Chapter 3
As soon as she finished eating, Rebel asked the waitress for a piece of paper. The waitress came back with a small notepad. Rebel thanked her and wrote down all the pertinent information on Tammy. Address, phone number and her mom’s number. That was enough data for these guys to start a search for Tammy for the time being. Then she started in on Daniel. By the time she was done, she was on another cup of coffee, and the men waited for the pieces of paper to come their way.
Rebel put down her pen and said, “That’s what I know.”
“It’s more than we had.”
She nodded. “How do I get a hold of you guys if I find out anything else?”
“Let us look for Daniel from now on,” Stone said. “We don’t want you to get in any trouble. Possibly both disappeared for completely different reasons. But, most likely, Tammy was taken because of her association with Daniel. If that’s the case, we don’t want you getting involved.”
“Trouble?” She frowned at him. “You don’t think Daniel did something to Tammy?”
“Not at this point. There are a lot of other options, some of which we have not considered yet.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “That may be, but I still need a way to contact you in the event anything comes up.”
Stone glanced at Saul, who pulled out his phone, clicked on his number and held it up for her to see. Rebel grabbed her phone and added him to Contacts.
“And your number is?” Saul asked.
She gave it to him, then stood. “Okay, I’ve done everything I can here. I’m heading home to get some sleep.” When she was halfway across the restaurant, she turned and called back, “Thanks for lunch.” She disappeared out the front door.
On the sidewalk, she stopped and considered her options. She had left her vehicle parked behind Daniel’s apartment. But she had connected with all the neighbors on the same floor as Daniel’s apartment, except for one. She hoped one of those residents might have seen Daniel.
The manager had been no help. He’d refused to give her any information about Daniel or Tammy. She understood his position, but, if Daniel had moved out or not paid his rent for the next month, the manager could’ve said something about that. The more she thought about that, the more it upset her. A sure way to hide yourself, thirty days before anybody came looking for you, was to pay your rent, move out ahead of time and get reestablished somewhere else. Saul and his buddies might think Daniel was innocent, but she wasn’t so sure.
It took her twenty minutes to walk back to the apartment building. She checked that her car was still there; then she went back inside, up to Daniel’s floor. The crime scene tape was new. And gave her a woozy feeling. If something had happened to Daniel how was she going to find Tammy? She knocked again on the one apartment where she hadn’t managed contact with its residents. This time she got a young woman. Rebel asked the same questions, adding the question about seeing Daniel moving.
The woman laughed. “Friday night he was moving boxes out of his place.”
“Oh, you spoke with him?”
“No, I spoke with his friend. His friend said Daniel was pulling a late-night job of it because he was leaving without giving notice.”
“You didn’t actually see him that night though, did you?”
The woman frowned and stared at her. “I’m not sure I did. I saw boxes of stuff coming out of his apartment, but it was his friend who I saw.”
“Any idea what his friend looked like?” asked a male voice behind her.
She spun around and glared at Saul, standing a little too close to be a stranger and a little too far away to be a lover.
The woman smiled at Saul. “Blond, looked like a surfer.” She laughed at that. “Same as almost any male in San Diego. I’d say late twenties, but that’s about as close as I can get. He was strong because he carried several big boxes out at a time, and he moved fast.”
“Like he was in a hurry?” she asked.
The neighbor nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what it looked like.” In the apartment behind her a child screamed. She hurriedly stepped back in. “Sorry, I have to go.” And she shut the door.
Rebel turned to look at Saul and found the other men lined up behind him. “Why are you guys here again?”
“Why are you here again?” Saul laughed.
“I’m here because I’m looking for Tammy.”
“And we’re here looking for Daniel.”
She glared at Saul. “Fine.”
“At least now we know somebody saw Daniel’s apartment being emptied out on Friday night.” Saul looked to Stone. “I suggest we make a quick search. Confirm what Benji saw. See if anything’s different.”
Stone was already on his way over. He pulled something from his back pocket while she watched. Within seconds Daniel’s door was open, crime scene tape hanging off the side. She raced forward. No way they were going in without her. She slipped past Stone and stepped into the apartment first, raising her nose, sniffing. “Bleach.”
Silence followed.
She turned to look at them, voicing the horror of what instantly jumped to her mind. “So did Tammy die here or did Daniel?”
Saul shook his head. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
She wrapped her arms around her chest and surveyed the empty space. The apartment was decent with bright lights. As far as she could see, it was completely empty. The kitchen had tile flooring, and the rest of the apartment had laminate wood flooring throughout. It would probably take forensic testing to prove any blood was left here. She walked to the master bedroom and bathroom. There was nothing left to find, and there was no indication Tammy had even been here or that anybody had met a disastrous fate in this space. She shook her head. “Where the hell has he gone then?”
“We’ll find out. Just give us a little bit of time.”
“How long have you been looking for him?”
Saul looked at his watch and said, “About three hours. That’s when we arrived in California.”
Her jaw dropped. “You came to California to find him?”
All four men nodded. “Benji is our friend. We never leave a friend in need.”
