed it and getting out of town.
She probably would also be trying to contact her cop boyfriend, but that would require her to get a phone. I already checked her bag and knew she only carried one phone and didn’t grab another before she entered the cab.
Her priority would be the letter.
And I already knew the letter wasn’t at her house. I had my men check thoroughly this morning, and I even went there myself to make sure they didn’t leave any stone unturned.
I sat in the middle of her bedroom while they searched, and I tried to gather more information about her based on what I observed.
And from what I saw, there wasn’t much.
Literally. She kept her living space sparse, with not much in terms of knick-knacks or mementos. No picture of herself or anyone else, not even her so-called cop boyfriend. Not her mother or father either. No decoration. And barely unpacked.
It was like anyone at all could have owned this apartment, and it showed no personality. It could have belonged to an eighty-year-old grandmother or a twenty-year-old college student.
Could she not afford to decorate? Or did she not like to form attachments to objects or aesthetics?
There was something I noticed, though, and it was that she was obsessively clean and organized. Almost OCD. Kinda like me.
That and she kept most of her important things on the left side of the bed. She had a Bible there for some reason, which was odd because I never got the impression that she was religious at all.
I flipped through it and saw that some parts were circled and underlined, particularly verses that spoke about deep suffering and being cared for. Interesting. I’d never given any thought to how she lived. I knew her dad was never around, but I thought her mom was okay. Now, I wasn’t sure.
But from what I understood, her mother was currently going on tour with some second-rate band members, leaving her in one of the towns.
That had to be rough.
“Find anything?” I asked my men after the search was over, and they shook their heads. Just as I thought. If she had the letter, she probably wouldn’t be stupid enough to keep it here.
That was if she even had it. At the time, I was still only about sixty percent sure that she did.
But right now, as she headed somewhere after we interacted, I was even more sure she had the letter. She ran out of the shop, and she wasn’t heading home to get any of her things. Which meant there was something more important, and I was now eighty percent sure she had the letter.
“Stay on her,” I said to Ferro and hung up. It was time for me to carry out the next step of my plan.
