Page 16 of Out of the Shadows (Angelhart Investigations)

By the time Jack returned to Laura’s house with his overnight bag, the kids were asleep and Laura was talking with Margo in

the kitchen.

“All quiet?” he asked.

“Yep,” Margo said.

Laura said, “You don’t have to stay. Logan is overreacting.”

“It’s just a precaution.” Jack checked the back door. The handyman had been working on the door when Jack left a few hours

before. The work was good, the lock secure. The new frame needed to be painted, but for now this would suffice.

“I talked to Beth,” Laura said. “She doesn’t want those boxes in her garage.”

Jack glanced at Margo, who said, “I hadn’t told Beth and Bob about the break-in, so when Laura mentioned it, the woman freaked.”

“I shouldn’t have, I didn’t think—”

“You can share that information with anyone you want,” Jack said. “Laura, call Beth and tell her someone from Angelhart Investigations

will pick up the boxes first thing in the morning.”

“I can get them if you let me take your truck,” Margo said.

“I was thinking Luisa and Tess could bring them to the office. Mom and Tess would know best the value of the information.”

While their mother had been a lawyer for more than thirty years—first as a prosecutor, then in private practice—Tess had also

gone through law school and passed the bar, but her specialty, contract law, hadn’t excited her as much as being an investigator

for her mother’s firm, before they started the family PI business.

“Good idea,” Margo said.

“I think Beth would feel better not having the boxes in her garage,” Laura agreed. “She sent her kids to friends’ houses tonight

she was so nervous.”

“A good precaution,” Jack said, “though I think Margo’s right. If whoever wants that information knew it was at the house,

they would have already taken it.”

Margo stood. “Jack, you look like crap, and I know you’ve been up since four this morning. Sleep, I’ll take a look around

the property and take the first shift.”

“Do you really think that’s nec—” Laura began and cut herself off when both Jack and Margo turned and stared at her.

“Okay, okay,” she said. “I’ll try and accept the fact that Charlie got himself into a mess and that—maybe—someone thinks I’m

involved.”

“Most likely,” Jack said, wanting to ease her mind a bit, “they came here to look for whatever was in the storage locker,

didn’t find it, and won’t be back. But if they think you’re a line to Charlie, they could return, so it’s better that Margo

and I stick around for the next day or two.”

She nodded. “I need to go to the clinic tomorrow morning. We rescheduled all the appointments, but I have a surgery at seven

a.m. I need to be there.”

“I’ll take you,” Jack said, “and Margo can stay here with the kids.”

Laura agreed.

Margo grabbed a flashlight and her Yeti with, Jack presumed, the iced coffee she drank like water. She gave him a salute,

then went out the back door.

Laura showed Jack to the guest room. “The sheets are clean, and there’s a small bathroom. If you need anything, let me know.”

“You didn’t have to go to any trouble.”

“It really wasn’t.”

“You should get some sleep as well,” Jack said. “You didn’t have much last night, and you need a sharp brain for that surgery

tomorrow.”

She tried to smile, but it turned into a yawn. “I am beat and still sore, though the hot bath I took this evening worked wonders.” She hesitated, as if thinking maybe she didn’t

want to share that information with him. “I’ll make sure Margo knows where everything is and then hit the hay. Thanks again,

Jack. I mean it. I gave you a bad time this morning, and I do appreciate you being here.”

“Aw, shucks, ma’am,” he said, trying to lighten things up.

She laughed. “My knight in shining armor.”

There was something in her eyes and her smile faltered as she looked at him, as if she had second thoughts about her words.

“Good night,” she said and quickly walked out.

It took Jack far too long to fall asleep.

As previously arranged with Margo, Jack woke at two thirty in the morning, and Margo collapsed onto the bed. Like Jack, Margo

could sleep anywhere. She was out before he closed the door.

He quietly made a pot of coffee and listened to the quiet of the country.

This was exactly the kind of place he wanted for his forever home. A few acres, minimal light pollution, no traffic. His siblings

all seemed to thrive living in the city, but Jack had always wanted to be away from it. It’s why he and Whitney had bought

a house in the west valley, in a neighborhood they could afford, with good schools and more police per capita than Phoenix.

He didn’t mind commuting because his family was safe in a nice home in a quiet neighborhood where they had a big yard, a nearby

park, and friends.