“Lucky Benji.” She shook her head. “I wish I had had someone to help me find Tammy.” She walked in the second bedroom and into the other bathroom. She bent down and opened the bathroom doors underneath the sink. It was clean. She pulled open the drawers on the side, hoping maybe something got missed. But even the garbage cans had been emptied. Though the drawers were empty, they hadn’t been wiped. “If he left in a hurry he did a good basic cleaning job but didn’t get to all the details,” she announced.
She got up and walked over to the kitchen where she opened all the cupboards to find anything left behind. People always seemed to leave things in the back of the kitchen drawers. She pulled them out and, sure enough, found some loose paper clips and staples in one drawer. She studied them for a long moment but knew they’d have absolutely nothing to offer in the way of information.
By the time she was done, she was frustrated and angry. “This was my only hope to find a lead to Tammy. I don’t even know where to look now,” she cried out.
“Any fingerprints of her here won’t help because she stayed here,” Saul said, turning to look at her. “Have you checked Tammy’s apartment to see if there’s any sign of Daniel there?”
She nodded. “Yes, I checked her apartment as soon as she went missing and found nothing there.”
“But what if Daniel has gone there since then? Knowing she was missing, that left her apartment available to hide in for a day or two.”
She liked that idea. “I’ll go now and check.”
“Wait.”
Already on her way to the front door, she spun and looked at him. “What?”
“I’ll come with you,” Saul said. “Let them finish what they’re doing here. Then they can follow us.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. Just don’t slow me down.” And she raced back into the hallway.
Instead of waiting for the elevator, she took the stairs. Downstairs she burst outside, heading toward her car. Before she could get the driver’s door open, Saul was already at the passenger side, waiting for her to unlock it. She shot him a look.
He grinned. “You said, don’t slow you down.”
He seemed awfully good at sticking close. She was a little worried about having him in her vehicle, but, although he was big and muscled, she didn’t feel threatened.
She quickly reversed her car from the parking lot and pulled into traffic.
“We’re about ten to fifteen minutes away,” she said.
“That’s fine.” He pulled out his phone and spent the rest of the drive on it, instead of socializing with Rebel.
It was kind of a relief and also an irritant. She kept glancing at him as he sent message after message. “So you’re sending a text to your girlfriend that you’ll be out of town?”
“Nope. Got no girlfriend. This is all business.”
That had been cheeky of her to ask about a girlfriend, but getting his answer made her feel much better. Still, that she’d even asked was a surprise. Just because a gorgeous male sat beside her, it didn’t mean he was available in any way, shape or form, or that she was even interested. She had a lot more things on her mind than that. All she had to do was think about what happened to Tammy—who wouldn’t listen to her advice about Daniel—to make Rebel want to stop and kick this man out of her car. But there was absolutely no comparison between Daniel and Saul. At least none that she could tell in the last couple hours that she’d known Saul.
She pulled up in front of Tammy’s apartment and hopped out.
Saul got out, looked at the location and the big trees down the street and smiled. “Nice area.”
“It is. She’s lived here for about six years.”
She led the way inside and up to the top floor. At the first apartment, she knocked with her ear against the door, but no sound came from inside, so Rebel pulled Tammy’s key from her pocket, inserted it and carefully pushed open the door. As she went forward, Saul grabbed her shoulder, placing a finger on her lips. With one eyebrow raised, she stepped back and let him go in first.
*
Saul stepped forward, listening intently to see if they were alone. He couldn’t hear or see anyone, but that didn’t mean somebody wasn’t hiding within. He stepped into the feminine space and smiled to see the purple rubber duck sitting on the mantel. A lot of personality was in this apartment. He did a quick walk-through, making sure it was all empty. He didn’t have any reason to believe there would be an intruder, but, with two people missing, he couldn’t be careful enough. He didn’t want somebody like Rebel to take a walk and for nobody to see her again either.
After his quick search, he came back and nodded. “It looks to be clear.”
The other three men came up the hallway as Rebel walked in. He motioned at them and said, “It’s empty.”
They walked in, splitting up in the different parts of the apartment to search. He chose the bedroom, heading straight for the night table. He opened the drawers and pulled out a notebook.
Rebel stood in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for answers. Looking for where she might be or who she may be with. Looking for clues to see if she was taken against her will.”
“By going through her personal possessions?”
He heard the shocked embarrassment and anger for her friend.
He turned to look at her. “Do you believe she’s missing?”
Rebel nodded.
“Then this is what we have to do. So get over your embarrassment, over that sense of violation and intrusion, and realize what we’re doing will help her, not because I have any voyeuristic wish to read her diary.”
She stepped closer. “Sorry. It’s just the shock of seeing you head straight for the night table. She always kept her personal stuff there.”
“Which is exactly why I am here. Does she have a laptop? What about her cell phone?”
“Her laptop is here. She has a cell phone, but it’s going straight to voice mail.”
“Can you check the apartment for her phone, maybe call it while you’re here, to see if it’s been left behind?”
She pulled out her phone and called. They listened, both tilting their heads to the side to hear better. She got no answer, and no ringing sound could be heard in the apartment.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Saul said. “Her phone battery could be dead.” He glanced at Rebel as he rummaged through the night table. “You know if she has a diary, besides this notebook, or an address book?”
