Chapter 4
She’d done what she could. She didn’t know what else to do. She’d searched Daniel’s place. She’d searched Tammy’s place—twice now—finding it as empty and clean as Tammy always left it. There was no sign of her. Where could she be?
Stone worked on the laptop beside her at a table, while she slumped in Tammy’s chair. She’d spent many happy hours here with her friend, laughing and crying, going over all the things that made life so special between friends. She was desperate to get word as to what had happened to her best friend. She brought up her phone and dialed Tammy’s number. She glanced up and saw Saul watching her.
“What are they looking for?” she nodded at the two men intent on their computers.
“Other missing persons cases, other kidnappings in the area. They are looking for anything that might link to Daniel and Tammy’s disappearances.” He pulled out his phone. “I’m searching for pawn shops in the area. On the off chance whoever cleaned out Daniel’s apartment might have tried to make a few fast bucks.”
“And Dakota?”
He sighed. “Dakota got a hit on a couple of Jane Doe’s in the area. He went personally to check them out.”
At her cry of shock, he reached across and said, “He’s already checked in. Neither were Tammy.”
She stared at him wordlessly. None of this had even occurred to her to check out. She pulled out her phone and instinctively hit the redial button. Then winced. “I can’t stop trying to contact her. I keep hoping she’ll answer.”
Sitting beside Stone, Merk had his laptop open too and looked up. “What’s the number?” She ran it off to him, and he entered it into the laptop.
She watched with interest. “What are you doing?”
“Checking again for the last time that number was used and from where,” he said quietly, his fingers busy on the keyboard. “Which was from Daniel’s apartment. Two Fridays ago.”
“When she called to tell me that she was on her way home.” She leaned forward and stared at them—waiting for an answer. “Does that mean she was attacked at his apartment?”
“We don’t know that from this data,” Saul said quietly. “Only that her phone was last used at Daniel’s apartment.”
She settled back. “Right. Can you track it?”
Merk shook his head. “No, I can’t. Most smart phones can be, but hers is an older one. Either the tracking wasn’t installed, has been turned off or is corrupted.”
She nodded. “As far as I’m concerned, everyone should have GPS.”
“You can get apps to help as well.”
She nodded. They had confirmed something at least. Though not the answers she’d hoped for, it gave credence to the fact Tammy could have been attacked at Daniel’s apartment.
Merk looked up at her. “Was she nervous about taking buses?”
Rebel shook her head. “Tammy was a pro at buses, but I hated her taking them at night. I wanted to pick her up, but she was so distraught that she wouldn’t listen. Daniel should’ve seen her home safely.”
“But, if they were fighting, she probably would’ve refused his help.”
Rebel nodded. “That’s true.”
“Does she have any other friends she’d have gone to?” Saul asked. “Somebody who might have an apartment she could crash at or another place to just get away to for a bit as she got her head on straight?”
Rebel shook her head. “No, not that I know of.” Tammy would have contacted her mother regardless.
“Do you know if Daniel has a storage locker in his apartment building?”
Again she shook her head. “I don’t know. Tammy has a small one here in her building. But, after some flooding, she took everything out so the storage areas could be repaired, and she never bothered using it afterward.”
“Each tenant should have one. But we never thought to check.” Saul stood. “I’ll check Tammy’s, just to make sure. We can’t go back into Daniel’s apartment as the forensic team is either currently working or has sealed it off.”
Rebel nodded. “Fine, I’m coming too.”
She walked out of Tammy’s apartment with Saul to the elevator and down to the basement. She turned on the lights, showing Saul locker upon locker. Reading the numbers, she quickly led them to the back corner where Tammy’s storage area was. It was empty, as she’d said.
“I’ll go to Daniel’s apartment and check his.”
“May I come?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You stay here, in case Tammy turns up, or the guys find out something and need further information from you.” He pulled out his phone and called Merk, still upstairs in Tammy’s apartment. “I’m heading to Daniel’s apartment building to check out his storage area. Tammy’s is empty. I’m sending Rebel back to you guys at Tammy’s.”
His phone at his ear, he groaned and glanced at Rebel. “She can come with me if you think that’s better.” … “Okay, fine. Be back in half an hour or so.”