Whitney hated it, and grew to hate him. The only reason she hadn’t sold the house was because the divorce settlement allowed

her to live in it until three months after Austin’s high school graduation. When they sold it, they would evenly split the

equity. Right now there was no equity to split because they had to refinance the house to help pay Whitney’s debt.

Now, she lived there for free because Jack paid the mortgage. He didn’t mind—it was his son’s house, too. He just wished Whitney

would find something that made her happy, because an unhappy mother wouldn’t help Austin grow into a confident, capable man.

It pained him that Whitney hadn’t found joy in their family, or in her career as a teacher that she’d abandoned. She now worked

in school administration and didn’t like the job, complained about it every time Jack saw her. He’d suggested she find something

else, even if it didn’t pay as much—since he paid the mortgage and child support, she didn’t need much money to live on. However,

her lifestyle was expensive, and she insisted that Austin needed all the latest gadgets, clothes, private coaching in baseball,

and more.

Jack poured coffee and took his mug outside. At three in the morning, it was still hot—eighty-seven degrees. As a Phoenix

native, he was used to it.

He walked to the barn door, listened. The animals made noise while they slept. A little rustling. One of the horses was snoring—he

almost laughed. The chickens seemed to talk in their sleep, secure in their hutch.

He walked the perimeter, enjoying the early morning. No one was around, and he didn’t even hear a distant vehicle.

Thirty minutes later he went back inside and found Laura sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Only the stove light

remained on.

“Did I wake you?” he asked.

“No.”

He poured himself another cup of coffee, sat across from her. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I woke up and my mind just wouldn’t stop. I’m angry at Charlie and so very worried about

him. I don’t know what he’s up to, but it’s rubbed off on me and the kids, and our friends, and I can’t even yell at him about

it. What if something happened to him? What if he’s hurt? What if the men who wanted that storage unit found him?”

“All good questions, but you can only control what you can control. That’s you, your home, your kids. If we get a lead on

Charlie today, Margo will pursue it and my sister Luisa will stay with Sydney and Cody. You can trust her like you trust me.”

“Your family really is something,” she said. “I love how you work together.”

“It took some getting used to, but it works for us.”

“You complement each other and really care about each other. It shows.”

“There was a time not too far back where Margo was estranged from the family.” He paused, considered what to tell Laura and

how to tell her. Nothing was a secret, but he didn’t like talking about his dad’s imprisonment. “A little over three years

ago, our dad pled guilty to, um, to killing his colleague. It came as a shock to all of us—he’s a doctor, he saves lives.

None of us believed it. There was no trial because he turned himself in, took a plea agreement, and is now in prison for twelve

more years. At first, we fought him on it, but he didn’t want us to, my mom didn’t want us to, and so we all backed down and

accepted his decision. Except for Margo.”

“That must have been awful for all of you. Did he ever say why?”

“No. He pled guilty to second degree, unpremeditated homicide. He told the police that they had an argument and he shot Dr.

Klein without thinking about it. It doesn’t sound like my dad, but he wouldn’t change his story and refused to talk about

it. There was nothing we could do.”

“And Margo? She didn’t accept that?”

“She started looking into Dr. Klein’s murder on her own, and our mom was furious. They got into a huge fight—nothing like

I’ve ever seen before, to be honest—and Margo walked away. I saw her—we all did—at family gatherings, at our grandparents’,

things like that, but she really stood fast that unless we came around to her way of thinking, she wouldn’t work with us.”

“What changed? Because from what I’ve seen, you work well together.”

Jack thought on that. “It was a couple of things. First, Margo was stuck. She couldn’t find any alternative theory about what

happened to Dr. Klein, and no one was talking about it. Family as well—my mom is a Morales, one of seven kids, and we have

a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles, plus our grandparents keep us together. Margo would never have turned her back on them.

And Margo’s beef was mostly with Mom and Dad, not us. I made a point to keep in regular communication, and she was my rock

during my divorce. Then a couple months ago, one of Margo’s cases collided with one of our cases—that’s how we met Logan—and

we ended up working together.”

“And Margo and your mom resolved everything?”

Jack shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far. They have a truce. Margo isn’t promising not to investigate Dr. Klein’s death, but

she’s stuck, and I think Mom doesn’t believe she’ll find anything that will dredge it all up.” He sighed. “I see my dad at