Page 95 of Unleashed

“Not yet, but I think there’s a high likelihood we’ll be able to identify someone. Once I’ve finished compiling a list of names, I can cross reference that with the videos from the security cameras outside your trailer. I know the men who broke in were wearing masks, but that doesn’t mean there’s no identifying information. Same with the guy walking his dog. He had a baseball cap on and the collar of his jacket pulled up, so his face isn’t visible, but that isn’t a dealbreaker.”

Maren steps closer to me as Heidi starts explaining how proportions and mathematical equations can be used to determine height and weight. Her hands grip the front of my shirt as she listens intently to a monologue about how clothing alone can be enough to track someone down.

By the time Heidi finishes telling us all about the tools at her disposal and how she plans to use them, my brain is mush, but Maren is still sharply focused and hanging on every word.

Normally, I’d be taking this call on my own, trying like hell to absorb every word. But not tonight. Tonight I have someone just as eager to listen and understand as I am at my side. And I appreciate that just as much as I appreciate not eating dinner alone.

Heidi is launching into an explanation of her plans for the computer, when Quinn knocks on the door. I beckon him in through the glass, asking Heidi to hang on just a second.

“I just want to make sure Zara’s allowed to have brownies.” Quinn grins. “She’s real fucking convincing, and I don’t want to get my ass kicked right out of the gate.”

“Brownies, plural?” Maren groans. “I didn’t even think about her trying to butter you up for extra brownies.” She turns to me. “I’ll be right back.”

Quinn follows her down the hall as Maren goes to start a negotiation with a five-year-old.

“Is Maren gone?” Heidi whispers through the line.

I switch off the speaker and put the phone to my ear, stepping away from the open door. “She is.”

“I don’t know her super well, so I wasn’t sure how delicate information would be delivered best.” Heidi sounds abnormally cautious.

“What sort of delicate information?” Heidi is always brash and blunt, and her hesitancy doesn’t sit right in my gut. “Is it about the men who broke into her trailer?”

“No.”

I wait for Heidi to say more—she always does. Not this time, apparently. The other end of the line remains silent, forcing me to prompt her. “What is it about?”

“Her mother.” Another short, strangely hesitant answer.

Followed by another unusual silence.

“Do you think her mother was part of this?” It’s still one of the possibilities—far-fetched as it is—I’ve been considering. Maybe her mother’s dealers leveled up. Technology is always advancing, and people who want money always figure out a way to get it. It isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility that the camera was planted by someone looking to rob Maren. It could be exactly what we initially believed it was. Thugs who wanted to settle a debt.

It doesn’t explain the laptop, but who knows why people do what they do? Maybe they believed it was a personal computer and they’d be able to get Maren’s stored passwords somehow.

I’m still clinging to that possibility as I wait for Heidi’s answer. Hoping with everything I have that we can put all this behind us. That I overreacted by bringing Quinn here, and I don’t have to fear for Maren and Zara’s safety.

But then Heidi pulls the rug right out from under me.

“Her mother couldn’t have been involved in this, because she died six months ago.”

Fuck.

I rake a hand through my hair as I begin to pace. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Heidi still sounds cautious when she asks, “Are you going to tell her?”

“I have to.” Maren deserves to know. Not just because of what it means for this investigation, but also because it might provide some sort of closure for her.

After promising to find everything she can about Maren’s mother, Heidi hangs up, leaving me alone with the dread chewing through my gut.

I had plenty of expectations for tonight. Hoped maybe I could lure Maren into my bed after everyone else went to sleep. Instead, I get to tell her the mother who made her life a living hell is dead, and I’m essentially responsible for the break-in at her home.

Fucking great.

30

Maren