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Deciding it was best to wait until he arrived, I said, “We’ll be here.”
Ten minutes later, Pax arrived.
Lamise was a bit worked up, so the minute he was inside, she asked, “Did you see Henry there this morning?”
Pax shook his head. “No. But there were a couple of shady characters there. I watched one guy sit down on an empty bench for a few minutes, and when he got up, he left a plastic bag behind. From the distance, I couldn’t make out exactly what it was, but then another guy walked up barely thirty seconds later, sat for no more than five minutes, and took the plastic bag with him when he walked away.”
“Drugs?” I questioned him.
He nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking. It could be nothing, but I figured it was worth having Lamise check them out, in case either of them happened to be the guy she saw with Henry. I managed to take a couple pictures without anyone noticing, since it probably looked like I was just taking photos of my dogs.”
My eyes went to Lamise. “Do you think you’d remember him if you saw him?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
A moment later, Pax pulled up the photos on his phone. Lamise looked at them, zoomed in on a few, and finally shook her head. “They don’t look familiar,” she murmured as she moved to hand the phone back.
But just as Pax reached for the phone, Lamise yanked it back. “That’s the same bag.”
“What?”
“The backpack that guy is carrying is the same one Graham always had. In fact, I remember about two months before he died, there was a whole situation. He told me he’d forgotten the backpack at the dog park, and it had his wallet in it. He had to replace his license and credit cards. It was a nightmare.”
My eyes shot to Pax’s. “I was going to say this might not be worth sticking our noses into, since they didn’t look familiar, but I’m thinking we might want to keep our eye on these guys.”
“Oh, my God. Do you think these are the men who killed him?” Lamise started to panic.
I moved closer to her, wrapped one arm around her, and said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One thing at a time. Pax and I will do some work on this today, and if there’s anything that requires additional investigative work, we’ll bring Blaze in on it.”
She dropped her gaze to the ground and began shifting back and forth on her feet. “Drugs. I can’t believe he was doing something related to drugs.”
“Lamise?” I called.
She froze, the tension evident in her shoulders. Eventually, she brought her eyes to mine. “Yeah?”
“Don’t do this to yourself,” I advised. “There’s no indication there’s any link between these guys and Graham. I understand the backpack leads you to believe that’s the case, but until we have concrete proof, don’t assume the worst.”
Her bottom lip trembled, the sight of it breaking my heart. “But what if the worst ends up being the case?”
“Then we’ll deal with it together,” I promised her.
She nodded her understanding, redirecting her attention elsewhere, but offered no verbal response.
I shifted my focus to Pax. “Was there anything else?”
Offering a sympathetic look, he answered, “That was all. I’m going to head back into the office now.”
“Alright. I’ll be there shortly.”
“See you later. Sorry to have upset you this morning, Lamise. It wasn’t my intention.”
She shook her head. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Pax. Thank you for the work you’re doing to attempt to locate Henry and figure out what happened to Graham.”
He offered a nod in return. “You’re welcome.”
Once Paxton left, I returned to the living room, where I found Lamise on the floor, her focus on my son. Rhys was oblivious to everything that had happened this morning, and if there was one thing I could be happy about, it was that.
I crossed the room and sat down on the floorwith them. Rhys began crawling toward me, something he was getting better and better at every day.
