Page 32 of 2 Sisters Murder Investigations

“You do realize, don’t you, that whoever she’s bangin’ on the side might have buried her in the desert somewhere.” Baby was relentless, her eyes wild. “Or the two of them might be by a pool in Palm Springs, sippin’ margaritas and wearin’ fake mustaches, while Troy stares down the barrel of a murder rap.”

“I didn’t — ”

“You’re an idiot!” Baby yelled. “You’re not a good friend, you’re an idiot!”

“Everybody, chill out!” I roared. Baby glared at me. I locked eyes with George Crawley in the rearview mirror. “Tell me you have the messages, George. Please, God, tell me you didn’t delete them.”

“I did delete them from the extra phone,” he admitted. “I didn’t want Troy to find them. But before I did, I made a screenshot and sent them to myself. Just in case.”

Silence descended on the car.

“The whole affair thing, it just about slipped my mind when we found the box,” George said.

Baby and I exchanged a look.

“You were there that night too?” I asked.

“I was there when he found the box.” George nodded. “We were searching the house, top to bottom, trying to find something. It was Troy who went down into the crawl space to sniff around. He came up with the box and ... we realized this was much bigger than just Daisy.”

“Is there anything about the box in the messages between Daisy and her lover?” Baby asked. “Jesus, dude. Whoever this person is, he might be the killer of all those missing people. Maybe Daisy was holding the trophy box for him. Maybe Daisy wasin on it.”

“Just slow down.” I put a hand on Baby’s leg. I had to be the rational head in the car. “Let’s figure all this out when we get to Troy. George.” I looked back at him. “You have to tell us where he is.”

George rubbed his bleeding nails. He wiped his cheeks and met my eyes in the mirror.

“Turn left here,” he said.

CHAPTER34

NOTHING ABOUT GEORGE CRAWLEY’Sapartment surprised me. Just inside his front door was a huge glass-fronted cabinet stuffed with Star Wars memorabilia and Sasquatch collectibles; manuals on how to locate the mythical beast were shoulder to shoulder with hand-painted 2-M Hover Tanks. We walked down the hall and passed a tidy room with a neatly made bed and a dressmaker’s mannequin by the window with some kind of velvet cloak hanging from its shoulders. There was an elaborate map spread out over a card table, with tiny painted figurines and symbol cards strategically placed on the fictional landscape.

“Maybe you guys should wait here.” George hovered uncertainly in his kitchen, which was full of fancy cocktail-making equipment. “The hiding spot’s not far away, but we might need to use it again if — ”

“Forget it,” Baby snapped. “We’re slapping an ankle monitor on Troy after this.Twoankle monitors. Now hand him over, nerd burger, before I start playing rough with your toys.”

George glanced worriedly at his cabinet, then led us back out into the apartment building’s hallway. We followed him three apartments down, then turned a corner.

“You have a second apartment?” I asked.

“No.” George sighed. “But I know this one is empty. The real estate agents have been showing it for weeks, and I noticed that they never lock the sliding door to the balcony. I told Troy that if he went out on my balcony and climbed from balcony to balcony, he could get into that apartment. Even if the cops came looking for him at my place, they’d never check an apartment down the hall.”

“Jesus.” Baby glanced out a window to the street. “We’re fifteen floors up!”

George shrugged. He stopped outside apartment 72 and knocked. “It’s me,” he said.

Troy opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw me and Baby, and he looked over at George, who seemed to be on the verge of tears again.

“I’m sorry, man.”

Troy swallowed an angry grunt and let us in. We stood in the bare living room surrounded by the stink of carpet cleaner. I gestured at George, who pulled his phone from his pocket. He tapped and swiped a few times, then handed the phone to Troy.

“There’s more bad news,” George said.

CHAPTER35

TROY SAT IN THEpassenger seat of the Chevy Impala, a silent, lean specter, sometimes napping with his head against the window. I held the wheel and turned over the consequences of Daisy’s affair in my mind.

The lottery win and her infidelity opened up whole new realms of possibilities. Daisy might have decided to take her half of the lottery winnings and run off with her lover. Or Troy might have learned about the infidelity and struck out in a rage. Or the mysterious lover might have been the one to lash out in jealousy.

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