for a long-term rental and hoped the apartment was still available.
When she looked up at Brick, she expected to see disapproval in his expression because of how easily the lie had come to her lips. Instead, he was rising to his feet, his eyes fixed on his pickup parked in front of their motel unit. She watched him walk over to the truck and pull what appeared to be a folded sheet of paper from under the passenger-side windshield wiper.
As he unfolded the paper and read what was written there, his gaze shot to her. Mo felt her heart begin to pound.
* * *
BRICK HANDED MO the note he’d found on his pickup’s windshield. He watched her quickly unfolded it and read the words neatly printed there.
Chasing me won’t give you the answers you want. You should be looking for the man Tricia had been seeing. I don’t know his name. I only saw him once. Blond with blue eyes, about six-two or six-three. I swear I didn’t hurt the baby. But if Joey was her lover’s baby... By the way, someone is following you.
He watched her refold the note and put it into her pocket without a word. He could tell that she was upset, but what was written on the note didn’t seem to come as a shock compared to what Natalie had already told her at the hospital. Was it why she hadn’t let Natalie tell her that day at the house before Joey died? She hadn’t wanted to hear it, still didn’t want to believe it.
“We going to discuss this?” he asked when she still said nothing.
Mo opened her mouth, but closed it as her cell phone rang. She checked the phone and then took the call, listening for a few moments before she said, “That’s too bad. I’m one of the new teacher aides at the elementary school.” Brick’s eyebrows shot up. The woman was a born liar. “Do you have any other units?” If Mo were right, Natalie would have only taken the apartment short-term, apparently now making the landlord regret renting it. “I’m moving here soon and anxious to get settled into a place.” Again she listened before she smiled. “I’d love to see it.” If Natalie had rented the apartment, she would have already been moved in, he thought.
Mo gave the man her number again and disconnected. “He’s going to call the new renter to see if she’s home and he can show the apartment. She only rented it for a few weeks.” When the phone rang, he started and saw Mo take a breath before she picked up. “Hello? Yes? Oh, that’s too bad. But could you at least tell me where it is? I could drive by. If I like the area, I’ll get something temporary until it opens up.”
He saw her nod before she disconnected. “Let’s go,” she said and started for her side of the pickup. “She’s at the apartment. But the call from her landlord will probably spook her.”
“You’re that sure the woman who rented the apartment is Natalie?” he said, wondering if Mo was ever wrong about anything. She didn’t bother to answer, her gaze on the street ahead as she repeated the directions to the apartment that the landlord had given her.
Brick felt his pulse jump. This could be it. They could be about to confront Natalie. Ennis was already busy, the traffic slow and congested until they got away from the main street in town. He tried to remain calm, uncertain how this would go down. He could see Mo tapping the edge of her side window with her fingertips, clearly impatient. Clearly anxious. He was glad he was driving instead of her. She wore an expression that told him she would have plowed through the cars and pedestrians, horn blaring.
The apartment was in an older area of town. He drove down the street slowly, looking for the stolen silver SUV in a state that had hundreds of silver SUVs.
“The apartment is on the third floor, a small one-bedroom with stairs off the back,” Mo said. “That’s it.” She pointed at a tall white building with navy trim that had clearly once been a single dwelling, now made into three apartments. Two bikes were chained to the front porch. A small pickup was parked out front along with a smaller compact car next to the two-car garage.
He pulled over. “I don’t see a silver SUV, but I suppose it could be in the garage.”
“She