Page 101 of Smith

“Copy,” Cash said and disconnected.

I looked around Billy Rice’s bedroom.

Bland, boring, no personality, nothing on the walls, nothing on the dresser or nightstands. If we hadn’t had confirmation from the neighbor Mike that Billy actually lived in this house, I’d wonder if he did.

I opened a drawer in his dresser.

White socks, folded neatly, all lined up. I opened another drawer. Boxers, all grey, folded neatly. I went through each drawer and found much of the same. Tees precisely folded, white in one drawer, shades of blue in another, black in another. All plain, no logos.

The closet the same, color-coded and clean.

Good Christ, I’d had to stand for inspection and my footlocker had never been as exact and organized as his closet.

Something was wrong—it was not the way Billy kept his home, it wasn’t that his cell was in the kitchen, his truck in the driveway, his ass not in bed—it was all of that and more.

The why of it.

I could feel it.

I pulled my phone back out of my pocket, scrolled to Aria’s number but didn’t get to connect the call before Easton raced into the room.

“I got something.” He held out a sheet of paper. “Cash receipt for the storage place. Name on the receipt is George Calvin, unit six-two-four-one.”

“George Calvin?”

What the fuck?

“Payment is cash, no way to confirm if it’s George’s or Billy’s.”

“Kira said there are no working cameras.” I reminded Easton.

“Nope. We need into the unit and we need to talk to the manager and show him…or her pictures of both men. Hopefully, they’ll feel helpful.”

Yes, we needed to do that after the facility opened. Before that we needed to break into the unit. One good thing about cameras not working was Garrett didn’t have to worry about taking them offline while we did our thing.

“Let me call Aria—” My phone vibrated in my hand.

Zane’s name scrolled across the screen.

That feeling I had turned poisonous.

I fucked up leaving Aria in bed.

Alone in bed in her house.

An address Billy knew.

Fuck!

I connected the call.

“Yo.”

“Get Jonas and get your ass to Aria’s. Leave the rest?—”

I was already jogging out of the bedroom when I interrupted.

“What the fuck’s going on?”

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