Secrets Never Die (Morgan Dane #5)(4)

“What happened with Evan?” Assuming the boy had gotten himself arrested for something stupid, which was the usual reason one of the hockey parents called Lance, Morgan hurried past him and took a quick turn in the bathroom. Thirty seconds later, she opened her closet, grabbed a pair of black slacks, and stepped into them.

Lance tugged a gray T-shirt over his head. Tall, jacked, and grim-faced, he wore the tactical look well. “Tina came home from work. She found Paul shot to death and Evan missing.”

“Paul is dead?” Shock froze Morgan’s fingers for a heartbeat, then she continued buckling her belt. She’d briefly spoken to Tina’s new husband a few times during hockey games or when he’d picked up Evan from the rink.

Lance sat on the chair to put on his boots. “Yes. That’s all she said. When I told her to call 911, she hung up.”

“She didn’t do that first?” Odd. Morgan put on a white cotton blouse and shoved her feet into a pair of black pumps.

“No. She was upset.” Lance retrieved their handguns from the safe in the closet.

If Morgan had found a dead body, her automatic reaction would have been to call the police.

He holstered his gun at his hip and tucked it under his shirt. “I’ll start the Jeep.”

Morgan took her Glock and did the same. She grabbed her black blazer from the closet and her giant tote bag from the dresser. “I’ll be out in one minute.”

Her live-in nanny slept in the room down the hall, across from the bedroom that Morgan’s three little girls shared. She tapped on the door. At Gianna’s sleepy “yes,” Morgan poked her head into the room and gave her the news.

In an attempt to isolate the youngest from her contagious siblings, Morgan had put three-year-old Sophie in Gianna’s room. Morgan had made a bed on an inflatable mattress, but the little girl had climbed into bed with her nanny and stolen most of it. For a small and wiry child, she could take up a surprisingly large amount of space. Poor Gianna slept on her side in the remaining eight inches.

The dogs slipped through the open door, jumped onto Gianna’s bed, and curled up around Sophie’s sprawled limbs. Gianna responded to Morgan with a nod, rolled over, and tried to pull the edge of the blanket over her shoulders, but the child and dogs weighed it down and she gave up.

Closing Gianna’s door, Morgan turned and went into the girls’ room. Five-year-old Mia slept in a pile of stuffed animals, her loyal zebra tucked under one arm. Ava, at age six, barely moved in her sleep. Her covers were as tidy as when she’d gone to bed. Even her teddy bear was neatly tucked in. Morgan pressed a light kiss to each of their foreheads to check for fevers. Both were cool. A rush of love filled her chest and blurred her vision. She wiped a tear from her eye. She really needed some sleep.

Satisfied that both children were well, Morgan strode past the clear plastic sheeting taped over the demolished kitchen, which was in the gutting phase of a major renovation project. She went outside, locked the door behind her, and pressed the button on the key fob to reset the security system.

A hot gust whipped Morgan’s hair around her face as she rushed to the Jeep. The air felt heavy and damp. Thunder rolled, low and threatening in the distance.

Lance was waiting for her in the driver’s seat. She climbed into the SUV and fastened her seat belt as he backed out of the driveway.

“Would you call Sharp and let him know what’s going on? He knew Paul too. He’s going to want to help.”

Private investigator Lincoln Sharp, Lance’s boss, owned Sharp Investigations. Morgan called him and relayed the few facts they knew. Before he’d opened Sharp Investigations, Lincoln Sharp had served on the Scarlet Falls PD for twenty-five years, most of that time as a detective. Paul Knox had been a retired sheriff’s deputy. Limited staffing in rural jurisdictions often required law enforcement agencies to cooperate, and the two men had occasionally worked together.

Sharp digested the information in a second. “On my way.”

Morgan lowered her phone to her lap. The country road leading out of the neighborhood was dark and empty.

Lance rolled through a stop sign. “I can’t believe Paul is dead.”

“It’s horrible.” As a mother, Morgan’s thoughts immediately shifted to worrying about the missing teenager. “Poor Evan.”

“I don’t know how he’s going to react. He’s a good kid, but he’s already had his share of troubles. A few years ago, his father went to prison on an assault charge, and his parents divorced. Evan lashed out. He was arrested for underage drinking, vandalism, mostly stupid stuff.” Lance turned left. “He was becoming a frequent flier at the station, but he settled down over the next year. His grades started to recover. I expected even more improvement when his mother married Paul Knox last fall. I thought Paul’s presence in Evan’s life would be a good thing.”

But Morgan sensed the situation hadn’t panned out the way Lance had expected. “It wasn’t?”

“I don’t know,” Lance said. “Evan has seemed extra moody the last couple of months, but he won’t talk to me.”

Tina and Paul lived in the neighboring town of Grey’s Hollow, near the border with Scarlet Falls. At 1:53 a.m., Lance turned into a residential neighborhood of older homes built on large lots.

“Looks like we beat the sheriff’s department.” Lance pulled to the curb a half block away from Tina’s house. No doubt he didn’t want the Jeep to block access to the street for first responder vehicles. He and Morgan climbed out of the SUV.