“I’m not takin’ it. I’m lookin’ at it. And don’t worry about me destroying evidence or leavin’ a trace of me bein’ here. I’m no amateur.”
“I know all about you, Carlisle,” Joe sneered. “Which is why I’m none too thrilled you’re sleepin’ with my sister.”
I almost told him we weren’t sleepin’ together, but Jed spoke before I could.
“Good thing I didn’t ask your permission.”
“Stop your fightin’!” I said. “Joe, if Jed says he needs to look at his phone, then let him. You know he’ll be careful.”
“Fine,” Joe grunted. “Let me get some gloves out of my car.” He stomped down the steps again to his car, then opened the trunk and pulled out several pairs of latex gloves. When he reached the porch, he tossed a couple to Jed. “I’m watchin’ what you do.”
“Fine by me.” Jed walked into the house, then tromped down the basement stairs with me, Joe following behind. Joe shut the kitchen door to keep Muffy from coming with us.
“Where’s the body?” Jed asked when he reached the bottom.
“In the darkroom,” I said.
He rounded the corner and reached the room in several purposeful strides, pausing at the room’s entrance. “The night-light’s out.”
“You’re mighty familiar with Neely Kate and Rose’s house,” Joe said dryly.
Jed shot him a smart-ass look.
My brother wasn’t backing down. “Do you happen to know anything about the deadbolt that’s been installed in that room?”
I knew it had been too much to hope that Joe wouldn’t notice.
Jed challenged him with a look as he pulled his own phone out of his front jeans pocket with his gloved hands and turned on the flashlight. “I was the one who installed it.”
“What the hell for?” Joe demanded.
Jed scoffed. “Isn’t it obvious?”
I shot Joe a look of warning, then moved to Jed’s side. “I’ll hold your phone.”
Jed searched my face, his eyes filled with worry. “Are you up to it?”
My back stiffened. “I’m made of sterner stuff than this.”
He gave me a worried grin. “That’s my girl.”
He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss, then handed me his phone.
Ignoring Joe’s glare, I shone the light on the dead man propped up against the wall. Jed searched the body, then pulled a phone out of the guy’s front pants pocket.
Joe stood behind me, literally breathing down my neck.
Picking up the man’s right index finger, Jed pressed the lock button on the phone. The screen burst with light as it unlocked.
“Neely Kate,” Jed said. “Open my phone and be ready to take photos.”
“Lookin’ for anything in particular?” Joe asked.
“Somebody called Neely Kate twice yesterday. I aim to find out if it was this guy.” He scrolled through the phone, and his lips pressed together. “Yep. It was him.”
“He was stayin’ at the Holiday Inn,” I said. “Joe’s got a key card to his room.”
Jed’s gaze flicked up to Joe. “I’m gonna need that card.”
“Just hold up,” Joe said. “Nobody’s getting anything right now. Just take your damn photos. Then we’ll discuss it.”
“Neely Kate,” Jed said. “Get a shot of this.”
“Your phone’s locked. Do you want to enter the code?”
Jed scrolled the dead guy’s screen as he said, “Two, one, eight, five, zero, one.”
“You don’t mind me hearin’ that?” Joe asked.
“I’ll be changin’ the code soon enough,” Jed said dryly. “Even though I’m partial to that one.” Then he shot me a quick glance before turning his attention back to his task.
I took photos of multiple screens of phone calls the man had made, as well as his contacts list, which wasn’t as large as I would have expected for a man who was likely a private investigator.
He opened his text and interest filled his eyes. “He’s supposed to meet someone at noon today at the Blue Plate Diner. The truck stop outside of town.”
“Who set it up?” Joe asked. “The dead guy or the person he’s meeting?”
“The dead guy. One of us has to show up and find out who it is.”
“Anything else interesting in his texts?” Joe asked.
“Yeah . . . the fact he hardly has any texts at all. This is either a new phone or he’s wiped out the old texts.”
“Probably the latter,” Joe said.
“I’m gonna look at his photos next.” Jed opened the app and flinched when the first image popped up—a photo of me on my front porch. There were multiple shots of me—in the landscaping office, having lunch with Rose, walking Muffy behind the house.
“He’s been stalkin’ you,” Joe said in a tight voice.
“But only a couple of days from the look of it based on her clothes,” Jed said.
Sure enough, he had photos of me from yesterday and the day before.
Jed scrolled through more images, then stopped. “This photo is in Ardmore. That’s Zelda’s trailer.”
I leaned closer. Sure enough, he had photos of her trailer, but I didn’t see her old gold Charger in the driveway. Jed opened up the information about the photo. “He was there three days ago. We need to call Zelda and find out if she talked to them.”
“Who’s Zelda?” Joe asked, leaning over to look.
Jed answered, “The woman who took Neely Kate in when she went back to Ardmore after she graduated.”
Joe’s brow lifted, but he kept quiet.
Jed resumed his photo scrolling task, pausing when he got to several photos outside of my old best-friend-turned-traitor’s apartment, Stella. During my trip back to Ardmore, Jed had helped me realize that Stella hadn’t been my friend at all but instead had been in cahoots with Branson. Visiting her at her apartment had driven his point home.
“This guy was puttin’ things together, Jed,” I said, my heart racing.
“We don’t know that, Neely Kate,” Jed said in a soothing tone. “All we know is that he was snooping around. We don’t know what he found.”
“You know Stella ratted me out.”
Jed scrolled past several more photos, then stopped. “Not necessarily.”
There on the screen was a photo of Branson with Stella and her baby, Crystal, sitting in a fast-food restaurant. The baby’s face was filthy and the once-white T-shirt she was wearing was a dingy gray and covered in stains.
“Crystal,” I said, my distress evident. “Stella got her back.” Jed had called DFS on her after we’d dropped by to visit Stella and found the baby covered in dried food and poop. It had killed me to leave that sweet baby with her meth-addicted mother, especially after Stella had admitted she only wanted the baby to collect her welfare… and the fact Stella was trying to rope Branson in, as the baby was supposedly his.
Jed’s gaze lifted to mine, his eyes full of compassion. “We can’t think about the baby right now, NK. One problem at a time, okay?” he asked gently. “But I promise you, when this is all said and done, we’ll make sure she’s okay.”
His face was blurry through my tears as I nodded, and Joe was surprisingly quiet.
Jed scrolled through several more photos. “I’ve given Branson some thought since we left Ardmore… about whether he’d talk to anyone lookin’ into Manchester’s death.” He looked up at me. “I think he’s got too much to lose if he blabs.”
“You’re supposin’ no one knows about the contract,” Joe said. “Do you have a copy?”
Jed hesitated for a moment. “No. I searched the bag and the money, and there was nothing there. And it definitely wasn’t on his person.”
Joe turned to me. “Does Branson have it?”
“The last time I saw the contract was the day before I was supposed to hook up with the guy. Branson tried to get me to sign it, and I refused. I don’t know if the guy signed it, though. If it’s not signed, it’s not legal, right?”
“None of it would be legal,” Joe said. “But it could prove intent on Branson’s part as well as the pervert he sold you to. Depending on the wording in the contract, it could have shown you were in danger and acted in self-defense. We need to know if Branson talked, and if so, what he said and to who.”
“We need to go to this guy’s hotel room,” I said. “If he’s legit, wouldn’t he keep notes on a laptop or a tablet?”