Lorena brusquely shoved past her sisters. “Let me see the letter.”
Ezra’s arm went back and up as if he were playing a game of keep-away from his aunt.
“Calm down, Lorena.” Lynn grabbed her sister’s wrist. “This is Lettie’s to handle.”
A noise of disagreement escaped the eldest of the sisters. “That would be a first.”
Lettie, who trailed inside behind them, wore a forlorn expression that made me sorry for her. It had to be difficult finding out that your child was running away and the only goodbye was in the form of a letter.
“Is it handwritten?” Lorena asked. “Because if it’s typed, it could be a fake. I’ve watched enough Agatha Christie movies to know that you never trust a typed letter.”
“It’s handwritten,” Ezra said, throwing her a bone. Hopefully, not another mean one. “Aunt Lettie, do you want to read it?”
Lettie took her gloves off and set them on the kitchen counter. Her hand trembled as she nodded to Ezra and reached for the letter.
Rob closed the door to the apartment, and the living room instantly felt warmer. “That’s evidence,” he said.
“No, it isn’t,” Ezra told him. “Not yet. As far as the police are concerned, this letter doesn’t exist until after Aunt Lettie reads it. It’s addressed to her and Uncle Orsen.”
Rob paused for a moment, then acquiesced. “Fine, but once Lettie’s done, I’m taking it for processing.”
Ezra agreed. “Deal.” He gave the letter to Lettie. She walked over to the counter and took it out of the envelope. She made several heartbreaking sounds as she read through it. “Oh, Penny,” she sighed. “What have you done?”
Lynn strolled over to her sister and put her arm around her. “What’s it say?”
“She says she’s finally got enough money to get Kyle, and she’s going to get him, and they are going to give him the family he deserves. She doesn’t want me to look for her.” Lettie’s eyes watered with unshed tears. “She’s happy for the first time in a long time, and….” A barking sob erupted from the youngest sister’s throat. She put her hand to her mouth. “She loves me, but she wants me to let her go.”
Yikes. The letter sounded a little damning. Charity money gets stolen, and Penny writes a letter saying she finally has enough money to get her son and start over? It wasn’t a direct admission of guilt, but it could be interpreted that way.
“I’m sorry, Lettie, but I’m going to need that letter now,” Rob held out his hand palm up and did the gimme curl. “There’s enough in there for probable cause for a warrant.”
Lorena, who had moved to the other side of Lettie, snatched the letter from her sister’s hand. Lettie cried out in dismay, and she gasped when Lorena took a lighter from her pocket and lit the letter on fire.
“What are you doing?” Rob exclaimed. He rushed forward, but Lorena was faster than he calculated, and she was around the counter and at the sink before he could reach her.
Lorena held out her free hand to fend off Rob. “Get back,” she demanded as she dropped the burning confession into the sink, turned on the water, shoved the wet paper into the garbage disposal and flipped the switch.
I was so flabbergasted. All I could do was stand there and watch the drama play out. Ezra didn’t make a move to stop her, either.
There were a lot of angry words exchanged as Rob got past Lorena’s slapping hand and jostled the older woman away from the sink with his hip. He turned the disposal off, but it was too late. The letter was gone. “Why in the world would you do that? You destroyed evidence in an active case. I could arrest you.”
Lorena scowled at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Officer Phillips. I haven’t seen any letter that could be used as evidence against my abducted niece.” She turned her glower at the rest of us. “Have any of you seen such a letter?”
Lettie, who initially looked as if she would protest, gave her sister a grateful nod. “I haven’t seen any letter,” she said.
Lynn piped up. “Me either.” She glanced at her son. “Ezra, have you seen a letter that could potentially implicate your cousin in her own disappearance?”
He shook his head. “I don’t see any letter.” I noticed the tense shift to the present. He didn’t want to lie, but he also wanted to back his family.
Lynn asked me next. “What about you, Nora?”
“I can say with one hundred percent honesty that I have not seen the letter.” Technically, I’d only seen the envelope, and I had not been shown the contents.
I gave Lorena an assessing look. Trashing the letter before Rob could get a hold of it had been a calculated play to protect her sister. The old bitch was a smart cookie.
“I give up.” Rob swatted at the air as if he could wave away the stench of cover-up. “Thank you, ladies, for bringing the key to the apartment. You may go now before any other evidence ends up in the garbage disposal.”
