I’m about to turn the page, but then I see the number of the warehouse again. Seven digits. It starts with the same two digits as the numbers my father gave me, too.
Is it possible my father was directing me to a warehouse? What if that was where he was going the night he was killed? What if he was supposed to meet someone there?
I rush out of the room to find Leo.
“What’s wrong?” he asks as soon as he sees me.
I pause a moment to catch my breath. “I have a new lead on my father’s murder.”
~
I take a deep breath as I stand in front of the entrance to the warehouse.
Just as I thought, this one has the same numbers as those on the sheet of paper my father left me. It’s owned by a different company, a recycling firm. Or at least, it was. Leo tried to get in touch with the firm but found that it had closed down months ago and that all its properties had been put up for sale. The new warehouse owner? We weren’t able to find out.
I guess there’s only one way to find out.
“Are you sure you want to come inside with me?” Leo asks me as he puts his gloves on. “Because I’d feel better if you stayed in the car.”
“I want to go in,” I tell him as I put on my own gloves.
My dad left this message for me. He wanted me to find this place. I sure as hell am going to find out what’s inside it.
“You are aware we’re breaking the law, right?” Leo reminds me.
“Yes. So?”
“You’re a lawyer.”
I shrug. “Some lawyers do it all the time.”
Probably because they’re such good lawyers they know they’ll never end up in jail.
“True,” Leo agrees.
“What about you?” I ask him. “You don’t seem scared of breaking into someone else’s property.”
Has he done it before?
“That’s because I know I’m smart enough not to get caught,” he says. “And if I do, I’ll have an excellent lawyer to defend me.”
I snort. “Just make sure we don’t get caught.”
“We won’t,” Leo assures me. “So long as you do everything I say.”
I nod. As much as I like being the one in the driver’s seat, I have to admit that Leo should be the one calling the shots here.
“Ready?” he asks as he puts on his cap.
I nod. “Let’s get this over with.”
~
To our surprise – and our good fortune – Leo finds one of the doors to the warehouse open. I let out a breath of relief. At least we can’t be charged with breaking and entering if we’re caught, just trespassing.
If we’re caught, which Leo promised we wouldn’t be.
He goes in first. I follow close behind him, holding my breath and trying not to make a sound.
I can’t hear any. No voices. No machines whirring or beeping. No keys clacking. After I emerge from behind a shelf, I realize why. The place is empty.
As I shine my flashlight across the floor, I see only – well, floor. No rotting corpse. No person tied to a chair who could answer my questions. No table with another note for me. There’s not even anything scrawled on the cement or on the walls.
I swallow the lump in my throat. There’s nothing here?
Leo turns on the lights and it becomes even more apparent to me that this place is empty. But why? It doesn’t make sense. My father wouldn’t lead me here for nothing.
Leo walks to the center of the room and kneels down. His finger scrapes the floor.
“There isn’t much dust,” he says. “This place hasn’t been empty for long.”
My eyes grow wide. “You mean someone cleaned this place out?”
Of course. If whoever was here had something to do with my father’s death, he wouldn’t stay here. He wouldn’t leave a trace, either.
My hands curl into fists at my sides. So my father’s murderer was here.
Leo walks to a corner. “They were in a hurry, too, judging from this coffee stain that they didn’t have a chance to clean up.”
I go over to him to take a look at it. If only I could get some DNA from this, but whatever DNA was here is probably gone now. I’m too late.
“I’ll check if they left anything else behind,” Leo says as he walks off. “If they were in a hurry, there’s a good chance they did.”
I nod and walk off in the other direction, keeping my eyes peeled.
Come on. Surely there’s something. I’m in the right place. I know it. I just need to find out who was here.
Please let there be something.
But I don’t find anything, not another stain nor a strand of hair. Nothing. My shoulders droop as I let out a sigh.
Is this really it? A dead end?
Just then, I hear a clang from across the room. I turn around and see Leo bending over.