The next morning Iris woke me with soft little barks. When I didn’t rouse immediately, she jumped around on the bed and barked louder. Otis, who hadn’t uttered a peep all night, started meowing in response to Iris’s barks.
Otis and Iris had hit it off amazingly well the night before, even without Milo’s usual presence to handle Otis and intervene if necessary. After initial curiosity, the animals both went their separate ways. As a precaution, I kept Otis in the bathroom overnight. Whatever the reason for the lack of drama given that Otis’s person was absent, I was grateful. I attributed their harmonious reunion to them both being rescue animals. Iris had been in foster care with many other dogs and cats after being plucked from the shelter. Otis had been winging it on the mean streets of Santa Sofia. I imagined both were thankful to have happy forever homes. In return, they were both behaving themselves, being gentle and peaceful, like emotional support animals. I was sure they sensed my distress, and I was grateful for the comforting distraction they provided to keep me from totally obsessing on Milo’s disappearance.
“Hold on, guys.”
I found my Uggs and pulled them on, cueing Iris to progress to shrill barks and herky-jerky posturing with her butt in the air. I caught her midair as she leapt kamikaze-style off the bed. Perhaps I’d spoken too soon. I let Otis out of the bathroom. He loped out and jumped on my bed.
“Come on, Iris. Let’s go outside.”
Back inside, we resumed our morning routine—coffee for me and kibble for Iris and Otis at opposite ends of the kitchen. I checked my phone. My social media posts about Milo had garnered a lot of responses. As I skimmed them, most were sympathetic and encouraging, but no leads. I scanned my text messages. By the looks of it, Philip had done a good job getting back to all my friends and family and answering their questions. All their latest messages were expressions of love and support. A rush of gratitude for Philip filled me with warmth.
I jotted off a quick text to him: TY. Bless your heart.
• • •
Ashley picked me up and we drove to Starbucks on the Promenade since it was on our way to the police station. The coffee shop was packed inside, but we nabbed a table outside on the patio. I pushed the faux-fur-trimmed hood of my black puffer vest off my head, settled into my metal chair, and took a sip of my nonfat latte. Ashley, looking her usual polished and understated self in a dark green sweater, matching leather jacket, jeans, and suede booties, gulped her pumpkin spice latte and smacked her lips with exaggerated relish, making me chuckle. A half hour earlier the icy morning air had been cold enough to make steam when we spoke. Now it was comfortably brisk and by noon it would be warm enough for a T-shirt and flip-flops. Temperatures would peak around two and then recede again until dawn tomorrow, when the whole process would repeat. Welcome to October in Santa Sofia.
I fumbled for the lip balm in my purse. “My lips are super chapped. I blame the Sundowners and the Santa Anas.” Both the Sundowner and Santa Ana winds were associated with high temperatures and low humidity and were the bane of Southern California. The Sundowner winds occurred mainly in the Santa Barbara area, whereas the Santa Anas occurred primarily around Los Angeles but lately wreaked their havoc as far north as Santa Sofia. Both were notorious for fanning the spread of wildfires in Santa Barbara County.
Ashley reached into her large tote. “Yep. Mine too.” She held up a tube. “I love this new lip balm—so good.” She smeared it on her mouth and smiled.
I nodded. “Nice. Let me write down the brand name so I don’t forget it.” I opened the Notes app on my phone and then, bam, back to grim reality. My last entries from yesterday clobbered me hard: Smashed phone, blood-stained rock, footprints, tire marks, boutonniere. I started to tremble, despite the climbing temperatures.
Ashley leaned closer. “You’re shivering. Do you want to go inside?”
I mustered a brave smile and sighed heavily. “I’m afraid my shivering can’t be fixed that easily.” I held up my phone for her to see. “When your Notes app has a list that sounds like it’s from the game Clue, it’s pretty sobering.”
“Aw, I’m sorry you have to go through this, Tory.”
“Thanks. Me too. I guess my five minutes of denial are up for the day. Onward in the quest to find Milo.”
She pointed at my phone. “Don’t forget to add the white car.”
In an attempt to banish my fear and anxiety, I took a deep breath and tried to think of things I was grateful for. Fire season was upon us, and any morning without a hint of smoke in the air was a good morning. I was grateful the arsonists who’d been literally playing with fire in the Santa Sofia foothills had put down their matches for the moment.
