Save Your Breath (Morgan Dane #6) - Melinda Leigh Page 0,24
a deadpan look that suggested that’s exactly what she’d wanted to do.
Lance met her gaze head-on.
“OK.” Her sigh was long-suffering.
“So we’re done.” Lance plucked the makeup kit from its peg, hung the costume over his arm, and steered the girls toward the front of the store. The wall of adult masks caught his attention again as they walked past. They were made of rubber and were meant to be worn over someone’s whole head. There were witches, skeletons, and horror-movie characters. His gaze lingered on the zombie mask Sophie had wanted. It was flesh colored, with open wounds and sunken eyes.
It reminded him of something.
The girls were at the head of the aisle.
With no time to study the mask, he grabbed one and hid it under Sophie’s costume. He hurried to catch up with the children. At the checkout counter, he distracted them with lollipops, pretending not to hear Ava whisper to Mia, “Mommy never lets us get the candy.”
He purchased the adult mask without them noticing and quietly asked the clerk to put it in a separate bag that he tucked under his arm as they navigated the parking lot.
Back in the van, Lance hid the bag under the passenger seat. Then he buckled the girls into their car seats and drove home. Once inside the house, the girls stampeded to their rooms to put on their costumes. Lance returned to the van for the mask. He took it to the bedroom and shut the door. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he pulled the mask from the bag and stretched the material between his fingers. It had plenty of give, but it could be ripped.
More important, the mask was the same texture, color, and thickness as the piece of rubber they’d found in Olivia’s bedroom.
Chapter Ten
Morgan drove Sharp’s Prius south on the interstate slowly enough to elicit three horn honks and two middle fingers from passing vehicles.
Sharp responded to the gestures in kind. “Those drivers are assholes. They can get around you.”
Morgan ignored them.
Sharp stared out the window, his gaze searching the roadside. Morgan slowed even more as they approached a bridge, and Sharp craned his neck to get a view of the sloping riverbank. But his tight-lipped expression told Morgan there were no breaks in the guardrail or tire tracks in the soft earth to indicate a car had driven off the road. Morgan glanced at the dark water as they crossed the river. Could her car have gone off a different road?
Leaving the bridge behind, Morgan brought the Prius back up to the minimum speed. “Does Olivia always take the same route to her parents’ house?”
“Unless there’s an accident or other major traffic delay,” Sharp answered without taking his eyes off the roadside. “I checked. There were no traffic issues this morning.”
“Is there anywhere else she would have stopped along the way? A reason she might have left the interstate?”
“I don’t know.” The sigh that eased from Sharp’s chest made her heart hurt. “But I also don’t know why she would have left her house at two in the morning. I don’t know why I’m even looking for her car. I doubt she was headed to her parents’ house at that hour. What was she doing?”
“It does seem strange. Maybe surveillance?”
“Maybe. But of whom?” Sharp’s voice was heavy with frustration. He motioned toward the windshield. “Take this exit.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence. The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the road in darkness. Morgan wished she had words of comfort, but Sharp’s head was no doubt full of every violent crime he’d investigated over the past thirty years. As was hers. In their professions, they had both seen the worst humanity had to offer. Neither one of them could be fooled into a blissfully ignorant but false sense of security.
Morgan turned Sharp’s car into a development. Olivia’s parents lived in a senior community of one-story cookie-cutter homes.
“That’s the house.” Sharp pointed to a tiny white house with red shutters. Light glowed from the windows. A blue minivan was parked at the curb.
Morgan parked the Prius behind the van, and they got out of the car.
Sharp stood on the sidewalk for a minute. “I don’t know what to say to them.”
A curtain moved in the window. Someone had been watching for them.
Morgan took his arm and steered him up the cracked concrete walk. “It’ll come to you.”
“I’ve talked to families before, but this is different,” Sharp said. “I know these people.”