“I can’t promise no cops. I’m pretty sure Evie called them already. But Reuben has the van. You can hide.”
“Evie and cops that ain’t your local sheriff? This ought to be interesting. Count me in.”
Roark knew Ariel would work half the night and not even know he was gone, but he emailed her anyway. She didn’t have to look at email if she didn’t want to. He kinda wished she wanted to, but that was just loneliness talking. Once he had his family straightened out, all would be good.
Jax roared up on his Harley a little while later and handed him a helmet. Ariel hadn’t responded to the email. Roark felt no guilt in leaving her. She was a force sufficient unto herself.
He was just happy to get out of prison.
Ten
“This simply isn’t possible,”the administrator of the senior living home, Lucy Murkowski, wailed. “We have security!”
Evie left Mrs. Murkowski and the police to work out how the thieves broke in. Loretta and Reuben were up to something with security cameras and bugs. She’d ask later. With the scene finally settling down, she took a detour down the hall and out of sight.
She bounced on the bed as she had before and opened her mind.
Granny sank down beside her. Brown muddied her formerly translucent root chakra. “I told you to get my granddaughter out.”
“And Stacey’s just like you and wouldn’t listen,” Evie countered. “I can’t kidnap her. What can you tell me about the men who did this?”
Resembling a chubby, gray-haired gnome in her red sweater, Granny bounced and ended upside-down over the closet doors. She shoved off with her feet and hit the opposite wall before floating back down. Granny definitely had a bad case of ADHD. She made Evie feel normal.
“Don’t know them. Never saw them before. I can’t believe the stupid scumbag worked out who I am. The maid must have said something.” She darted through the wall, presumably to check on Stacey.
The maid she got fired? Spirit energy was worse at remembering names than Evie. She tried to imagine ways of calming a hyper ghost, but she’d never been successful in calming herself. When Granny returned, Evie immediately asked, “Hewho? Who is behind this?”
“He keeps changing his ISP. I don’t know. If I knew, he’d be in jail.”
Dang, nothing was ever easy. Hearing Loretta calling for her, Evie tried one more time. “Is there anything you can tell me that might lead to whoever is behind this?”
“He uses illegals.” Granny bounced out again.
This time, Evie followed her back to the main room where the director was still wringing her hands. Fiftyish, a dyed blonde with fake lashes and fake nails but an aura of compassion and bewilderment, Evie classified Lucy Murkowski under useless.
Granny snorted inside her head, confirming Evie’s opinion. “Did she even mention the security cameras?”
“Reuben, did Mrs. Gump have security cameras, can you tell?” Evie tried to look qualified and efficient, but she’d worn comfortable clothes for shopping. Capris and T-shirt weren’t businesslike.
Reuben gave her the evil eye, climbed on a chair, and removed a small camera from a kitchen cabinet. He stuck his finger through the hole in the back of the cabinet overlooking the dining area so she could see how it worked. So, he’d known and hadn’t said anything. Danged secretive spy.
The policeman taking notes looked equally annoyed. “Why didn’t anyone mention a camera?”
“Or all the others,” Granny muttered. “Your guy knows where they are, doesn’t he?”
Evie nodded in case Marlene didn’t hear her mental answer. Spies liked to keep things close.
“The perps took the devices the cameras are connected to.” Reuben handed the one over. “This might have a small memory chip but the backup is gone.”
“The Azalea Apartments have security cameras in the corridors,” the director said, brightening. “I’ll call Fred, our security chief. He can tell you more about them.”
To give him credit, the policeman didn’t roll his eyes or swear at not being told this earlier. Or maybe he should haveaskedearlier. But this wasn’t exactly a CSI scenario.
Loretta looked ready to bounce like Granny’s ghost with the need to speak, but she’d wisely chosen not to mention bubbles. Yet. She was learning.
Granny’s granddaughter rubbed her hands against her worn jeans and looked defeated. Evie gathered from her aura that she was angry and disappointed. Stacey had planned on selling the laptops. That didn’t sound good for covering the costs of their investigation.
“Will insurance cover the loss? We have photographs of the equipment as proof of what is missing,” Evie suggested to no one in particular.