Page 40 of Lake
“And her parents? I don’t see anything about them in here. Where did the father go to when he took off and Ms. Banks’ mother, who is she?”
“I thought I put it in the file I sent with you,” he said and I quickly scanned the documents again, only I knew it wasn’t there because I’d read them multiple times already. Sure enough, I didn’t find what I was asking about. “It must be at the office. I’ll look when I get in tomorrow and call you. Anything else?”
I could tell that he was ready to get off the phone which frustrated me for some reason right now.
“Just anything else you can find for me. I feel like this case is a waste of time. There’s like nothing here, Art.”
I wished I’d been smart enough to look over the information before I took off. I mentally kicked myself for just going with it. Sure, it might have taken me another day to gather everything I needed to feel like I wasn’t chasing my tail, but what was one more day? Especially given that I was doing the same thing only I didn’t have access to all the things I did back home.
“Yeah,” he grunted but I didn’t take offense to it, it was just him.
“Call me tomorrow when you find something, please.”
“Yep,” he replied, then he was gone. I would have expected nothing less from him.
I tossed the file on top of the dashboard and settled in for a long night.
I searched the surrounding buildings with my eyes. There were no lights on anywhere. This seemed like some lost part of the city. The buildings were weathered like they’d been here a long time. I could almost see the history in them and it was sad to see the shape they were in. There seemed to be a few offices on the lower levels of a couple of the buildings. I imagined that it was cheap rent and I wondered how they even thrived out here. It was too late at night to see if they were actually still open. If they were, the employees were long gone and home, probably settling into bed only to return here in just a few hours.
Sometimes I got thrown off by my odd schedule. It was strange to be awake when most people were probably sleeping. Hell, I wished I was in bed. But this was the job, sometimes you had to be out when the shady shit happened. Which, you know, was in the dead of night.
Headlights lit up the SUV from behind. I craned my neck to try and see but the lights were too bright. Whoever it was, they were parked behind me. I waited but they didn’t cut the lights or exit the vehicle. So I waited some more, my eyes now in the side rearview so I wasn’t so blinded.
“What the fuck. Come on asshole, do something,” I mumbled.
Finally, the door opened but the lights remained on. Someone stepped out and headed my direction with that walk of authority.
Great.
Just what I needed. Sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong but it was still a fucking hassle to deal with cops, especially in a foreign city. Good thing I’d already talked to that detective yesterday.
What the hell was his name?
Fuck, I couldn’t remember. I had his card in my bag but I was smart enough not to go rooting around for it right now.
I hit the button to roll down the window then set my hands on top of the steering wheel. I knew it was hard being a cop and very dangerous. So it was always my thought to make it known that I wasn’t a threat. I mean, it was also for my safety as well, I didn’t want to get shot.
“Got a complaint about a suspicious car parked on this road.”
I turned to see the detective whose name I had forgotten. I wasn’t sure if seeing him was a good thing or a bad one. It seemed a little odd that he would be the one to come out and check on a call like this. It was more something beat cops would have to do. Wasn’t the whole point of stepping up not having to do the shit jobs anymore? Hmmm. Something didn’t sit right with me.
“Hello, Detective.” I tried to hide the strain from my voice. “Just me. And I’m working. Like I told you about.” I was going for playful but he didn’t seem like he was one for jokes.
“Mind if I sit?” he asked as his eyes flicked to the empty passenger’s seat. Since I didn’t have anything to hide, I just shrugged.
I popped the locks as he rounded the front of the SUV.
I took note of how he opened the door with authority. And how he took a seat next to me a little too casually. This was a seasoned detective on a mission.
While others might not be able to see it, I was good at reading people. At seeing the little things that they tried to hide or the way that they overcompensated certain things to hide what was going on in their heads.
What could I tell from him at the moment?
He wasn’t just here to check out a random car parked on the side of a dead street. But I could also tell that he wasn’t going to hurt me.
“Any luck with your case?” he asked once he shut the door.
“Not much. I’m waiting for my partner to call me with an update. I think this is a dead end.”