She shook her head. “Everything’s on her laptop or maybe her tablet.”
He nodded. “Where’s the tablet?”
Rebel spun around in a slow circle. “I …” She went to the other night table and checked. Then she went to the dresser, opening the top drawer. “It’s not here. I’ll look in the living room, but she might have taken it to Daniel’s with her. It was just for personal use so I’m not sure it’s an issue.”
He nodded. He did a quick search of the other night table. Not a whole lot was here. He found a journal, but the last entry was over a year ago. It was interesting reading about Daniel and how angry she was when she found out he was messing with her coding at work. Saul hung on to the diary, went to the closet for a quick examination, then to the dresser. So far nothing was out of the ordinary, and nothing gave any indication of a struggle, and there was certainly no suicide note. So far it was as if she just got up, walked out and never came back. The closets and dresser were full of clothes.
He headed back to the kitchen, then realized he’d forgotten to check the bathroom. He gave it a quick search but didn’t find anything. He walked out to find Stone sitting at the kitchen table with the laptop open and on. “Is there a password on it?”
Stone nodded. “Of course there is. She’s in IT. But the password was way too easy.”
“What’s way too easy?” Rebel asked.
Stone looked up, gave her a glimmer of a smile. “The password.” The men turned and looked at him. Stone shrugged. “Too often people use the same password at work and at home.”
“She used to have complicated ones,” Rebel said in defense of her friend. “But then she had a problem a couple years back with her mother who couldn’t remember her password to get into her laptop to take care of some banking. Since then, on her personal devices, Tammy stuck with one password her mother could remember.”
Stone nodded. “I’ve seen things like that happen before too.”
“Anything of interest?”
“Lots of emails back and forth between her and Daniel. They were planning to spend the weekend together. Nothing out of the ordinary, providing this email came from Daniel.”
Saul turned at the sudden silence beside him.
Rebel stared at Stone. “Meaning, she could’ve been led to believe this was her old relationship coming together, only all these emails may not have been coming from Daniel?” She shook her head. “No. That doesn’t make any sense. She was with Daniel a lot at work.”
“Were you privy to the conversations they had at work?” Merk asked.
She shook her head. “No. But she told me how he’d been a lot friendlier.”
“Probably not on the same level,” Dakota said. “It’s possible she was lured somewhere else after leaving Daniel’s in a huff.”
She plunked down at the kitchen table. “But, if that’s the case, how do we find her?”
Saul lifted his gaze. “We can only follow the breadcrumbs. What we find at the end of the pathway, nobody can tell. Keep the faith, and we’ll do what we can.” He faced Stone. “Can you track the email?”
“Already working on it. It’s a sophisticated system. Then they are both computer geeks.”
“Is it beyond you?”
Stone shot Saul a look. “Talk like that will get you in trouble.”
Saul smiled. “Not trying to insult you, just wanted to make sure we don’t need to bring in somebody else for it.”
“There may not be anything here to find.”
“Ice can check her bank activity from two Fridays ago and thereafter. She’s already checked hotels up and down the coast. No evidence she made a reservation though. We’ll have to find out from Ice if Tammy’s credit cards had any action.”
Saul stepped away and called Ice. He explained where they were and what Stone had found.
Ice confirmed, “No bank activity and no action on either of her credit cards.”
“That’s not good.”
“It’s not necessarily bad either. If I took off, the last thing I’d do is use my cards. It would be too easily traceable. Much better to go with cash and apply for new cards when you got yourself set up in a new location.”
“True enough. I can’t connect with Benji either.”
“Benji is now overseas. He shipped out this afternoon before you landed.”
“Explains why he never answered his calls.”
“Find out what you can and call me tonight. It’d be nice to have something to report.”
“Unfortunately, right now, we don’t have anything. Daniel’s been missing for a couple days, and this woman Tammy has been missing for a week longer. Her last known whereabouts was at Daniel’s apartment with him. However, one of the neighbors at Daniel’s place did say she saw somebody taking boxes from Daniel’s apartment on Friday night. Apparently he was moving quickly. She did not see anybody else and, when questioned further, couldn’t determine if Daniel had been there.”
“So it’s quite possible somebody went in and cleaned out his apartment to make it look like he’d moved.”
“There could be all kinds of reasons for this but, yes, it’s been cleaned out. And, as Rebel stated when she walked in, there was a strong smell of bleach.”
Ice sighed. “I can check again with the local PD on the case. Maybe they will give us a few details. I did a run on Daniel’s car. It was towed from outside his apartment in a no parking zone. I haven’t found any property under his name yet. Also no hits on the credit cards. If someone stole them they haven’t used them yet.”
“Don’t tell Benji.”
“I won’t be telling Benji anything until we get some proof. He’s likely to go off half-cocked, tearing the town apart, looking for his brother when he returns stateside.”
“Daniel’s had a pretty rough life. But he was improving. According to Benji, he had a lot of hope that his brother was turning his life around since his son was born four years ago.”
Ice sighed heavily. “Let’s hope we find both people soon.” Just like that she hung up—in total Ice style.