As he put away his phone, she grinned. “So it’s okay? I can come?”
He nodded. “I can’t say it’s the best decision, but let’s go.”
With that, she raced off ahead of Saul. “Then we’ll go in my car as I know the way.”
*
While sitting in the passenger seat of Rebel’s car while she drove, Saul sent Merk a text, asking,
Why take her with me?
To keep her close. She seems most open with you. She’s the only one who has any idea what’s happened.
Meaning, she could be lying? Or withholding something?
I doubt it. Her fear for her friend is real. Her hatred for Daniel is just as real. Yet she might remember something, something inconsequential to her.
Fine. Be back soon.
Watch your back.
Saul put away his phone, thinking about Merk’s words. Was Rebel in danger? Were they all in danger? If somebody had killed Daniel in his own apartment, would they maintain watch on that apartment? Then take steps to eliminate any further threats? When you commit murder once, the second time is that much easier.
The one person who had been consistently at that location in recent days was Rebel.
She pulled into the back of Daniel’s apartment building again. The two of them walked around to the front, waited for somebody to come out so they could enter. He had another option for getting in, but he didn’t want to break in if he didn’t have to. However, they didn’t have to wait long as a neighbor walked out and held the door for them and carried on without even noticing.
Up at Daniel’s, Saul unlocked the door, using his lockpick, and stepped inside for a quick look around to see if anybody had been here since the last time Saul was here. It appeared the same overall. When he took a closer look, he found strands of hair, one on the inside at the front door and one farther inside the apartment—Merk’s work. The guys all had personal favorite traps to set to ensure no one had entered a room while they were gone without their knowledge. This had all the hallmarks of Merk. The first Saul had dislodged when he opened the door, and the second was still intact. Feeling better that the place was still deserted, he turned and told Rebel, “Let’s go to the lockers.”
Downstairs, he checked out the various hallways, dividing large open lockers. The apartment block was huge, and one locker was allotted for each apartment.
He counted down the numbers until he came to Daniel’s apartment number. He stopped in front of it and stared. It was full. As in seriously full. He smiled and whispered, “Bingo.” He double checked the number on the outside of the unit to confirm it corresponded to Daniel’s apartment number, then he dialed Merk. “The locker is full from where I’m standing, but Rebel can’t confirm the contents are his though.”
“Or it could be somebody else’s stuff?” Merk asked. “Why would someone so meticulously clean out Daniel’s apartment, leaving behind a packed storage locker? Probably didn’t know he had it. Can you see what kinds of items are in there?”
“Lots of moving-size boxes, contents unknown. A couple snowboards and a bike.”
“Best guess for the owner of those possessions?”
“Daniel’s. There is a padlock on the fencelike gate to the storage area.”
“You might need clearance before going in. Give me five.”
“Good enough.” He turned to see Rebel staring at the locker.
“It’s full,” she said in surprise. “Why wouldn’t Daniel have moved it all?”
“Remember, he’s not the one who cleaned out his apartment,” Saul said brusquely. “I’m leaning toward something happening to Daniel, and whoever cleaned out Daniel’s apartment just made it look like Daniel took off and yet wasn’t aware of the storage locker area down here.”
She turned and stared. “But, if that’s the case, what happened to Tammy?”
He shot her a grim look. “I don’t know yet.” His gaze returned to the storage locker. He peered through the mesh door to see what was inside, but it was too dark. It could be boxes of personal belongings, could be important things, but it would take hours to go through it all, and that was if they could get into it.
His phone rang once more. “Good enough,” he said. He put away his cell, pulled out his lockpick and worked on the padlock. “We don’t need clearance for this. Benji is co-owner and gave us permission. If we find anything we’re to let Detective Wilson know.”
The light was crappy back here, so he had to go by feel when working on this lock. It took him about thirty seconds longer than it should have. Swearing to himself nonetheless, the lock popped open when the final click engaged. He removed the padlock from the hasp and opened the door. A light switch was just inside. He flipped it, and a hanging bulb threw an eerie glow over the contents of the locker. He went to the first box and opened it, full of winter clothes, sweaters and jackets. He closed the top flaps and went after another box.
