“But still, what? Four and a half or five hours to drive that distance? And just one way? Both ways on the same day would be a lot of stress.”
“It might be a lot of stress,” he said, “but people do it all the time.”
“The flight is only an hour. She had money. She had absolutely no reason to make that road trip and to make it take so long. She could have flown here, rented the Jaguar, thrown her temper tantrum, then turned around and flown back out of here, without even thinking about it.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what she did,” he said. “It’s really not that easy to know for sure yet.”
“Well, it should be,” she said. “You just need to focus on it a little bit more,” she muttered.
He broke into a laugh. “Well, thanks for that,” he said. “We really do know how to carry out our jobs.”
“So you say, and I get that, but now it’s a different story. It’s my neck on the line, and I can’t have this case unsolved, with me sitting around, doing nothing.”
Once she hung up, it wasn’t like she would let it go because she was finally getting somewhere. “Okay, now let’s track her,” she said, “starting with the times.” She checked into the airlines and, with a quick phone call, managed to find out that their victim was set to fly home that evening. She quickly sent the information to Mack. So, no hotel needed.
He didn’t respond, and she figured that was a good sign. Okay, so that woman loved Chinese food. And armed with a photo of Robin, Doreen hopped into her car, leaving all the animals behind, then headed to the four or five Chinese food places that she knew were close enough, based on Doreen’s location and where Robin’s car was found, that Robin could have walked to and from. But then, since Robin flew here, she could well have rented her vehicle at the airport. Making a quick decision, she turned around her vehicle and headed to the airport, where she went to the car rental desk. There she held up the woman’s picture and asked if Robin had rented a vehicle.
“Oh my, yes,” the young woman said. “The cops were here asking about her earlier. Because we didn’t get the car back.”
“Right,” she said. “I understand that. Did she say anything? Did she say how long she needed it for?”
“Only for a day. She said she was flying out that night.”
“Right, and she was booked on the nine p.m. flight.”
“It’s so terrible what happened to her,” the woman said. “Are you a friend of hers?”
“I was, indeed,” she said quite honestly.
“But time is amazing,” the rental car clerk said. “And it just goes by so fast, and we never know when we don’t have any more time ourselves.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to track my friend’s whereabouts to see who could have been involved in all this.”
“Oh,” the clerk said, with a shiver. “That’s so scary.”
“It is, but the sooner I have a little bit of knowledge, the better.”
“That’s so very difficult to even think about,” the young woman said.
“I know, but she was a friend. Do you happen to know if she had any bags or anything with her?”
“She had one of those leather businesslike portfolios,” she said. “The kind that holds laptops and paperwork. It was a beautiful bright blue. That’s the only reason I noticed it.”
“Right,” Doreen said, with a smile. “I remember seeing that before.”
“It might still be in the rental, but we haven’t been allowed to see the vehicle. I understand it’s in police possession.”
“Maybe,” Doreen said, “I’ll go talk to the police about it.” And, with that, she turned, walked out, and sent Mack a message, saying that the lawyer had this blue briefcase with her.
Mack called her right away. “What are you doing?” he snapped.
“I’m at the rental vehicle place at the airport. Apparently the rental clerk saw her with this striking blue bag,” she muttered, as she ignored his question and then promptly hung up.
She put the phone in the holder in her car, as she drove back into town. As she did, she saw a new Chinese food restaurant, or at least new to Doreen. She immediately shifted lanes and drove into the parking lot. Robin had been addicted to Chinese food. If she were hungry, she’d have pulled in here for sure.
Doreen walked in to see an almost empty restaurant. At the counter, a young woman smiled at her. “Are you looking for a table or to order takeout?”
“Neither,” Doreen said, but her stomach growled. “I’m looking for information.” The woman’s face fell. Doreen felt terrible immediately. “But having said that …” Her stomach growled again. She gave the young lady a horrified look. “Sounds like I need to order something.”
The waitress handed her a paper menu. “Eat in or takeout?”
“Takeout for me.” She perused the menu, her mouth watering at some of her favorite dishes. As she reviewed her options, she said, “I’m looking to see if a friend of mine stopped in here the other day.” She fished in her purse for her phone and brought up a picture of Robin.
“Sure. She came in and had lunch.” The waitress smiled. “She left behind a blue briefcase laptop bag.”
Doreen’s heart froze. “Do you still have it?”
“Yes, I was hoping she’d come back for it.”
“Not happening. Robin was murdered.”
The young woman cried out in shock. Then disappeared into the back. Doreen grabbed a pen and circled her favorite combo. When the waitress reappeared with the bag, Doreen’s face lit up. She took it from her and handed her the menu. “Can I get this to go, please?”
The waitress disappeared again. When she returned, she looked at the blue bag in Doreen’s hands and frowned. “I don’t know that I should let you have that.”
“You should,” Doreen murmured. “I’ll see that it gets to the authorities.”
“Oh, good. I honestly hoped she’d come back.” The waitress rang up the order, and Doreen paid. All the while she was itching to look into the bag but didn’t want to do that here. Nor did she want to do anything to make the waitress regret handing it over to her.
When the bell rang, the waitress disappeared into the back again and returned with her bag of food.
Doreen smiled. “Thanks.” And left quickly. After she got in her car and drove toward home—the heady smell of Chinese food filling the interior of her car, making her even hungrier—she called Mack. Only she got a busy signal. She left a message, as she was almost at home.
He called her back immediately, even as she parked at her house. And before he had a chance to say anything, she said, “Okay, okay,” as they continued their conversation a bit later. “I just figured, if we could follow her tracks, we might have a better idea where she was that night. By the way, she absolutely adored Chinese food, and, everywhere she went, she would get some. I picked up a dish to try myself.”
He stopped and said, “What are you doing? I specifically told you to stay out of this!”
“I know, but I can’t,” she commented quietly. “You don’t understand. It’s driving me nuts.”