Page 66 of Skin Game

Casey moved to the back but didn’t see anything of note at first glance, then swiped a hand underneath the seat. He wasn’t expecting to find much, and it wasn’t as if Gabriel himself would fit in the small space, but his gut told him to be as thorough as possible right now. Thus he was shocked when his fingers bumped against something cold, something that was not the floor rug.

“What have you found?” Elton demanded.

“Jesus, Elton, scare the shit out of me, why don’t you?” Casey straightened, cradling his find in his hands. “Gabe’s laptop. Here, hold it while I check under the other seat.”

Leaning across the back of the car, Casey shoved a handunder the driver’s side back seat and pulled out several decades-old spiral notebooks, protected by a plastic bag. Heidi’s notebooks.

“Why are these in his car?” Casey wondered.

“Remember? You two were coming over for dinner last night. Maybe he was getting ready to leave. We’ll ask when we find him.”

Casey had to appreciate Elton’s certainty. Gabe was coming back, and Elton wasn’t considering other options.

They’d been backat Elton’s just long to fire up more coffee—Elton’s words—and for Casey to get as comfortable as was possible on his sofa in preparation to dive into Heidi Karne’s past. The spiral-bound books waited for them on Elton’s puzzle table, along with the laptop.

For now, the laptop was going to remain powered off. Casey didn’t know what the password was and risking being locked out of it seemed foolish. Plus, he still hoped that Gabe would show up soon and they wouldn’t have to break into the thing.

Casey had just picked up one of the notebooks when there were several sharp knocks against the front door. Bowie leaped to his feet and began barking.

Rising to his feet, Casey glanced out the window. A glossy black SUV was parked behind Elton’s truck. It was a big vehicle, with capacity for at least seven passengers.

“Expecting someone who owns a Lincoln Navigator?” Casey asked. “Bowie, quiet.” Bowie stopped barking but not before he got one last snarl in.

“Nope. Pretty darn early for visitors though.” Elton started to stand up.

“I’ll get it.” Casey cut past Elton and his chair to check out the window again. A man who wasn’t Gabe but looked a great deal like him waited on the stoop.

What the hell was Shay Delacombe doing on Elton’s front porch at this time of day?

“It’s Shay Delacombe,” he told Elton. “What do you wanna bet Claribel is in the car?” He couldn’t really see through the tinted windows, but there appeared to be a diminutive figure waiting in the front seat.

“Might as well open the door, then. Claribel’s released her flying monkeys.”

“I heard that,” Shay said with a sardonic grin as he stepped across the threshold. “I have to say, I’ve never been called a flying monkey before. At least, not to my face.”

“Why are you here?” Casey demanded.

“Gabe called yesterday.” Shay waved a hand that included the Navigator. “We both thought it sounded like he could use a hand. Claribel tried calling him several times last night, there was no answer, so here we are. Would have come last night, but the rain.”

Casey appreciated that Shay was making it sound like Claribel was the one worried, that Shay was merely tagging along.

“Claribel is in the car?”

Shay nodded.

“If we tell you that we have everything under control, you won’t just go away, will you?”

“Nope. We drove by his place on our way here, it looked like there was a break-in. You try getting the old woman to leave now.”

“Let ’em in,” said Elton. “Might as well.”

“Actually, Claribel had me rent a house last night in preparation. It’s on the backside of the island. Fair warning, Claribel is calling it a command center. It’s large enough that we’ll all be comfortable there.” Shay rattled off an address that Casey recognized as being close to Greta and Abby’s place.

Casey resisted rolling his eyes. He wasn’t going to do it, he refused, but the urge was close to overwhelming. Shay andClaribel Delacombe were incredibly presumptuous. Renting a house even. However, the fact was Elton’s house,The Barbara, and Gabe’s place at Smitty’s were all too small to host any kind of extended family gatherings, even one centered on finding Gabe.

A thought that had been banging around in the back of Casey’s mind made itself obvious. He was done with separate addresses. When this was over, he and Gabe would look for a place together if Gabe was agreeable. A place where occasionally, emphasis on the O-word, they might host family and friends like Gabriel would want to.

“Casey, your phone is going off,” Elton said.