Page 43 of Hard Evidence
“Maybe she forgot it at work?Left it on her desk?”
“I don’t remember seeing it, but I guess it’s possible.I’ll head over there and take a look.”
“Let me know how it goes?”
“I will.This is getting really fucking weird.”
There was a long pause.“From what I’ve heard, I agree with you.”
Amie hadn’t left her phone in the office.It wasn’t sitting on her desk, or lurking in one of her drawers, or lying around in the kitchen.Justin felt down the sides of the couches in the break area while Jessie checked the women’s bathroom, just in case.Nobody else had seen the phone either—Justin messaged several colleagues to check—and Amie’s glittery pink case wasn’t easy to overlook.Where else could it be?He couldn’t think.He couldn’t focus.Jessie made coffee while he replayed his recent conversations with Amie over and over in his head, but there’d been no hint that she wanted to leave.None.
“Are you sure your friend is right about the phone being here?”Jessie asked.
“I’m not sure about anything anymore.”
“What if she dropped it on the way to her car?”
“Someone would have found it by now.And if it got stolen, wouldn’t it have moved along with the thief?”
“Could it have slid under something?Another vehicle?A bush?”
They were running out of possibilities.“We should go look.”
“This might sound crazy, but do you have an object that smells of her?”
Okay, that did sound crazy.Justin raised an eyebrow.Well, half an eyebrow.
“When Shiro was younger, I took him to training classes because Ridge didn’t want an unruly dog in the house.But Ridge also didn’t like me walking him far, so…” Jessie rolled her eyes, which pleased Justin because she was finally starting to come out of her shell.“So I learned a little about scentwork.Like, teaching dogs to search for things with their noses.It tires them out mentally, plus I taught Shiro to find Ridge’s keys because he was always losing them, and… Never mind.If you have something that smells of Amie—a hat, a scarf—I can have Shiro help us hunt for the phone.”
A dog helping?Justin resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but what did they have to lose at this point?Amie had a cushion on her chair, so Justin picked it up by the corner and carried it outside while Jessie fetched Shiro from the car.
“Sniff,” she said, and the dog sniffed.
So far, so good.
“Seek,” she said, and Shiro dragged her across the parking lot.
Not so good.
Saturday morning, and the place was deserted.Justin believed in having a sensible work/life balance, so nobody worked on the weekends unless there was an urgent project that needed completing.He got on his hands and knees and peered under a truck that hadn’t moved in a few days because its regular driver was on vacation, but there was nothing except a stray candy wrapper underneath.He dropped it into the trash can by the door.When he turned, the dog was sitting in front of the overgrown privet hedge that surrounded the temporary parking area, his tail wagging, and Jessie was bent over, rummaging in the foliage.Damn, that ass.
Totally inappropriate, douchebag.
“Did you find anything?”Justin called.
“Shiro indicated here.I can’t see a phone, though.But maybe…”
She straightened, and Justin saw something new in her eyes.Fear.
“What?What is it?”
“I think it’s a purse.”
A purse?A chill ran through Justin because he could see Amie dropping her phone by accident, but her whole purse?
No way.
CHAPTER18
