Logan was gone before the sun rose. He’d slipped out quietly, but Amanda had gotten herself a kiss before he left. She also found a thank-you note on her kitchen counter—not for their sleepover. He was thanking her for not canceling pizza night.
It gave me and Zoe a chance to hang out together. My God, she’s a smart kid.
Amanda was smiling at the memory of the note as she pulled into the lot for Hannah’s Diner. “Too smart,” she muttered to the interior of her Honda Civic.
She parked and noticed Sergeant Graves standing next to her Mercedes at the edge of the lot. No coffee in hand, and she was staring at the diner while fiddling with her purse strap. Amanda started on her way over, just as Graves got into her car and drove off.
How strange…
The chime rang overhead as Amanda entered. May Byrd, the owner of the establishment, flashed a large grin.
“Miss Amanda. An extra-large?”
“Isn’t that the only size you offer?” Amanda volleyed back lightheartedly, but May’s coffee was the best of anywhere. “Actually, make it two, to go.” She’d bring one in for Trent.
“Sure thing.” May got to work.
May was in her sixties, and her daughter, Hannah, who the diner had been named after, was a defense attorney at a fancy DC firm.
“Here ya go.” May set two coffees on the counter, and Amanda handed over the money.
“Keep the change.”
“Thank you, sweetie.”
Amanda turned to leave but spun back around to May. The older woman kept her finger on the pulse of the community. What didn’t reach her ears through the diner got there from the ladies in her book club. She might be able to explain Graves’s odd behavior.
“Something else?”
“This will strike you as random, but was Sergeant Graves just in here?” She could have put her coffee in the car before Amanda arrived, but it was still odd she’d then be standing outside staring at the building.
“Haven’t met her yet. Only heard of her.”
“Okay,” Amanda dragged out, more confused.
May squinted and angled her head. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s, ah… never mind.” Amanda offered a small smile and hightailed it from the diner before May coaxed it out of her.
As Amanda drove to Central, she tried to make sense of what she had seen. It was as if Graves were afraid to go in the diner. But why? Nothing about it was intimidating. Even though May heard everyone’s business, people loved her. Her tongue wagged but never spread hurtful gossip, simply truths. If there was unsavory news, May sugarcoated so as not to injure any party.
If she didn’t have a busy day ahead of her, Amanda might go slightly mad trying to unravel the puzzle. Hannah’s Diner was the best place to get coffee in Prince William County, and Graves drank coffee. She’d been in the area for about seven months and never went inside?
But solving that mystery would have to wait. Amanda had much more important things to focus on today, starting with getting justice for Jill and Charlotte Archer.
The clock on the dash read seven fifty when she parked in the lot at Central. It would be over an hour before Roy Archer would see the victims to formally identify them as his wife and daughter. But she and Trent would keep busy until the search warrants came through. She had thought of at least one step they could take but wanted to run it past Graves first.
Amanda passed Natalie Ryan, another detective in Homicide, and continued to her cubicle. Trent wasn’t in his, but she might as well put the coffee she’d bought him on his desk.
She plucked a cup out of the tray and ran right into him at the entrance to her cubicle. The lid popped off, and hot coffee sloshed onto her hand. “Ouch.” She pushed it toward him. “Take it.”
Trent took the coffee, a question knotted in the arch of his brow, and bent to pick up the lid.
She licked her fingers that were dripping with coffee and rushed back into her cubicle for a tissue. “Jeez. You could have said something to let me know you were there.” Her flesh had recovered from the heat, but her heart was pounding from the shock. Her mind and gaze must have been elsewhere; she hadn’t seen him or heard him. “That’s for you, by the way.” Amanda flailed a hand toward the cup in his hand. “What’s left of it, anyway.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She dropped into her chair and took a savoring sip of her coffee. Trent, a stealth ninja…
Trent had gone into his cubicle and she looked at him over the partition—saw the top of his nose, eyes, forehead, hair. Based on the slightly bloodshot eyes and some untamed blond strands of hair, she’d guess it had been a rough night. “You ready for today?”