Ashley reached over and patted my hand. Matte mauve polish adorned her nails. “Never hurts to take a break for a few minutes. Allows all your emotional synapses to recharge—or something like that.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
She played with the heat sleeve on her cup for a few seconds, moving it up and down and then aligning its fit as if organizing her thoughts. “Hey.” Her eyes twinkled impishly, her long black lashes framing her light hazel eyes like the points of a star. “Would it be too stereotypical if we stopped by a donut place and picked up a dozen for Adrian and his crew?”
“I don’t know. It would depend on how much they like donuts. How about we circumvent a possible offensive gesture and bring them some donuts and muffins from here instead?”
“Sold. I love one-stop shopping. You wait here. I’ll go get them.”
Out of habit, I flipped through my Twitter feed. Our local news station was reporting a new fire, arson suspected. I shook my head in dismay—so much for catching a break. I clicked to my emails. Hotel Santa Sofia Properties notified me the winner for their condominium project would be announced in a few weeks. That was so long to wait. My stomach churned with nervous anticipation that turned into high anxiety as soon as I realized Milo wasn’t around to share the excitement about our joint project.
Ashley returned with a couple bags of goodies. “Want yours now or later?”
“I’ll wait, thanks.”
“Me too. I never dunk and drive.”
“Yeah, you definitely don’t want to get pulled over for dunk-driving.”
Ashley and I exchanged silly grins as we headed back to her car. We drove along the Promenade up to where it intersected with the Avenue. We continued east and turned right on Juniper. We drove two blocks along the tree-lined side street until we reached a quaint one-story adobe building, home of the Santa Sofia Police Department. We parked in the adjacent lot.
The female officer at the reception desk alerted Adrian we’d arrived and buzzed us into the locked area of the station. There, another officer directed us to a cubby where Adrian, in full uniform, sat at his large metal desk.
Ashley set the bags of pastries down. “We thought you might be hungry.”
Adrian’s face folded into a broad smile. “All for me?”
Ashley pulled a glazed donut from one of the bags. “No, they’re for everyone.” She took a big bite out of the donut to punctuate her statement.
Adrian’s warmth waned. “Stereotype much?”
His sarcastic tone suggested we’d insulted him. Great. Now we’d offended the one guy who could help us most.
Ashley’s eyes bugged out—she looked mortified and swallowed quickly. “Not just donuts. Look. We got croissants and muffins too.”
I held the other bag open, tipped toward Adrian. “We wanted to give you a variety. See?”
Adrian threw back his head and laughed before he pushed back his chair and stood to greet us, his muscular six-foot-plus frame towering over us. “I’m just messing with you.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “Actually, I love donuts, especially glazed.”
Ashley cast me a look of relief.
He peeked into both bags and extracted a glazed donut and napkin and set it on his desk. “They all look great. Thanks, guys. Very sweet of you to think of us.”
Adrian showed his gratitude by hugging me, then Ashley. Ashley’s hug lasted a little bit longer than mine. She looked over his shoulder at me, the corners of her mouth stretched into a smile as she threw me a satisfied look, her eyes sparkling with delight.
I smiled back and then turned my attention to the baked goods, debating the pros and cons of croissants and donuts, and settled on a mini raisin bran muffin.
Adrian took a bite of his donut. “Mm, so tasty.” He washed it down with a swig of coffee. “Sorry. I haven’t had a chance to view the surveillance footage yet. I’ve been swamped. Let’s watch it together now.”
I finished my muffin in two bites, wiped off my hands, and reached in my tote bag for Milo’s phone and computer, both of which I’d placed in plastic bags. “Here’s Milo’s computer and his phone we found in the maze. It looks totaled to me, but I’m sure one of your tech peeps will rise to the challenge.”
“Thanks, Tory. Wow. Whoever did this wasn’t fooling around.”
I shuddered upon hearing him confirm my own opinion.
Ashley chimed in. “I thought it was to send a message but Tory thinks it was to destroy evidence. What do you think?”
“You both might be right.” He inspected the bag. “Hmm. I don’t see the SIM card.” He looked at us. “You didn’t find a SIM card on the ground near the phone?”
I scratched my chin. “You mean the little chip with all the data?”
