about Tera or her cell phone. Recalling the lecture that she’d received from Reese the last time that she—as he had so bluntly put it—had blabbed, Darla prudently shook her head.
“I’m just here with Jake.”
Besides, it could all be a false alarm, she reminded herself. No need to distress the man unduly until there was good reason. Then, taking a deep breath, she added, “Sorry about the other night when you stopped by. You took me by surprise. And that whole hiding-out-in-the-powder-room thing was Reese’s idea. He sprang that on me after I’d already buzzed you in. I was kind of caught, and I didn’t know what to do, so I went along with it.”
“Yeah, well, it did feel kind of like an ambush, but I understand where you’re coming from. A cop tells you to jump, you do it.”
Which sounded a bit like Hilda’s attitude, Darla thought, wondering where Barry had gotten his jaundiced view of the police. Then he added, “The thing is, I got the impression you know this cop personally, too.”
Darla blinked. Could Barry be, well, jealous? A bit cheered, she replied, “He’s Jake’s friend, and ex-partner, but that’s as far as it goes.”
“Okay. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t seeing him or anything.” Barry gave another small smile, but this time it appeared genuine. “It’s not a good move, trying to ask out a lady who’s already dating someone . . . especially a cop.”
“Guess not.” Darla smiled a little, too. “But to answer your question, no, I’m not seeing Reese or anyone else at the moment.”
“Great. Then maybe you’d have dinner with me tonight after you close the bookstore. You know, to take our minds off what’s happened.”
Darla considered the offer for a moment. Should the worst happen and they find Tera, she’d need a lot more than a nice meal to get over it. But she’d worry about that when—if—it happened.
“I guess we could do that,” she agreed. “You’ve seen that Greek restaurant a few doors down from the Thai place? I could meet you there at eight.”
“Eight is good.”
His gaze lingered on her long enough for her to feel a bit uncomfortable under his scrutiny. Turning her attention back to the Dumpster, she watched in unwilling fascination as Reese made his way section by section through it.
At least it wasn’t a regular garbage Dumpster he was searching, she thought, or he’d need to be wearing a hazmat suit. Still, it was likely that Reese’s shirt and trousers would be the worse for wear by the time he finished with his hunt. Jake was assisting him, although she’d wisely remained outside the container. Standing on an overturned bucket, she was taking the sections of plaster and board Reese was methodically handing to her. Given the effort they were making, Darla hoped that Reese was pretty darned sure the phone—and perhaps, by extension, the girl—was actually inside the Dumpster.
“Got it!”
The muffled shout came from Reese, who had been almost out of view from Darla’s angle, digging in the container’s depths. Beside her, she felt Barry go tense, his expression grim. Slowly, he rose, seeming to forget Darla was standing beside him. She gazed up at him uncertainly. Had he guessed what Reese was looking for?
Now, Reese popped up again clutching something in one gloved hand, and Darla reflexively jumped to her feet as well.
“What? What does he have?” Barry asked, but Darla was already trotting over to the container.
She halted next to Jake, who apparently now traveled about with small paper bags the way some people carried chewing gum. Carefully holding what Darla saw was a bright pink cell phone in two gloved fingers, the ex-cop slipped it inside the bag she’d pulled from her coat pocket. She sealed its top while Reese extracted himself from the tangle of lumber and broken plasterboard and crawled out of the Dumpster.
“Good job,” Jake congratulated him with a grim smile as she handed the evidence to him. “And thank God Tera wasn’t in there with her phone.”
“Are you sure?” Darla protested in a shaky voice. “I mean, could she possibly be . . .”
“Don’t worry, Red, she’s not in there,” Reese assured her. “I crawled in there pretty sure we were going to find her, but I dug through the whole container, and there wasn’t anything the size and shape of a body that I didn’t pull open. Wherever she is, it’s not here.”
“Thank God,” Darla echoed Jake’s sentiment. “But I guess we should let