“Damn right I am. More than ready.”
“Good. Me too.” She took another drink of her coffee and nearly upset it when her phone rang. She needed to get a grip on her nerves this morning. She answered to CSI Blair.
“Returning your call.”
Amanda signaled for Trent to come over. “Just going to put you on speaker. Trent’s joining.”
“Sure.”
She noted how much her relationship had changed with Emma Blair since they talked and cleared the air. Amanda wished she’d initiated the conversation right after finding out about her father’s affair with the investigator.
Amanda set her phone on speaker, informed Trent that it was CSI Blair on the line. “All right, Trent and I are both here.”
“I wish I had more for you…”
Those seven words were the last thing she wanted to hear.
Blair proceeded. “I received the items you noted in your message—the hair and fibers that Rideout pulled from the bodies. CSI Donnelly and I also pulled some from the stuffed elephant. I assure you that all of this will be given priority.”
“Thanks,” Amanda said. “Did you get the photographs of the bruising from Rideout?”
“Yes. I’ll be taking a closer look today and, with any luck, getting you some measurements for the handspan and finger size. Then it’s on you to get a suspect.”
“We have one of those,” Trent interjected.
A brief silence on Blair’s end, followed by, “That was fast.”
“It’s a work in progress,” Amanda corrected, doing her best to remain objective. “And the man’s shoe size from the scene… you’re still sticking to size eleven?”
“I am. Now, I can tell you this. Rideout pulled a strand of carpet fiber from the child—the pile of which is normally found in vehicles.”
They’d already surmised that the killer had to transport the bodies somehow. “Can you narrow it down to a vehicle make and model?”
“We’re not that good, I’m afraid. Not yet anyhow. I will look more closely at it. For now, I can tell you it’s dark gray.”
“Thanks.” Amanda bit back her disappointment.
“Don’t mention it. I’ll keep you posted on more as I go along.”
“Oh, before you go, when should I see the evidence list?”
“Hopefully later today.”
“Thanks.” With that, Amanda ended the call and turned to Trent.
“When we get the go-ahead, we’ll need to check the color of the carpet in Archer’s car,” he said. “Bet it will match.”
Separation from the case overnight had apparently done little for moving his suspicions away from Roy. “I guess we’ll find out. Come on, I want to speak with Graves.” She got up from her chair and led the way to the sergeant’s office, figuring she’d fill in Trent and Graves at the same time with her idea.
Graves was at her desk, and her door was wide open. When she saw Amanda and Trent, she waved them in. Amanda let Trent enter first, and she shut the door behind them.
“Has something changed since we spoke last night?” Graves seemed slightly irritated, and her gaze dipped to the coffee cups in their hands. If she’d spotted Amanda at Hannah’s Diner, the sergeant wasn’t giving that away.
“Not exactly, but I have an idea to build our case while we wait on the formal identity and warrants,” Amanda said, drawing Trent’s attention now.
“Go ahead.”
“We know the missing person report for Jill and Charlotte Archer was filed Friday last week. Roy said he last saw them on the Tuesday. Rideout put time of death as four days ago.”
Graves angled her head. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”
“I’d like to go to Charlotte’s school and speak with her teacher. We could confirm when she last saw the girl.”
“See if there is a discrepancy?”
Amanda nodded. “Just building a case.”
“Not a bad idea. You might just cement what Roy told us, but it could help establish a timeline regardless of his guilt. Yeah. Do it.” Graves swept a hand toward the door.
Trent headed out, but Amanda hesitated. “By the way, I saw you this morning at Hannah’s Diner.” She lifted her cup to point out the logo, more to add a conversational tone to her words. “They have the best coffee, don’t they?”
Graves didn’t look at Amanda when she replied, “The best.”
Huh… May would have remembered Graves if she had gone in there. So why lie about it?
Trent popped his head into the doorway. “You coming or…?”
“Yep”—she brushed past him—“and I’m driving.”
“You’re what? I always drive.”
“Not this time.” She needed a distraction from the case and the lie Sergeant Graves had just told her.