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“What?” Sandra asked. “What did you find?”
Billy looked around furtively. “It looks like someone went into the shed against their will, as if they had been forced to go in there.”
Sandra tried to fake surprise and was pretty sure she failed. “Oh?”
He nodded. “I thought I’d found Peter, but the shed was empty.”
She waited for him to say more. “What do you think that means?”
He let go of her arm and held his hands out with his palms up. “Not sure. But it scares me. Did someone put Peter in there? And if they then took him out, where did they put him? Or maybe he got out and ran for help? But that’s not good either. There’s no house for a mile in any direction, and it’s way too cold for him to be out there for too long.”
She nodded, trying to look scared. “Thank you for staying outside so long. You didn’t have to risk freezing to death. You should’ve come in when Otis did.”
Billy’s brows fell in confusion. “Otis?”
“Yeah, didn’t he go outside to look with you?”
Billy rubbed his chin. “I don’t remember. I guess he might have. But he didn’t go with me. He must have gone off on his own to look.”
That didn’t make sense.
“I got to say, Sandra, you’re taking this awfully well. My wife would be having a full-blown panic attack by now.” He gave a loud, humorless chuckle.
“I’m really trying to keep it together.”
“Well, you’re doing a good job. I’ll keep looking, but I lost feeling in my feet, so I came inside for a bit. I’ll head back out as soon as I’m sure I’m not going to lose my toes. But I checked every car and every trunk out there, and he wasn’t in them.”
“How did you check the trunks?”
Billy pulled a crowbar out of his oversized coat. “I’ll pay to have them fixed, but if he was in one of them, I didn’t want to waste time asking for keys.” He drew a long breath. “Now that I mention it, maybe my toes aren’t so important. I think I’ll head back out now.”
“Billy, wait.” She had to tell him. She looked around, just like he had minutes before. “Let’s go into the office.” She opened the door slowly, afraid a cat or a clown was going to jump out at her, and then they stepped inside. She shut the door behind him and then looked up at him. “Billy, I owe you a huge apology.” She didn’t know where to start. “I’m so sorry, and so embarrassed. You probably heard about what happened to me in the fall, with the soccer refs? Well, I guess now I think I’m some sort of detective or something, because I’ve been scheming and trying to figure this thing out, but I didn’t stop to think about how me pretending to be a detective would affect other—”
He put a firm hand on her shoulder. “You’re not making any sense. Maybe you’re not handling this as well as I thought.” He pulled out a chair and gently pushed her into it, making her feel even guiltier. “Here, take a load off. Whatever you think you have to apologize for, can it wait till we find Peter?”
“No!” she said sharply. She wheeled her chair to the left and pulled another chair toward him. “Please, sit.”
He looked reluctant, but he sat.
She took a deep breath. She really didn’t want to admit this. “Please don’t hate me, but I already found Peter, and he’s fine.”
Billy leaned away from her so abruptly that his chair wheeled backward.
“I’m so sorry, Billy. When we found him, I totally forgot that you’d even gone outside, and then it never occurred to me that you’d still be out there ... so, anyway, I thought that if I didn’t let the killer know that—”
“You said we found him?” he interrupted. “Who else knows?” She’d never seen Billy look angry. It wasn’t a good look for him.
“Ethel.”
He chuckled. “Well, it’s hard to be mad at Ethel, now, isn’t it? Where was he?”
“You were right. He was in the shed.”
“He’s not hurt? He didn’t get too cold?”
She shook her head. “He’s fine. But I made him and Ethel hide in the prop room.”
Billy scrunched up his face. “It smells awful in there.” He rubbed his chin for several seconds and then looked at her. “I guess it’s hard to be mad at you too. I can see where you were going with it.”
She was incredulous. And beyond grateful. She thought about giving Billy a giant hug, but that would be awkward, and he was all wet. “You can?”
“Sure, sure. Did Peter see who grabbed him?”
“No.”
“Oh, well, but maybe the killer thinks he might have seen something. So if you let the killer think he’s still got the kid stashed, then he still thinks he’s got the upper hand.”
She let out a long breath. “Exactly. I was trying to be all smart and conniving, but I’m not very good at it—”
“Oh no, I think you are pretty good at it.” He slapped his thighs and then stood. “So, if you don’t need me to look for Peter, how else can I help?”
“I don’t know. Who do you think did it? I mean, none of these people seem like killers.” She almost told him that Bob suspected Jan, but caught herself just in time.
He looked contemplative. “My money’s on Matthew. He had the hots for her, and she rejected him. Plus, he’s weird.”
“And he’s high as a kite right now.”
Billy guffawed. “Really? Where is he?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well, maybe that’s what I can do to help. Just stick to him like glue, so if he tries anything goofy, I can be there to stop it.”
“Would you?” she was so appreciative she thought she might cry. She was forming quite a team of crime fighters. As long as none of her team members was the killer.