“Yeah. The SIM card, micro SIM card, or nano SIM card, whatever the latest iPhone model uses.”
Ashley shook her head. “Nope. I didn’t see anything else.”
I stared upward, thinking back to when we found it in the maze. “No. I don’t remember seeing anything else either. So, wait. Then his phone isn’t much of a clue without the SIM card, right?”
“Not necessarily. We might be able to get prints or DNA off of it.”
I felt like Adrian was just trying to make me feel better.
“Ready to take a look at the surveillance video?”
We gathered around his desk as he inserted the flash drive into his computer.
“Ready.” I reached for Ashley’s hand.
Ashley glanced at me and squeezed my hand. Her main attention was directed at Adrian. Her eyes creased into a softened expression like she was looking at cute baby animal photos online. I wasn’t surprised Ashley was still crushing on Adrian. They were a lot alike. Both had kind hearts and a strong sense of justice. Both were equally attractive. But their timing had always been off. There had always been college, the police academy, law school, or other relationships preventing them from getting together as adults.
As soon as Adrian clicked on the screen, Ashley’s lovey-dovey eyes were gone, replaced by her resting lawyer face—steely stare and pursed lips—a warning to not mess with her, a look she developed during her five-year stint as a Santa Barbara County public defender before she opened her own law practice.
We watched the black-and-white footage. A person in a dark hoodie approached Milo’s car. From the angle of the camera, it was impossible to tell whether it was Milo or even whether it was a male or a female, let alone see their face. I held my breath, wondering if we’d be able to get a better look to see who it was. And then the tape went blank.
Adrian tried refreshing the video. But it was soon apparent the problem wasn’t the computer. Ashley and I exchanged eyebrow raises.
I squeezed her hand. “Do you think it’s the same person in the car that’s been following me?”
Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know. But strange they were both wearing hoodies.”
Adrian picked up his phone. “A lot of people wear hoodies. I wouldn’t put too much importance on that. Let me get our tech person.”
A few minutes later, a slim young woman dressed in civilian clothing, her black hair twisted into a neat bun, padded into his cubby. Adrian introduced her as Sarah Ng. Her gaze barely grazed mine from behind her clear-framed glasses when I shook her limp hand.
Adrian leaned over the desktop computer and restarted the video. “Here. It just stops.”
Sarah took a seat in front of the computer and replayed the video again. Once it came to the blank spot, her fingertips, barely protected by nails bitten to the nub, danced over the keys. We watched silently while she attempted to play the video beyond the same spot. After a number of tries, she concluded the problem was definitely with the tape.
Adrian crossed his arms and narrowed his thick brows in my direction. “Odd that the footage we’re interested in is missing.” He addressed Sarah. “Is there a way to recover the deleted part?”
Sarah stood up and retrieved the flash drive. “That would depend upon what caused the tape to go blank. Let me take it back to our lab. I might be able to recover the deleted part.”
“Great. How long will that take?”
“Again, it depends. It could be as short as fifteen minutes, but if—”
“Okay, fine. See what you can do. Make it top priority and keep me posted.”
Sarah nodded and then padded back to her lab without another word.
Adrian turned his attention to Ashley and me. “We’ll canvass the shopkeepers around downtown and the other hotels and residences in the vicinity of the Hotel Santa Sofia to see if Milo’s car was picked up on any of their security cameras. Unfortunately, since we only have limited manpower, it might take a while to complete our search. But rest assured, if it’s out there, we’ll find it.”
I worried that the missing footage might have been deleted intentionally. “Do you think this means something bad has happened to Milo?”
“Hard to tell at this point. If we can get a better look at the person in the hoodie and identify them, we’ll be able to know more. If the person has a criminal record, I’d lean toward foul play. But who knows, the person in the hoodie might turn out to be Milo. Then we’re talking a different scenario.”
My cheeks heated up. “What do you mean by different scenario? You think Milo vanished on purpose?”
Adrian propped himself against the edge of his desk and looked me in the eye but didn’t answer right away. “Look, Tory, I know you feel there’s been foul play. We have our theories too. But they all have to be evidence-based. We don’t have conclusive evidence at this point to indicate foul play.”
“What? How can you say that? His smashed phone is total evidence of someone’s violence. And don’t forget the rock with the blood on it.”