He repeated the process for a couple more boxes, but the next one yielded gold.
“Looks like income tax returns.” He opened the box, scanned the top document within the first packet and confirmed it was Daniel’s material. “Well, that’s a start. But, if Daniel was involved in any way with the staging of his empty apartment, the fact that he didn’t also dispose of everything in this locker is suspicious.”
“Or he had to leave too fast. Plus he has a month to come back and get this stuff.”
He turned to look at her. “You think he’s guilty, don’t you?”
“I don’t know that for sure. You guys have given me moments of doubt. But he’s the closest link I have to finding Tammy,” she said very quietly. “If he didn’t do it, I don’t know where else to look.”
He understood she was loathe to let go of a suspect, but she needed to start looking in another corner. A lot of other options were under consideration still. The thing was, without bodies, there could be no closure and often no answers.
Saul’s phone rang again. He checked the Caller ID. Ice. “Yes, we’re in the locker, but I’m not finding anything relevant yet. Did you get anywhere with Daniel’s company?”
“Yes, he had asked for time off. He left on a Tuesday. He was due back today but didn’t show up at work.”
“Nobody at work has seen him since a week ago?”
“No. His coworkers didn’t know anything. They figured he was sick. He had not been in the best shape the previous week, so, when he asked for time off, the boss just assumed Daniel was struggling. He didn’t give a reason other than the fact he wasn’t feeling well.”
“Interesting. Did he have any friends we need to talk to at work? Anybody who would know more?”
“Yeah, Tammy.” Ice gave a short laugh. “The boss said he’d come close to firing Daniel several times over the last year. Tammy had submitted a complaint against Daniel at one point as well. I spoke to the head of HR, Roger Ginrod. He had no new information on Tammy. He understood the police had opened a missing person’s file on her, and, until I brought that up, he hadn’t considered Daniel’s disappearance questionable at all.”
“Even when Daniel didn’t show up for work today?”
“Yes, but that’s not unusual for Daniel. Plus no one noticed as his supervisor was scheduled to be in meetings all day.”
“So we now have two missing persons from the same office. Yet somebody answered Daniel’s phone, potentially Daniel himself, to keep his brother happy.”
“Yes, which means it’s likely somebody close enough to Daniel knows his brother’s a SEAL and would raise shit if something happened to his kid brother.”
“Yes, that’s quite possible.”
“Can you access the security cameras on the apartment building?” he asked Ice.
“We went through proper channels and asked the police. They’ve refused. It’s an ongoing investigation and they aren’t willing to share.”
“So we are bypassing that, right?” Saul asked with a wince. “I know perfectly well we can. It’s just how far across the line are we willing to go?”
“Give me another hour to work my way through this.”
He hung up, knowing perfectly well she would find a way around the legal route if she had no other option. But, in the meantime, it would be nice to know the last time Daniel left this property. Saul turned to Rebel to explain. “They tried to get legal access to the security cameras in the building.”
“The police said they would check the video cameras here as well,” Rebel said. She pulled out her wallet and retrieved a business card. “Have Ice contact this man. He’s a detective on Tammy’s case.”
While she watched, Saul sent the information to Ice in a quick text. “Maybe we’ll get some action here after all.”
“I hope so. Nothing makes sense to date.”
They hadn’t gotten more than a few feet away when Ice called back. “Security cameras were down the entire weekend Tammy was there, and the cops suspect Daniel hacked into the system. The detective did say they are treating Tammy’s disappearance as a potential kidnapping/murder. But, of course, until her body shows up, or the bad guys make contact, nobody knows what happened for sure.”
“Will he work with us?” Saul asked.
“He appeared to be happy to take any information we had to offer. He understood you guys were here looking for Daniel, and that your cases have collided. I’ve told him that you will contact him sometime in the next hour. I didn’t tell him about the storage locker, so, when you call, it will give you something to tell him.”
“Does he know we’ve been inside the apartment?”
“You’re entitled. Benji was the co-owner on the property and gave you permission. You have full rights to go in and check.”
“Good.” Saul hung up and smiled. “At least now we have the law working on our side too.”