Devil's Food Cake (37 page)

“So, even with all that you let Michele pick you up?” Sadie asked.

“I was in a complete panic. All the doors were blocked, and I couldn’t get my rental car out of the lot. That’s when I thought of the kitchen. As luck would have it, there were no officers there yet.” He paused and held Sadie’s eyes while they both relived the event.

Sadie wondered how different things would be if there
had
been a police officer there.

Josh looked away and continued. “When Michele found out I’d taken those pictures, she convinced me I had to get out of town before the police could determine it was me. She said the longer it took them to figure out who I was, the better chance I had to get away. It was stupid for me to agree, since I’d have been abandoning Thom, but she has a funny way of convincing me to do stupid things.” He paused. “We went to her uncle’s house since he was still at the hotel and changed my flight. I didn’t dare call Thom because if the police got his phone and found out that I’d been trying to call him, it could lead them to me.” He looked up at Sadie. “After we made the arrangements, we drove back to the hotel to see if I could get my car, but the lot was still blocked off and there were half a dozen news vans out front. That’s when I called my mom. She’d been calling me all night. I told her I had to get out of Garrison and asked if I could take her car to the Denver airport. She was going to bring the rental car back tomorrow and return it for me.”

“And then we intercepted you,” Sadie said.

Josh nodded and let out a breath. “Not that I’m all warm and fuzzy about what’s happened tonight, but I am glad I didn’t leave. I don’t know what Michele’s got up her sleeve, but I have no doubt that getting me out of town is part of her plan.”

“You mean beyond getting Thom’s interview?”

“
She’s
still here,” Josh reminded them.

Sadie pondered what Michele might have in the works. Maybe she would go to the police and tell them everything. Or, maybe with Josh gone, she’d be the one person Thom felt comfortable with, giving her more opportunity to bleed him for information. Sadie was searching for her next question when the back door burst open. Sadie pushed away from the table while Shawn and Josh both jumped to their feet. By the time Sadie realized it was Eric, he was inside, his hands on his knees, leaning forward in an attempt to catch his breath. He left the door open and the temperature in the kitchen immediately dropped ten degrees.

Sadie hurried toward him once she got over the shock of his dramatic entrance. “Eric, what happened? Are you okay?”

Eric put out a hand, raising one finger to indicate that Sadie wait for him to get properly oxygenated. It only took twenty seconds, but it felt like a long time before Eric stood up, his chest still heaving.

“I couldn’t . . . catch her,” he said, an apologetic expression on his face as he looked from Sadie to Josh.

Josh closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

“But we . . . might . . . have even bigger . . . problems,” Eric said.

“What?” Sadie asked, her heart speeding up even more.

“There are cops . . . all over the place out there.” He nodded toward the open door. “Jane was stopped.” He made eye contact with each one of them in turn.

“By the cops?” Sadie asked.

“Did they take my camera from her?” Josh added.

Eric shook his head, his hands still on his knees. “I don’t
know. . . . I ducked behind a garage . . . but if she tells them where we are . . . we’re in trouble. I didn’t see anyone following me, so they might . . . not be convinced yet.”

Sadie felt frozen. Was she ready to face up to what she’d done tonight? She looked at Shawn, who looked equally surprised, before glancing at Josh, who seemed concerned.

“Well,” Sadie said, trying to sound calm, “I guess we’ve done everything we can do.”

“What about . . . the key?” Eric asked.

Sadie looked at him as he reached into his pocket and produced the orange key he’d spent so much time figuring out.

“If we leave now, we might . . . just get there before they catch up,” Eric said.

“I don’t know,” Sadie said, imagining being involved in a high-speed chase or something equally terrifying.

“Let’s go,” Shawn said decisively. “We’ve come this far. We should see it through.”

Sadie was still unsure, and she looked at Eric one last time. He was staring at her, but didn’t seem angry about her hesitation. His understanding helped to calm her.

“Seriously, Sadie, at this point—what do we have to lose?”

Chapter 46

Instead of turning right—where they could see a police car parked down the block—Eric made a left and wound through the side roads and backstreets before heading for a main road far enough away from the action that they could breathe normally. The mood in the Jeep was tense and no one spoke. Sadie decided that having time to think was highly overrated. Where was Pete? What was he doing? What was he thinking? And . . . why hadn’t he called?

Sadie reached into her pocket. Maybe he
had
called and she hadn’t heard it ring. It had been hours since she’d last tried to contact him. The screen was black, so she hit a random button to bring the screen to life. It remained black. Surprised, Sadie pushed another button. Nothing happened. “Huh,” she said under her breath.

“What?” Eric asked, glancing at her. Apparently her mutterings were pretty loud in the silent car.

Sadie pressed down on the power button. Maybe she’d somehow turned it off. Again, nothing happened. “My phone won’t turn on.” She lifted her thumb off the power button for a few seconds before pressing it again.

“You can use mine,” Shawn said, handing his phone up over the seat.

Sadie shook her head. “I don’t need to make a call, I was just checking to see if . . . anyone had called me.”

“Anyone?” Shawn said, and Sadie could hear the tease in his voice. “You mean Pete?”

Sadie felt her cheeks color, but she wasn’t sure why other than she didn’t like being the center of attention. She put her phone back in her pocket. She’d worry about it later.

“Is that it?” she said, pointing at a blue and gold sign half a block ahead, grateful for the change of subject.

