Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(14)

Mr. Nash doesn’t have an extra computer for me, so I drag my laptop out of my bag and fire it up. He gave me some pointers on how to search for people, and once you get into the databases it’s pretty easy to find just about anyone. Anyone except Edith Wheeler. Leo joked that she was probably a CIA operative with a secret identity or something, total black ops. Short of taking a trip to Montana to stake out the P.O. Box, we’re pretty short on leads for old Edith.

I’m sifting through old Craigslist ads from around the time when Edith disappeared when a hand holding a cup of take-out tea slides into my line of sight. Ever since Leo found out I drink tea instead of coffee he brings me a cup every morning from the same place he goes to get his coffee fix. I told him a thousand times that I don’t want him to get me tea. What I didn’t tell him is that I can’t afford to pay him back for it. He just shrugged and told me not to worry about it. He was going there anyway. I finally gave up telling him to stop.

“Thank you,” I say, with a twinge of embarrassment. I’m not used to people doing nice things for me.

“You’re welcome.”

He slides into his seat behind his desk, which faces mine. It was his idea to set them up like this. He said it was so we could communicate more efficiently. I think it was so he could watch me. That’s what I told myself. I’m ashamed to admit that he’s caught me staring more times than I’ve caught him.

I pop the lid off my tea. It’s exactly the way I make it—with milk and sugar. Closing my eyes, I wrap my hands around the cup and inhale. I love the way Earl Grey smells. It reminds me of my English grandma, who used to fix Yankee tea minus the tea—hot water, milk, and sugar—for Beau and me when we were kids. She made a pot of Earl Grey everyday for herself and the scent permeated her house. I take a sip and a brief jog back in time to when our family was together and things were normal. Happier times. Much happier times.

I open my eyes to find Leo watching me.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He pretends to get busy turning his own laptop on.

“Hmm.”

“Did you start on that search?”

“Yeah, I’m tackling Craigslist first.”

“I’ll take the PennySaver after I check for updates on the Wheeler family tree on that ancestry website.”

We’ve already eliminated the obvious listings in newspapers and Internet searches. Someone somewhere stashed this old woman and we just have to find out who and where.

We work for the next few hours with no luck. A mysterious relative hasn’t suddenly popped up who could be harboring Edith, and the other listing websites were a total bust. I finished up my letter to Beau earlier, so I stick a stamp on it and set it in the outgoing mailbox on Savannah’s credenza. She’s busy clicking away on her computer or else she’s in the running for an acting award, because it’s like I really am invisible.

Leo comes up behind me and opens the door.

“Where are you going?” Savannah asks him.

“Cora and I have an appointment.” He’s using his patient voice, but he’s not very good at it.

She crosses her arms. “Uh-huh.”

“Tell my dad we’ll be back in a few hours.”

“More like five minutes,” she mumbles under her breath.

I bite my lip to keep from laughing.

“Excuse me?” he asks her. He had to have heard her.

“I said you two have fun.”

He waits until we’re outside to lose it. “When is she going to stop being such a bitch and get over it?”

“You’re getting off easy, Five-Minute Man. If you did to me what you did to her you wouldn’t be walking so good.”

He makes a face at my nickname. “She’s never going to get over me breaking things off with her, is she?”

“She will. When she meets someone else. I put her on the email list of about twenty different dating websites. Hopefully she’ll move on soon.”

He stares at me across the roof of his car, a slow, wicked smile creeping across his face. “You’re an evil genius.”

“Only if it works.”

We climb in the car and he pulls out onto the street toward Horton Plaza, a big downtown shopping mall. We’re meeting Mindy Sumrow at Forever 21, where she worked with Cassandra. I’m hoping she can tell us more about Cassandra’s life during the time she and Beau were broken up. Five years ago she was less than helpful when I tried to talk to her. I try not to count on her being more forthcoming this time around.

We park in the parking structure attached to the mall and locate the Forever 21 on the mall map. It’s on level one. So are we. As we walk I notice the feminine stares Leo gets and how women continue to blatantly check him out front to back. I know he’s hot—I’m focused, not dead—but I don’t think of him in that context. We’ve developed kind of an asexual friendship of sorts. We’re together all day everyday, we get along well, but I wouldn’t say there is any chemistry between us. One of the chicks we pass lets out a low whistle as she checks him out from behind. I drop back a little to see what all the fuss is about and I get it. I totally get it.

Leo turns to look at me with a question on his face, probably wondering why I slowed down.

“You have a nice ass,” I tell him.

He stumbles over his feet and comes to a halt, staring at me with an odd look on his face.