the hall.
I shot Marco a frustrated glance. We hadn’t gotten a single piece of information. Why was he just letting Mobley walk away?
Marco had already spun around, however, and he flicked his eyes toward the front door.
He’d insisted I follow his lead, and I’d agreed, so I gritted my teeth and walked out, holding the door open for him. I waited until we were in the car to let loose.
“What the hell, Marco? Why didn’t you ask him about Charlie?”
“Because it’s plain as day that man is guilty of something, and we’re gonna tail him.” He started the car and steered us out of the parking lot. “Carly,” he said when he saw I wasn’t appeased. “We weren’t gonna get a confession out of him.”
“We could have tried!”
“No,” he said, turning toward downtown Ewing. “This is better. We made him nervous, which means he thinks we know something about him. Mark my words, he’s gonna run scared like a chicken from a fox.” He shot me a glance. “And we’re gonna follow him.”
Once we were out of sight of the funeral home, he turned left onto a side street.
“What does he think we know?” I asked. “He only landed on our radar because Ruth remembered seeing Charlie with Dwight.”
“That’s the question of the year. Like I said, I always suspected he was more involved in the drug smuggling than the department determined. But we didn’t press him for information, and it seems odd that he’d freak out at just the sight of us together. Which leads me to believe Charlie does work for Mobley, and they know we’ve been looking into Lula’s and Greta’s disappearances.” He turned again, heading down a residential street that would lead him back toward the funeral home.
I released a sharp gasp. “You think Mobley has something to do with their disappearances?”
“Maybe.” He snuck a glance at me before returning his attention to the road. “What if those packages Lula was delivering were for Mobley?”
“Why would she do that?” A sick, slimy feeling washed through my insides. “Oh. No.”
“What?” Marco asked in a sharp tone.
I shifted in the seat to face him. “Remember the other boyfriend? Lula was sleeping with an older man.” I paused and choked out, “A man of great importance.”
His face twisted in disgust. “You think Mobley’s a man of great importance?” he asked in disbelief.
“God, no. I don’t, but someone like Lula might. He wears a suit. Owns a business. Is considered respectable. Drives a Lexus.”
“Shit.” He ran a hand over his head. “That is so disturbing I might have to bleach out my brain. How old do you think that fucker is?”
“I don’t know. Maybe early to late sixties?”
Marco shuddered. “Too old to be a new dad.” His eyes widened. “Too in need of the community’s respect to knock up someone other than his wife.”
“You think he took Lula because he doesn’t want to be a father?”
“That’s been one of our working theories, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”
“But it’s Pete Mobley,” I protested. “Is he capable of hurting her?”
“Maybe not. That would be a reason for hirin’ someone like Charlie. It sounds like maybe he is capable of such a thing.”
My stomach churned.
The funeral home came into view at the end of the street, the Lexus fully visible. Marco pulled over to the curb and put the Explorer in park. “Mobley’s reputation is already on the line with the drug smuggling. If word gets out that he’s been cheatin’ on his wife with a woman in her twenties, and he got her pregnant to boot? I’m not sure he’d recover.”
I swallowed bile. “So he took her to keep his dirty little secret.”
Which meant she was dead.
“Hey,” Marco said, reaching over and snagging my hand. “Don’t think the worst.” But I heard the hopelessness in his voice.
“He runs a funeral home, Marco,” I said flatly. “His business is taking care of dead bodies.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I know.”
“Greta.” My voice broke, and I couldn’t stop a tear from falling down my cheek. “If Charlie took her, it’s because I was talking to her.” I released sob. “What if I got her killed, Marco?”
“Hey,” he said, turning in his seat to face me. He was still holding my hand and squeezed it. “Let’s not think like that.”
“It’s hard not to.”
“We don’t know that they’re dead. He might be keepin’ them alive somewhere. When he leaves, he might lead us right to them.” Which meant we were back to the original theory