"You do what?" Jake asked.
d.a.m.n! She had to get better at not talking to Charley in public. "I do have a license number for a beige minivan. This may be a coincidence, but Sunny and I saw one today." She described the encounter, omitting the part about Charley seeing a blue blanket though without that bit of information, the story seemed inconsequential, a coincidence.
Jake and Ross exchanged glances. Ross set his backpack on the floor. "What color hair did the woman have?"
"Kind of a light brown, mousy blond. Why?"
"Short or long?"
"Short, and the man was bald. Why are you asking about hair?" She thought of his answer when she asked if he"d found DNA. Among other things...
Ross shook his head. "I found a couple of long blond hairs in Grant"s room."
"Oh. No, it didn"t belong to either one of those people. Her hair was very short and his was nonexistent."
"Tell him about the blue blanket!" Charley insisted.
Other than claiming she had x-ray vision, Amanda couldn"t think of a single way to bring that blue blanket into the conversation. Besides, a blue blanket in a beige minivan was not exactly a unique occurrence.
"The van"s worth checking into," Jake said. He took his notepad from his pocket and wrote down the number as Amanda recited it.
Jake and Ross left, and Amanda sat down at the table with Dawson. She was exhausted and wanted desperately to get home to her bed, but she hated to leave Dawson alone. Not likely he"d get any sleep that night.
He was typing rapidly on one of the laptops.
"Have you found something?" she asked.
"Yes." He moved the mouse, clicked and looked at her, his gaze feverish. "I found the license plate."
"What?" That was not the answer she"d expected, though she probably should have. Dawson would have started hacking away as soon as she verbalized the number. Daggett and Ross would have to go through regular channels to find it. Dawson suffered from no such constraints.
He shot up from his chair. "One of the women next door, the ones who weren"t home this morning. It"s her license plate! And she has long blond hair!" He charged toward the door.
Amanda lunged after him. "Wait! I"ve got Jake"s cell number. They"re probably still downstairs on the way to their car. We can catch them!"
Dawson wasn"t listening. He was already out the door.
She yanked her cell phone out of her purse and tried to hit the b.u.t.ton to call Jake as she hurried after Dawson.
By the time she reached the hall, he was already banging on the door of apartment 3A.
Jake answered his phone.
"Get back up here now," she said and disconnected the call. No time to explain.
An attractive brunette opened the door of 3A and smiled. "Hi, Dawson."
"Does your blond roommate have a beige-how do you know my name?"
Her smile widened. "You live next door to me. I"ve talked to your little brother. He"s not as shy as you are."
"You talked to Grant?"
She held the door wider. "Come on in. I"m Megan Thornton, and this is my roommate, Hannah Wilder." She indicated a blond woman sitting on the sofa with a book in her lap.
Grant"s kidnapper?
"Don"t go in there!" Charley warned.
"Grant"s missing," Dawson blurted.
"He"s missing?" Megan"s hand shot to her mouth. "What do you mean?"
Once again somebody needed to take charge, and it wasn"t going to be Charley or Dawson. Amanda shoved her a.s.sistant into the apartment and followed him in. "Hi. I"m Dawson"s friend, Amanda Caulfield."
Megan looked a little disappointed at those words. She had seemed happy enough to see Dawson. Was it possible there could be some romantic interest there? Well, probably not if she was involved in Grant"s kidnapping. But that wasn"t proven yet.
"His employer friend," Amanda amended just in case. "We need to talk to you about Hannah"s beige van." Not her choice of how to start a conversation, but they didn"t have time to d.i.n.k around.
Hannah rose from the sofa. "I don"t have a van. I drive a red Kia."
Dawson looked from one girl to the other and blinked a couple of times. "What"s your license plate number?"
Hannah and Megan looked at each other and frowned. "What"s this about?" Megan asked.
"As Dawson said, his brother is missing, and a beige van with your license plate number is, uh, a vehicle of interest." Amanda recited the digits. "Is that your number?"
Hannah looked confused. "Maybe. I don"t know. Who remembers their license plate number?"
"I do," Dawson replied.
"Of course you do," Amanda said. "You probably remember the address of the hospital where you were born. Hannah, would you be willing to take us downstairs to the parking lot to check the license plates on your car? It"s important."
"Sure, if it"ll help find Grant." She retrieved a ring of keys from her purse.
"I"ll go too." Megan opened the front door.
"I"m so sorry," Hannah said. "Grant"s a great little guy. Last week he helped me carry my groceries upstairs. The bag wasn"t heavy, but he wanted to help."
Halfway down the second flight of stairs they met Jake and Ross coming up.
"What"s wrong?" Jake asked.
Amanda paused while the others continued downstairs. "We have to go to the parking lot to check Hannah"s car. Dawson traced the plates to her but she says she drives a red Kia."
"How did he trace-?"
"Don"t ask. Let"s just go check it out." She pushed past him, following Dawson and the girls outside to the parking lot in back.
"That"s my car." Hannah pointed. Even in the darkness, the vehicle was obviously small and red.
Amanda looked around at the dozen or so vehicles in the lot. Not a beige minivan to be seen. She felt a stab of disappointment. They were back to ground zero. No leads. No clue how to find a little boy who must be very scared by now. She thought of the raggedy dog in Grant"s bed. He would be sleeping without it tonight.
