23
Mysti
Even though thenight was warm, I couldn’t shake the cold. I sat on the stretcher the paramedic had led me to, wrapped up in a thick blanket as I watched them tend to Trenton near the other ambulance across the street.
He’d refused to leave my side, and had complained about being not even twenty feet away. I had to promise him I wasn’t going anywhere just to get him to agree to let the paramedics bandage our wounds.
Somehow, through everything that happened, I’d come away with only a single injury. While trying to stop Steve from shooting him, I grabbed the barrel of the gun, burning my hand as it went off.
“And how’d you say you knew Mr. Blake?” Detective Godwin asked, his pen poised over his notebook.
“He was a regular customer at Whitman’s Cafe,” I said, watching as he wrote it down. “When I moved to Seaside late last summer, I started working there. Within days of starting, I’d had something stolen off my deck, and when I mentioned it to my co-worker, Callie, Steve overheard.”
“And what did he say?”
A warm breeze kicked up, but it felt like a winter chill against my skin. “He said he owned a security company, and he’d be happy to come out and talk with me about setting up some security cameras.”
“What did you say to that?”
“At first, nothing. I figured it was just a fluke, and I told him as much. There was already a security camera set up out front, but I didn’t feel the need to use it. But when something else went missing, I did mention the camera to my landlords.”
“That’s Bud and Bert Landry?”
My brow rose. “That’s right. How’d you know?”
Detective Godwin’s lips pulled back into a grimace as he lifted his gaze toward my house. “The Landrys called us last summer. Said their tenant up and disappeared without a word.”
“I heard about that. Calvin Frasier’s brother, Byron, told me he was pulled in on that case.”
Godwin took a moment to consult his notebook. “Officer Frasier mentioned you’d been asking about that.”
“I wanted to know if she’d ever reported anything missing.”
He shook his head. “We hadn’t heard anything about her until she was gone. By that time, the old security footage from the house had been deleted. Blake said it was standard procedure to delete after two months.”
Another chill swept through me, and I rubbed my uninjured hand over my arm. I glanced over at Trenton. “I’ve had a few things disappear off my deck, even after Steve came out and set up new cameras around the house. They never showed anyone taking anything. And I swear,” I said, glancing back at the detective, “things have been moved and have gone missing from inside my house too.”
His lips pulled into a deep frown as he jotted down a note. “You keep your doors locked?”
“Always. It’s… a habit of mine.”
“Good habit to have,” he murmured. “And tonight? You had the doors locked tonight?”
“Absolutely. And no one—” I blinked, my gaze darting to my front door and back.
“What is it?”
“I was going to say, no one has a key but me, Trenton, and the Landrys. But I don’t think that’s true. Bert told me Steve was the one who installed the locks before I moved in. And he had to make extras so all four of us could have one.”
Detective Godwin nodded, then put down his pen. “So tonight, when Mr. Blake came in…”
Heat rose to my cheeks and I glanced over at Trenton. “We were having sex,” I murmured, then shrugged, as if that could somehow make this whole thing less embarrassing. I was still half-naked and bawling in Trenton’s arms when the police had barged into my house, yet somehow saying what we’d been doing felt more awkward. “I heard a noise and when I turned, I found him in my room. He was stuttering, more than usual. He kept calling himself ‘Trent’ and saying he and I were dating. But I met Trenton at the end of the summer last year. And Steve did too. He stopped to make sure I was okay when Trenton and I were talking.”
“And you’ve been dating Mr. Gehring since?”
I nodded, glancing over at Trenton again. He sent a small smile my way, and I ached to see his usual smile. The one that lit up his face and shone through him like he held the sun within his heart. “We started dating immediately, even though he left town after a week in order to compete in a few competitions. Once he came back, he basically moved in with me. And Steve knew this. He was at Whitman’s almost every afternoon, and the staff would always sit and chat with him and the other regulars when we were slow.”
He jotted something in his notebook, then glanced down at my hands.