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He stepped around her and went down the steps and into the driveway, staring at the garage door which was shut tight. There was a gate leading down the side of the garage to the backyard, and Nico poked his head over the gate and stood on tiptoe. Technically, they weren’t allowed on the property without an invitation, a warrant, or probable cause that a crime was being committed.
“The garage is empty,” Nico reported. “Her car is gone.” Lacey remembered back to the other morning when they’d interviewed Sandra. She’d noticed the garage door had been up that day, and a little white Subaru was nestled inside.
“She could’ve popped to the shops. Or have a doctor’s appointment.” Lacey ticked off any number of reasons that Sandra Brown wasn’t home. But she could see by the look in Nico’s eyes that his gut feeling was telling him something was off. And she agreed with him. “Do you think she’s avoiding us? She never mentioned she might be going out of town,” she said, but Nico didn’t seem to be listening. He looked like he might be about to clamber over the side gate instead. Lacey opened her mouth to caution him, but was drowned out by the squeal of tires as a four-wheel drive ute pulled into the driveway.
She stared at Taj Brown through the windshield in the driver’s seat, her back against the garage door, while he gaped open-mouthed back at her. Clearly he hadn’t seen her until he pulled into the driveway. He’d almost hit her. Why was he in such a hurry?
“What are you doing here?” he demanded as he exited the truck.
“I could ask you the same thing?” Nico was suddenly between her and the young man.
She watched a number of emotions flicker across Taj’s face as he stood with his car door ajar staring at these two cops in his mother’s driveway. She could almost see the cogs turning in his mind as he tried to decide his next course of action.
“I got a text from my mum,” he said finally. “It worried me.”
Okay. What did that mean? Lacey kept her mouth shut, as did Nico, knowing that silence was often the best way to put someone off-balance and keep them talking.
“I need to see if she’s at home,” he said, turning his back on them and making his way to the front door. They could already tell him that she wasn’t home, but she followed Nico’s lead and shadowed the young man to the door.
“Do you think she’s in danger?” Nico asked right before Taj put the key in the door. He turned shocked blue eyes on the detective. “Should I go in first?” Nico clarified, putting his hand on his gun holster. Lacey reached instinctively for her own weapon, resting her hand on the catch of her gun holster, ready to release it in an instant if required.
“Oh, God. No.” Taj shook his head with urgency. “There’s no one in there holding her at gunpoint, if that’s what you mean.” Then he hesitated as he seemed to think of something else. “And she’s not a danger to me either, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Clearly, Nico was thinking exactly that as he peered suspiciously at the door.
“I think she may have done something…stupid. I need to make sure she’s okay,” he said finally. Whatever that meant. They watched as Taj opened the security door first.
“Do you mind if we come in?” Nico asked, hand still on his gun holster, eyes still fixed suspiciously on the wooden door as Taj turned the key in the lock and it swung open to reveal a darkened hallway. Taj merely shrugged, which Nico clearly took as an affirmative, because he followed the young man into the house, with Lacey hot on his heels.
“Mum, it’s me,” Taj called, switching on lights as he worked his way through the house. With all the curtains drawn, every room was dark. There was an eerie silence and Lacey already knew that Taj wouldn’t find his mother at home. But he kept calling, opening doors, and hollering for his mother, Nico and Lacey taking a slower perusal of the empty house, until they all finally met in the kitchen at the rear of the house.
“Fuck,” Taj swore loudly.
“Do you want to tell us what’s going on?” Nico said, standing up to his full height and towering over the young man.
“I don’t… Fuck,” Taj said again. He rubbed a hand across his face, and she could see the uncertainty in his face. “She said she was going to finish a job. That she would finally have peace of mind, after all these years.”
“Do you know what job she was referring to?” Lacey asked, pushing her way in front of Nico. Intimidation wasn’t going to work on this young lad, Nico needed to back off and let her talk to the guy.
“No.” But there was the light of sudden awareness in his eyes. “Maybe. I mean… Maybe I suspected. But I never really thought… Oh God.” He covered his eyes and bent over at the waist as if it was suddenly all too much to bear.
“What do you mean?” Lacey coaxed gently, laying a sympathetic hand on his arm. “What did you suspect?”
“In the shed out the back.” He stood and pointed toward a dilapidated wooden shed at the back of the yard. The roof looked to be made of wooden shingles, bowing badly in the middle, and what was left of the red paint was now peeling off in big chunks. Lacey was surprised to see how big the yard actually was. This was one of the older blocks that still allowed plenty of room for backyards when it’d been built.
“Do you want us to go and look in the shed?” Nico clarified.
The kid just nodded.
“With me” was all he said to Lacey. This time she did draw her weapon, as they went out the back door and down the three steps to the slightly overgrown garden. They stalked across the lawn toward the shed hunkered in the corner where the two fences met. Her entire concentration was on that shed. What was in there? What would they find? Was it a trap? Was someone hiding in there? Or would they find Sandra’s dead body? She had no idea, but she kept all her wild thoughts to herself and when Nico motioned that he was going to take the front and she should take the flank, she veered to her left where a small door bisected the shed halfway down the wooden slabbed side. She watched Nico approach the double doors at the front carefully, slowly. There was a window up high right beside the door, and she stood on tiptoe and peered inside. It was dim and dusty, with an earthen floor, but she could vaguely make out a large shape filling most of the space. A car perhaps. There was no sign of movement, and so she signaled to Nico. He slid back the bolt, and it made a rusty screeching sound that had them both flinching. Her heart was beating like a jackhammer. But still nothing moved, and so Nico threw back the double doors, at the same time as she reached for the doorknob and yanked. The old wooden door was stuck fast, and she had to give it two good kicks before it came loose and she could finally lever it open, terrified that Nico had gone inside without her.
But there he was, just standing in front of the large, bulky shape, holstering his gun. “It’s okay,” he told her. “There’s no one in here.”
She holstered her gun.
“Is it a car?” she asked, as he lifted the corner of the large, blue tarp.
A quick glance through the open doors back at the house told Lacey that it was possible to drive a car straight through the garage, as it wasn’t enclosed on this side. What was so dangerous about a car, she wondered? Unless… Perhaps they’d find Sandra’s body inside the car?
Nico threw back the tarp, uncovering half the car and filling the small shed with dust. Lacey walked around to the front to stand next to Nico.