"That"s not the license plate." Dawson moved closer to the car. "Maybe I got the numbers wrong."
Amanda shook her head. "We know that"s not possible. Maybe I got the numbers wrong."
"That"s possible," Jake said.
He was only agreeing, but Amanda thought it rather rude of him to do it so readily. "Or maybe I didn"t." Her hopes rose. "Maybe-maybe somebody switched the license plates. Don"t you think it"s a pretty big coincidence that those plates led Dawson to his next-door neighbor?"
"She"s got a point," Ross said.
Jake took his notebook from his pocket and wrote down the number of Hannah"s plates. "Why don"t we go back upstairs and Dawson can do whatever illegal search he just did to find out where this license plate leads us?"
Taking two steps at a time, Dawson led the group back upstairs and was already inside his apartment when Amanda reached the third floor.
She was halfway across the landing with the others close behind when the door of 3B opened and Nick Farner stepped out. "I thought I heard you coming up the stairs. You have a distinctive step. Did you find the missing boy?"
"No, we"re still looking," Amanda said.
"Hi, Nick." Megan waved then hurried on into Dawson"s apartment.
Jake and Ross paused, their attention riveted on the newest addition to the melee.
Hannah stopped beside Ross. "Hi, Nick. They"re looking for a beige van. You know anybody with a beige van?"
He shook his head. "No beige vans. I drive a beige Honda. Finally decide to call in the cops?" He inclined his head toward Jake and Ross.
"No!" Amanda grabbed Jake"s arm to prevent him from saying anything. "No, this is my cousin Jake and his partner Ross." Jake and Ross both whirled to look at her in amazement. Hannah"s eyes widened and she moved a step away from Ross. Amanda flinched as she realized she"d just identified Ross as Jake"s partner, pretty much told Nick they were cops. "I mean, his friend. This is Jake"s friend Ross."
Charley burst into laughter. "Way to go, Amanda!"
Nick grinned and winked. "Nice to meet you, Jake and Ross. I"m good with partners."
Amanda looked from Jake to Ross as the dual meaning of her words. .h.i.t her. "I mean, they"re friends. They don"t live together or anything."
Both men glared at her, their lips clenched tightly.
Amanda felt her face flush and wished she could sink through the floor, all the way down to the ground and then a few feet under.
"Keep talking, Amanda!" Charley laughed harder. "You"re making it better with every word out of your mouth!"
"I-" Amanda began with no idea of what she was going to say.
"I found it!" Dawson called.
"Bye, Nick. Gotta run." Amanda, happy to take advantage of the diversion, took Jake"s arm and turned him toward Dawson"s apartment.
He shot her a malevolent glance but followed her inside.
Dawson looked at Hannah. "The license plate currently on your car is not registered to you or your car."
"What? I don"t understand." Hannah tried to peer over his shoulder, but Dawson closed his laptop. Probably didn"t want Jake or Ross to see what database he"d illegally hacked into.
"The license plate currently on your car traces to a silver Ford Escort that was retagged in Kansas City a year ago when the owner died and the car was sold."
Even Charley was silent for a few moments, digesting the implications of this latest piece of the puzzle.
Amanda studied Jake Daggett from the corner of her eye. He seemed intent on the issue at hand so maybe he"d forgotten her little partner faux pas.
He saw her looking at him and frowned. No, he hadn"t forgotten. Charley didn"t need to worry about squelching any attraction between her and the detective. She was doing a really good job of that all by herself.
Jake smiled for the rest of the people in the room. "We"d better let these ladies get back home. Sorry for the misunderstanding about your car."
"We don"t mind helping," Megan protested. "We like Grant and we"ve been wanting to get to know Dawson."
"We"ll start again tomorrow after everybody has a good night"s sleep," Ross said, his voice easy and calm.
They were trying to get rid of the girls. So they could talk cop-talk about the situation or so they could pistol whip her for what she"d said about them? Maybe both.
"Before you go," Amanda said, stepping between Megan and the door, eager to keep them there as long as possible, "you both seemed to know that guy we were just talking to, Nick."
"Sure," Hannah said. "He moved into his grandmother"s place a couple of weeks ago."
"His grandmother"s place?" That explained the grandmotherly furnishings. "What happened to his grandmother?"
"He killed her," Charley said. "I told you he"s a nut job. I knew Mr. Muscles wouldn"t buy that kind of furniture on purpose."
"She"s taking a cruise to Alaska with her bridge club," Hannah said.
Jake moved up behind her. "Did you know the grandmother?"
"Sure. Mrs. Lowell"s a nice lady. We sometimes take her trash downstairs for her since she has trouble with the stairs, and she makes cookies for us."
"She has trouble with the stairs?" Ross was suddenly all business.
"She has a bad knee."
"Would she go on a trip with a bad knee? Did she tell you she was going?" Jake asked.
"No. Nick said it all happened really fast, that she got the chance to go and he was moving to town, so it all worked out well for everybody."
"Did you meet Nick before he moved in? Did he come to visit his grandmother often?"
"Why are you asking all these questions about Nick?" Megan asked.
Hannah frowned. "Do you think he had something to do with Grant"s disappearance?"