Justice Delayed (Memphis Cold Case #1)(83)

“My apartment . . .” Her knees buckled, and she sank to the floor. “It’s been trashed.”

“I’m on my way.”





27


WILL CALLED BRAD AS HE SPED ACROSS TOWN. “Someone trashed Andi’s apartment. How far away are you?”

“I’m still at Mom and Dad’s waiting on the crime scene techs.”

“Stay with that. I’ll take care of Andi.” Will took the last corner almost on two wheels. “I’m almost there.”

He wheeled into the driveway, slammed on the brakes, and jumped out. Andi sat on the deck, rocking back and forth. It barely registered that she had on the same clothes from last night.

“I couldn’t stay in there,” she said when he topped the steps. “Steph’s horse is gone, and it’s my fault.”

He knelt beside her. “It’s not your fault. I’m so sorry this is happening.”

“Yes, it is my fault.” She buried her face in her hands.

He turned as Treece opened her back door.

“What’s going on?” she asked, tightening the belt on her robe.

He waved her over. “Can you help her? I need to check inside.”

“Of course.” Treece hurried to Andi’s side. “What happened?”

Andi’s answer was lost as Will stepped through the open back door and scanned the room. Books lay on the floor where they’d been dumped from the bookcase. Pillows and cushions were shredded. He took out his phone and once again called for crime scene techs.

Will raked his fingers through his hair. How had this happened if Andi was here last night? Unless it happened while she was at the hospital, but if that was the case, why hadn’t she seen it when she came home?

He walked back to the deck. Treece had wrapped a comforter around Andi’s shoulders.

“What’s going on?” Treece asked. “All she’ll say is ‘it’s gone.’”

“Someone broke in and trashed her apartment looking for something. He took the horse sculpture Stephanie made.”

“No, I have it,” she said.

Andi jerked her head up. She grabbed Treece’s arm. “What? You have it?”

“Yes. I took it yesterday afternoon because I wanted to fix the chip for you, but . . .” She shrugged. “Reggie came over and I never got around to it. I’ll go get it.”

“There’s something else you need to know,” Andi said to Will after Treece left. “Whoever did this left a message in my shower. That’s really why I called you.”

Will bolted for the door before she finished speaking. Why hadn’t she told him already? Something was going on that he didn’t understand.

The shower curtain lay crumpled on the floor, and he read the message on the tile. Last warning. Give me what I want. It looked like the intruder had written it with a red marker and then turned the shower on so the writing ran and looked like blood.

Resolve settled in Will’s stomach. He strode to the deck where Treece had returned with the horse. “Both of you pack a bag,” he said. “You can’t stay here until we catch whoever is doing this.”

“Why are they doing this?” Andi cried. “What do they want?”

Treece shook her head. “What they want doesn’t matter. Whoever did it is desperate, and if you’d been home, they would have killed you.”

She was right. “You have to leave,” Will said.

“Where did you go last night, anyway?” Treece asked. “I heard your back door shut, and when I looked out, you were pulling out of the drive. I texted and called, but you never answered.”

Andi’s already pale face grew even paler, and she pressed her hand against her mouth. “I . . . just went out. I must not have set the alarm. Did you hear anything while I was gone?”

Treece shivered and hugged her arms to her body. “No. I took ibuprofen for my shoulder and went back to sleep.”

Andi turned to Will. “Do you think someone was watching my apartment and saw me leave?”

Will could kick himself for not watching the house since he caught the private investigator lurking about. He’d checked him out, though, and there wasn’t a hint of scandal about him anywhere.

But what if he’d discovered Stephanie had been smuggling diamonds? And she stole some of them? The PI could have been hired to get the diamonds back, and maybe he thought Andi had them?

Or . . . The pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Maybe it wasn’t the PI but whoever had killed Lacey. If he found the letters she’d written, the killer believed the diamonds were in Andi’s possession. And if he’d killed twice to get them, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill again.



The look on Will’s face scared Andi.

“How did he know I didn’t set the alarm?” She rubbed the horse’s back, her fingers seeking the hole where it had chipped.

“What you said—he was watching your apartment. Something alerted him when you left that you hadn’t set it.”

She knew what that was. He probably could tell she was stoned. At least he hadn’t gotten Steph’s sculpture. Her fingers ran over something hard, and she glanced down. At first her mind didn’t comprehend what she was seeing, then she realized there was a piece of glass or a rock embedded in the clay. “Why would Steph put glass in this horse?”