Library

Chapter 20

chapter

twenty

Nia quickly scanned Rob’s phone calls on the day he died.

Rob had made two to her and one to Gage.

At least that part of Gage’s story was true. But it didn’t prove the two of them truly had been friends. However, she had seen Gage call Rob while she’d been in the apartment after she’d found Rob dead.

The man confused her, made her feel uncertain.

She hated feeling uncertain.

Then there were the phone calls to Rob from an unknown number—at least eight of them. Nia jotted the digits down so she could search them. If Gage wasn’t guilty, then could that unknown number belong to the killer?

The questions swirled in her head.

Then there were the calls from Brittany Stevens.

Nia scanned back several days and saw a lot of time had gone by between when the two talked. Not typical dating behavior. Usually if two people were together, she’d expect at least a couple of phone calls every day.

Something about their whole relationship didn’t ring true with her.

She printed the call logs, folded them, and shoved them into her pocket.

Then she looked at Rob’s text messages.

Most of them were inconsequential. A lot of them were just jokes back and forth with friends.

But Nia found the one he’d received right before he left the office after their meeting yesterday.

We need to talk.

She compared the numbers. The message was from the same caller with the unknown number.

Her back muscles pinched.

Rob had gotten that text, and it had upset him.

Then someone called from the same number only twenty minutes later.

That phone number was definitely a link she was looking for. But if this person was as smart as she thought, this number wouldn’t lead back to anyone specific.

Then another thought struck her.

What if Gage had two phones? What if he called Rob on one for friendly conversations and used the other to make threats?

Even as she asked herself that question, it didn’t make sense. Rob would recognize Gage’s voice no matter which phone he used.

Nia was reading too much into this, wasn’t she? Maybe she was making it more complicated than it should be.

She continued to study the phone calls and texts for answers.

But it was like a puzzle. She just needed to figure out what pieces went where.

Gage left Austin standing guard on the sidewalk.

His colleague promised to let Gage know as soon as Nia left the building.

Meanwhile, Gage had several leads he wanted to look into.

Even though he believed Nia had something to do with this, there were a lot of other loose ends and unanswered questions.

Just as he and Nia had discussed—he needed to figure out what had happened in the time between when Nia had met with Rob at the office and when the two of them had dinner together.

Rob had left the office around two-thirty, called Gage around four-thirty, and met Nia at eight.

Something had gone wrong. If Rob had called Gage, there was a high probability Rob felt as if he were in danger.

Because dealing with danger was what Gage did .

Had something happened at the restaurant?

If only Gage had asked more questions when Rob called him . . . if only he knew then what he knew now.

The one other piece of this puzzle that didn’t make any sense was Brittany.

Was Rob’s murder really because of a bad breakup and a jealous ex-boyfriend? Gage found that hard to believe.

He wanted to talk to Brittany one-on-one.

He already had her address, and he’d taken Austin’s rental car—which just happened to be a black Porsche 911—to head there now. Thankfully, her place wasn’t far away so he could be back soon if Austin needed him for anything.

As he drove, Jonah called him, and he answered through Bluetooth.

“I had my friend look into that knife,” Jonah started. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing special about it. In fact, you can buy them on Amazon. This one in particular is known as a Viking. People who like to cook and have money use them. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”

Gage frowned. He’d been hoping for more. “Thanks. I appreciate you looking into it.”

They chatted a few more minutes before ending the call.

The knife had been a dead end.

Hopefully, his new lead wouldn’t be.

Minutes later, he parked in front of a smaller house on the outskirts of the city .

He’d expected something fancier for a woman like Brittany. But her accommodations didn’t matter to him.

As he studied the house, he saw the curtain inside flutter.

Someone had seen him pull up.

Now he needed to make sure that someone talked to him.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.