Lorena walked Lettie out. Lynn glanced back at me. “See you and Ezra tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I told her. “We’ll call you in the morning.”
She nodded to her son. “See you soon.”
“Bye, Mom,” he said. “Try not to worry. I’m going to do everything I can to find Penny.”
“Me too, Lynn,” Rob added.
“Kiss ass,” Lorena called from the stoop.
Lynn half-smiled. “Thank you, both.”
After they left, Rob turned a baleful stare at me. “What did your magical voodoo uncover?”
“Penny was in love with someone who had prior military service in his background,” I told them. “And someone showed up at her apartment bleeding from a gash in his forearm.” I pointed at the stain on the couch arm. “That’s where she tried to clean up the blood.”
Rob walked over and touched the stain. “How does this help us find Penny?”
“I’m not sure it does.” When he sucked his teeth, I made clear my limitations. “I can only see what I see, and most of the time, what I see has nothing to do with a case, but they are pieces of a whole.”
“That and five bucks will buy you a cup of coffee, but it won’t get Penny found.” Rob’s anger was understandable. After all, he’d just been outfoxed by his aunt-in-law, who managed to destroy potential evidence right in front of his face.
“Do we want to try the car?” I asked.
“So you can snort a dangling pine tree car freshener?” Rob’s question was sarcastic, but he wasn’t far off-base.
“If there’s one in his vehicle, that would be great. A strong odor during a time of crisis promises some very vivid scent-related emotional memories.” Even so, Clark Faber had been brutally assaulted. Did I want to experience the memory? Absolutely not. If it got Penny back to her family, would I put myself in a position to see it? Yes. Yes, I would.
“Forget it,” Rob said. “I would have to sign you into the impound yard, and I’m not about to try and explain your expertise to the chief. Besides, you guys have wasted my time enough tonight. And you’ve lost me crucial evidence that could have been used to obtain legal search warrants. I think I’ve had enough of your kind of help for one night.”
Ezra, who’d been quiet up to this point, zipped up his jacket. “You can drop us back at the restaurant.”
I arched a questioning brow at him. He gave a slight head shake, so I zipped up my coat as well. “I guess we’re done then.”
“No hard feelings,” Rob said. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I was hoping….”
I nodded sympathetically. “Us too. I’m sorry I couldn’t get a vision that would crack the case wide open.”
The truck ride back to the Oriental Palace Restaurant was deafening in its silence. Rob and Ezra had gone back to being barely cordial. As a matter of fact, Ezra had me sit in the front, and he’d climbed into the back. If Rob wanted back in with the Holden family, he was off to a poor start.
The restaurant was closed. Rob let us out by my SUV, the only vehicle left in the dark, empty parking lot. The blizzard hadn’t stopped, and there was a buildup of ice and snow on my windows and around my tires.
I had a remote start on my key fob, and happily, the car purred to life.
We got in, and I turned on my seat heaters, another thing I loved about my mini-SUV. “Are we really packing it in tonight?”
Ezra met my gaze. “What do you think?”
“I think as long as Penny is out there, the snow doesn’t get too awful, and we have the energy to work, we should keep trying.”
A smile spread across Ezra’s lips. “That’s my girl.”
I shook my head and smirked, “Don’t you mean your cougar? Your cradle snatcher? Your Milk?”
He laughed. “Don’t let Lorena get to you. She’s always marched to her own drummer.”
“Is her drummer Satan?”
He laughed again. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said with a sigh.
“Good, I’m holding you to it when Aunt Lorena says more stupid stuff.”
This time I laughed, and after, I kissed him. “In a way, she’s done me a favor,” I told him. “I wasn’t sure how I would handle it if your family had a problem with our age difference, but now I know. I’m okay with it. I told you once before as long as I’m happy with you and you’re happy with me, that’s all that matters. Besides, for all her horribleness, Lorena is kind of hilarious.”
Ezra pursed his lips, then let out a soft “pah.” “I’m glad you think so. I’ve always found her tiresomely overbearing and hard to be around.”
The heater finally started blowing warm, and the defrost made quick work of the windshield and back glass.
“Where are we going next?” I asked Ezra.
He put his left hand on the steering wheel and shifted the SUV into reverse, then gave me a smile. “We’re going to see about an impounded car.”