“She had pictures and crap all over her house in Sugar Falls. She even had a framed photo on her desk at the crisis center. Where in the hell did all of that stuff go? It didn’t just disappear,” I said.
“Maybe she rented a storage unit or something,” Annabelle suggested.
“Maybe, but how would I find that out? The detectives didn’t mention anything when they were here, and they just told me they were about to close the case since no new evidence had been discovered. It’s not like I can ask Byte to do some searches for me. I feel like there is more to the story and I’m having a hard time letting that go,” I told her.
Annabelle straightened in her seat and grinned. “I know someone we can ask.”
Keegan arrived at Annabelle’s house with a wicked looking laptop and a smile on her face. “How much trouble am I letting you two get me into?”
“Not much, if any,” Annabelle answered. “We are trying to locate the personal belongings of someone recently deceased, possibly in a rented storage unit.”
Keegan nodded while she got her system up and running. She pushed a notepad toward Annabelle. “Jot down names, aliases, dates of birth, and any other information you have that might be useful.”
The sound of Keegan’s fingers hitting the keyboard was the only thing that could be heard for long minutes. “I’m not finding any kind of storage unit associated with either of those names. I did find some information on a recent property she purchased. Could the personal items be there?”
“No, the police said they didn’t find anything when they searched the house,” I said, disappointed.
“The police are involved in this?” Keegan asked, a hint of panic in her voice. “What’s really going on?”
I sighed and gave her a short version of what happened to Shaker and me and the questions we were trying to answer.
“Holy shit, Harper! I don’t even know what to say right now,” Keegan stammered. “Uh, now that I know more about what I’m looking for, let me see if I can dig anything up.” She went back to typing while Annabelle and I sat in silence. A few minutes passed, and Keegan snorted, “You guys need to talk. It feels like you’re both staring at me while I’m working and it’s distracting.”
We apologized and began chatting about mundane topics. I tried to pretend like Keegan wasn’t in the room, but I couldn’t and found myself glancing at her every few minutes. Finally, her head popped up, eyes wide, “I think I found something.”
Annabelle and I quickly joined her on the couch. Pointing at the screen, she asked, “Is this the house where you were kept?” When I nodded, she continued, “This house was built on top of an old coal mine. I was able to pull up an old map of the mine, and it looks like a mine shaft connects the house to another house several miles away.”
“Who owns the other house?” I almost yelled.
“Well, that brings up another interesting point. The documents naming Valarie Vine as the owner of the house were fake. There’re actually no records of the house that I can find. The other house and the land both are on are owned by William Anderson,” she said and pointed to the documents she had pulled up on her computer screen.
Annabelle gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She was white as a ghost, and I’m sure I looked very much the same.
“Do you know who that is?” Keegan asked.
Annabelle was already nodding her head.
“Boar.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Carbon
I had been at the garage busting my ass all day. We’d fallen behind schedule when we were searching for Harper, and we were close to being caught up. It was almost closing time when Phoenix called and told me I needed to come over to his house. Immediately, my mind went to Harper. Before I could ask, he assured me she was fine.
When I arrived at Phoenix’s house, I was surprised to find Harper there, as well as Keegan. Both of them were seated on the couch with Annabelle, perched in front of a large laptop, looking nervous as hell. I eyed them warily and glanced at Phoenix. “What’s going on?”
Phoenix ran his thumb and forefinger over his chin. “I don’t know whether to be pissed or proud right now. Seems these three decided to play detective and managed to dig up something that Byte, Spazz, and the cops missed.”
“Is somebody going to tell me what they found?” I asked, not bothering to hide my irritation.
Harper turned her body to face me. “Annabelle offered to help me get through reading the journal. That’s what we were talking about this morning. Anyway, as we were reading it, a lot of things didn’t make sense. Hilarie would refer to something she had previously written, but it was nowhere to be found in the journal we have. That led us to believe she had other journals. I wanted to find those as well as any of her other personal belongings because I want answers. I want to know why she did this to me. I want to know who helped her. I want to know how in the hell she got me and Shaker to that house!”
Annabelle placed a comforting hand on Harper’s shoulder. “I knew Keegan’s computer skills could rival Byte’s, so I asked her to come over and help us. We thought maybe she had a storage unit in her name somewhere. Anyway, Keegan worked her magic and discovered that Hilarie’s house, the one she took Harper and Shaker to, wasn’t actually her house and was built on top of an old coal mine with a shaft that connects to another house several miles away,” Annabelle said, stopping abruptly, her eyes darting to Phoenix.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The other house and the property are owned by Boar.”
I heaved in breath after breath, trying to keep my rage contained, at least until I knew more. “You talked to him?” I gritted out.