“I think so,” Eric said, leaning forward. One of the lights in the sign for Advanced Storage was flickering as they all got out of the Jeep. A few feet to the left of the main glass door was an oversized garage door. Sadie assumed it was to allow loading and unloading of larger items. She’d never seen an interior storage unit and it seemed quite clever to her. A little classier than the run-of-the-mill, outdoor type.

Eric pulled the key from his pocket and turned it over, typing in the five-digit number written on the back. Everyone held their breath as he pushed the final number. A slight buzz was the only indication that the door was unlocked. Eric smiled and pulled the door open, stepping back to hold it for the rest of them.

“There it is,” Josh said a minute later, pointing at a tiny square on the map stuck to the wall that indicated the different units and how to exit the building in case of a fire. “Looks like we make two lefts and follow that hallway nearly to the end.”

“He sure found the unit fast, didn’t he, Mom?” Shawn commented as they followed Josh down the hallway.

“He was looking at a map,” Sadie said. “It wasn’t rocket science.”

“I’m just sayin’ he found it quick,” Shawn said, attempting to look innocent. “Maybe he’s a map-genius, or . . . maybe he’s been here before.”

“Found it,” Josh said as he and Eric came to a stop in front of a door.

Eric waited until Sadie and Shawn had joined them before inserting the key, turning it, and pulling the door open.

The single light in the center of the twelve foot by twelve foot room was dim when they flipped the switch, but the room slowly lightened. Sadie suspected it was one of those newfangled energy-saving bulbs that were supposed to last for five years, but which Sadie still seemed to change far too often at home. She looked around, squinting into the slowly illuminating corners of the room.

Twin mattresses leaned against the wall directly across from the door and a stuffed and mounted pheasant sat on the floor. Sadie wrinkled her nose. Taxidermy was not her idea of home décor, no wonder it was in storage. The other walls were lined with stacks of Rubbermaid totes as well as a dresser, some laundry baskets full of odds and ends, and a menagerie of miscellaneous household items. The center of the room was mostly clear, offering just enough room for Josh, Sadie, and Shawn to stand and observe. Eric stayed in the doorway.

“Mark left all this here?” Sadie said, picking up a ceramic duck that had been sitting at the top of an open box. The duck was wearing a bow tie, its wings held out, forming a bowl. For candy? Or was it a fancy type of ashtray?

She noted there wasn’t much dust. She’d have expected things to be a lot dirtier after ten years in storage. There was something to be said for having an interior unit.

Josh shook his head. “Not Mark. This stuff is Thom’s. He went from a house in Garrison to an apartment in Orange County,” Josh said, looking around. “When he moved I remember him saying he was going to store some of Damon’s stuff until he decided what to do with it. I’m guessing he never came back for it.” He picked up a black backpack and stared at it.

Sadie wondered if it was the same backpack Damon had taken to prom. Would the police have returned it to Thom?

“Do you think Thom really told Mark to give the key to you?” Eric said. He wasn’t investigating anything, just standing in the doorway, surveying the area with his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

Framed by the doorway like he was, Sadie noticed he had very nice shoulders.

“I don’t know,” Josh said, running a hand through his hair as he turned slowly, taking it all in.

Sadie could practically hear his thoughts.
Where do we begin when we don’t know what we’re looking for, or even if we’re supposed to be looking for anything at all?

“It’s
Thom’s
storage unit,” Eric added pointedly.

“Mark took over Thom’s finances along with everything else,” Josh said, shooting Eric an unappreciative glance. “I’m sure Mark’s kept the key
safe
for a very long time, just like everything else.”

“And since he knew he was going to off himself, he thought the key would be safer with Josh?” Shawn said, taking the lid off a shoebox. “Sweet,” he said as he reached into the box. “Basketball cards.” He looked at Josh. “You didn’t tell me he was a collector.” He went back to the box, apparently forgetting for the moment that he was still suspicious of Josh.

“Uh, sorry,” Josh said dryly. “I was waiting for the right moment.”

Shawn began riffling through the cards. “Man!” He pulled out a card. “He’s got a Magic Johnson rookie card. Do you have any idea how much this is worth?”

Sadie walked over to her son and picked up the lid he’d set aside. When he saw the lid in her hand he frowned, but took his hands out of the box so Sadie could close it. She gave him a hard look, and he managed to look penitent. What Sadie had hoped to find was something to verify their hypothesis that Mark’s death had been suicide. The fact that Mark gave Josh the key seemed like more than a coincidence, but how could they be sure? The one man who could tell them was dead.

Then Sadie noticed something that had been mostly hidden by a stack of Rubbermaid containers beside it. With the light nearly full-bright now, she could get a better look. “What’s that?” She pointed toward what looked like a lacquered black, upright freezer wedged into the far corner.

The three men followed her finger. “It’s a gun safe,” Eric said from the doorway, finally taking a step inside.

“A gun safe?” Sadie repeated.

Josh was already heading toward it since there weren’t many things in his way. In fact, there was a cleared path that took them right to it—Josh in the lead, Sadie behind him, Shawn behind her, and Eric bringing up the rear. It took all of five steps to get them across the room.

Sadie’s shoes scraped across the floor and she looked down, surprised to see sand on the floor. No dust, but sand?

“Wow,” Shawn said as the procession came to a stop, “imagine that. Josh brought us to a storage unit with a gun safe in it.”