Della and Chloe sat on the steps of the deck and watched for my arrival. They liked to keep me informed before I walked into the house. Either they were in trouble for something, Mom was mad at Marie or vice versa, or Gus didn’t get to the doggy door in time and had piddled on the floor from overexcitement. Sometimes, the girls told me what was on the supper menu, especially if it was a dish they knew I liked.
After I cut the engine and climbed out, they ran to my car.
“What’s new, kiddos?”
Della, the oldest, spoke up quickly before Chloe had a chance to open her mouth. “Mom ordered pizza for supper. It should be here any minute!”
“Yum. I hope she ordered two because I can eat a whole one myself.”
The girls giggled.
Chloe took her turn. “Mom and Grandma were making pebble art all day and didn’t have time to cook.”
“That’s great,” I said as I walked across the driveway with them. “So does Grandma enjoy helping Mom with that?”
Chloe ran up the steps first. “Yep, they’re having fun.”
I was happy, and having our mom move back into the family home was the best idea I’d had in a long time. Other than a few squabbles now and then, it was working out perfectly for all of us.
At the kitchen table, my mom and sister were busy finishing an eight-by-ten pebble art picture of a couple strolling along the Savannah River.
I nodded my approval. “That’s really nice.”
Mom smiled. “The design was my idea, and it’s already sold.”
Marie gave me a wink. “We better clear the table. Pizza should be here any minute.”
“So I was told. I’ll wash up and change out of my work clothes.”
Within forty minutes, both pizzas and the garlic sticks had been devoured. The table was cleared and plates loaded into the dishwasher. The houseful of females settled in for their favorite reality TV show, and I took my spot on the recliner. I wanted to review the police files on the pawnshop robbery and murders to refresh my memory and make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I wondered whether robbery was really the motive and the couple had died because they happened to be there or if it was a targeted killing and the robbery was meant to cover it up. We’d already looked at the store footage on Friday after the bodies were discovered. Although it looked like robbery was the intent for the early morning attack and the couple was simply collateral damage, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. We would have to dig deeper into the couple’s background to see if anyone had a beef against them or if they owed somebody money. The robber had dressed in black, wore a mask and gloves to remain unidentifiable, and carried a big gun.
After reading the police report twice, I vowed to figure out who’d committed those heinous murders. God knew we weren’t getting anywhere with Kim’s case. I said my good nights and headed upstairs. Tomorrow would be a full day as Rue and I tried to untangle the mystery behind the pawnshop killings. With any luck, the night shift team had made progress with Kim’s attack, yet I doubted they’d found anything new. We had searched and re-searched everything possible regarding her murder.
I drifted off, and what seemed like an hour of sleep was actually the entire night. I woke to birds singing and blue skies. My outlook had improved, and I hoped it was a sign that something good would happen that day.
The scent of coffee and bacon wafted upstairs. Sounds of the girls running around as they got ready for school made me chuckle, and Mom and Marie’s voices carried from the kitchen to the stairs and up the hallway just outside my bedroom door. I showered, dressed, and went downstairs to greet the family with a smile and a positive attitude.
Today would be the day that something would break. We’d get a call, an anonymous tip, or see the robber making his getaway in a car that we could identify, and the plate number would be clearly visible. At least I hoped.
After breakfast, I said my goodbyes, wished the girls a good day at school, and kissed Mom’s cheek. “Make some cool art today and sell it for big bucks.”
“That’s the plan, honey. See you tonight.”
To my surprise, Marie walked out to my car with me. I figured she had something to say, so I went ahead and asked. She and Mom spent all day, every day together.
“So be honest with me, Sis. How does it feel to live in the same house as Mom again?”
She grinned. “You know how people say we grow more mellow as we age?”
I raised a brow. After the near-death experience my mom and I recently had in Mexico, I wouldn’t describe her as mellowing. “Yep, and you think Mom is more chill now?”
Marie laughed. “No, dummy. I am. Mom is fine. I think she’s decided that sweating the small stuff is ridiculous. Life is too short for that, and I’m living proof that anyone can change. Mom already has, and now I am too. It’s all good.”
I gave Marie a kiss on the cheek, told her how happy she’d just made me, and wished her and Mom a good day. My home life was moving along perfectly. It was time to get my work life on the same page.
Once I arrived at work and we’d gathered in the briefing room, Bleu announced that an anonymous tip had come in about a suspicious white car trolling the neighborhood the night of Kim’s death. That was something, although the caller gave no other details, he said. It could very well be the killer himself calling in the tip to throw us off. Until a verifiable lead came in, we still had nothing, and none of Kim’s neighbors had mentioned a suspicious white car. I hoped to God that Kevin hadn’t been in her neighborhood that night and paid her a visit.
It was time to settle in for a long day of reviewing the videos we had requested from the neighborhood around the pawnshop. The store had its own indoor camera but none around the parking lot or the surrounding area. We would watch footage sent to us from businesses in the immediate area and hope to see someone dressed all in black, sans the mask, while walking by or to a vehicle. Chances were, if he left through the alley behind the shop, he’d likely disappeared without a trace. Forensics found no prints, and the only blood they found belonged to the couple. Neither of the two cases we were working seemed to be going anywhere. We were in a stall—a funk—that we needed to get out of.
Rue and I decided to work together. It was better to have two sets of eyes scanning the footage on one computer than a single set of eyes on each computer. Clues could be overlooked, and anything and everything could be a lead.
My desk phone rang just as we settled in. I rolled my eyes but answered anyway. Royce might want something.
“Detective Cannon speaking.”
“Cannon, it’s Danny.”
I let out an involuntary groan, not meant to be heard by his ears. “Sorry. What’s up, pal?”
“There was a voicemail on my phone from somebody who said they saw a suspicious white car near Kim’s place on the night of her death.”
That got my attention. “Who was it from?”
“No clue. They didn’t leave a name, and the number was blocked.”
“Humph. Why would they have your number?”
“How would I know since I don’t know who it was that called?”
I cocked my head. “True. When did the call come in?”
“I wrote it down. Let me see. Okay, it came in at seven thirty this morning. Probably when I went outside to get the newspaper. I don’t check my phone all that often, so I didn’t know there was a voicemail.”
“Got it. Our tech department can track it with your permission. We’ll need the name of your service provider, or you could call them yourself and request the number that call came in from. That way, we wouldn’t have the red tape to go through.”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“Good. Call me back as soon as you have it.”
We tried once more to focus on the videos of the neighborhood around the pawnshop. I nodded to Rue. “Let’s keep an eye out for a white car.”
“Any particular model?”
“Nah. According to Danny, the caller only said it was a suspicious white car.”
“Weird. That’s exactly the same way the caller to the station worded it—a suspicious white car. They could have said a slow-moving white car or a white sedan or coupe.”
I raised my brow. “Could have been the same person who called the station.”
“For what purpose, though?”
I shrugged. “Like I thought when Bleu mentioned it, to throw law enforcement off the real car. Possibly a black sedan.”
Rue chuckled. “I like the way you think. How about we watch for a white car and a black sedan on the surveillance videos?”
“No time like the present before another interruption, but—”
“But what?”
“But I better tell Royce what Danny just said, and then we can get back at it.”