“What rock with blood? You never mentioned that before.”
Ashley and I both dropped our jaws in unison. Oh my God, he was right. In the commotion, we’d both assumed we’d told him but we hadn’t.
I slapped my forehead. “I thought we mentioned it. Sorry.”
Ashley threw in her two cents. “Yeah, and the footprint by the driver’s side of his car?” She fiddled with her phone before jamming it in his face. “Look. I took photographs of the rock and the footprints.” Ashley pointed at a photo. “There’s the rock.”
Adrian scanned the photos quickly. “This is great. Can you email them to me? He handed one of his business cards to each of us. “What did you do with the rock?”
“We left it there.”
Ashley nodded. “We didn’t want to contaminate a crime scene—that’s why we left it there. It’s off the beaten path, literally.”
Adrian’s eyes glinted with admiration at Ashley. “Okay, I’ll go take a look at the rock myself. But I have to play by the book. Let’s start with filing a missing person’s report. Here’s all the paperwork you need to complete.”
After I filled out the forms and handed them back to Adrian, I pulled out my phone. “Here are more pics of the tire tread. Looks wider than a bike tire, though. Ashley, show him the pictures where it looks like something was dragged from the parking lot.”
Adrian viewed our photographs and handed our phones back to us. “Yeah, good work, better than some of my rookies. Send me all of these, please.”
“So, now does it look like a crime was committed to you?” I braced myself, knowing whatever his answer, I wouldn’t like it.
Adrian’s chest heaved. “Look, Tory, I’m not saying I disagree with you. But, at this point, we still can’t say for sure it’s foul play. My captain expects, no, take that back, he requires, the whole department to base everything on irrefutable evidence. All of this is circumstantial and might not mean what you assume it to mean. I guarantee you at least one of my colleagues will suggest Milo might have smashed his own phone and planted the rock to make it look like something happened to him. I don’t believe that to be the case, but others might because, so far, we don’t have anything definitive. I’ll go and take a look at the rock and the area where you found the phone. Like with all missing persons cases, we must be methodical about all leads.”
Ashley patted my shoulder. “We need something indisputable to indicate foul play. Like if they found his car with blood on it.”
Adrian nodded at Ashley. “Ashley’s right. I’ll get the missing person’s report into the system ASAP. Sarah will work on the surveillance footage, and let’s go from there. Meanwhile, if you find anything else that suggests a crime occurred, take a picture and send it to me. I’ll investigate it further in a hot second. Promise.”
I sighed with satisfaction. “Okay. That’s all I needed to hear. Thank you. I’ll find something else. Don’t worry.”
“A word of warning, though. If Milo’s met with foul play, the guilty party is at large. You need to be careful for your own safety. I’d rather you call me with a lead that goes nowhere than not call me and put yourself in harm’s way.”
I blinked as the notion of a dangerous person on the loose registered.
He turned and touched Ashley’s arm. “That goes for both of you.”
I thought Ashley was going to melt on the spot. I looped her arm through mine as her eyelashes fluttered back at Adrian. We waved goodbye and I yanked her toward the door.
Ashley trotted to keep up with me as I headed out of the station. “What’s the plan now?”
“The plan is to do my own detective work if the police won’t do it for me. If Adrian really agreed with me, why wouldn’t he start an investigation right now? I’m sure he thinks I just can’t admit to myself that my husband left me.”
Ashley stopped abruptly and exhaled loudly in frustration. “What planet were you just on? I didn’t hear him say anything that suggested that. In Adrian’s defense, he’s only doing his job. He said he didn’t disagree with you. That’s a good thing. But from the police standpoint, he needs stronger evidence.”
“Thanks for the clarification.” I winced at how snotty my words sounded. I squeezed her arm affectionately. “Sorry. I’m just disappointed. You’re right. It could be worse. He could have just blown me off. At least he doesn’t suspect me, like Ernie seems to. Thanks for coming with me.”
Ashley affectionately punched my arm. “You’re very welcome. I know you’d do the same for me. I’m here for you and will help in any way I can.”
I locked her in a bear hug for a few seconds. “Thanks. Seeing that hooded figure on the surveillance tape gave me the creeps, but it’s a good clue. If we can identify the person in the hoodie, I think we’ll be able to find out what happened to Milo.”