Leigh stared at her computer screen, thinking about Vanessa. Something about her had struck a chord during that meeting. Leigh had seen something desperate in her eyes, and she’d been pulled in from those very first moments. Subconsciously, maybe Leigh had sensed that Vanessa had more going on in her life than a nuisance lawsuit, more than she’d let on in that meeting. Leigh wished she’d followed her instincts and asked more questions when Vanessa was right there in front of her and it would have been easy to get answers. Leigh had a knack for getting people to open up.

Now the answers would be much, much harder to come by.

Sighing, Leigh pulled the pins from her bun and tugged her hair loose. What a day. She thought of Brandon back at the bar and the somber look in his eyes as he’d told her about the investigation. He had twelve years on the force, and he was treating this case like a homicide, because that was what experience told him this was.

What happened to you, Vanessa?

It was a question for the detectives, and Leigh should leave them to it. She didn’t have the time or the bandwidth or even the skills, really, to get involved in this case. Logically and objectively, she knew she should back off.

But it was too late. She was already hooked.

CHAPTER FOUR

The garage smelled like a Jiffy Lube, but the concrete floor was so clean you could eat off it.

“Shoes at the door,” Jane said as Brandon stepped into the room.

He stopped beside a metal storage rack and pulled off his shoes, dropping them on a mat by the door.

Antonio looked at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Jane said from across the room. “We can’t have you tracking mud in here. Or any other grossness you picked up at a crime scene.”

Jane wore white coveralls and plastic visor with a shield that covered her face, and her dark hair was in a braid. She walked over and grabbed a bottle of water off the counter. Looking them over, she flipped up the shield so she could take a swig.

Brandon glanced around the cavernous room. Vanessa’s little silver Toyota sat in the center bay with all its doors open. It looked like an insect about to take flight.

“Anything interesting?” Antonio asked Jane.

The CSI set her bottle on the counter. “Oh yeah. Come take a look.”

They followed her across the garage. All the other bays were empty, except for the one on the far end, where a technician in coveralls was photographing a white van that looked like it had been T-boned.

Brandon stopped beside the Toyota and peered inside. He hadn’t had the time or the lighting to thoroughly examine it the other night. Looking at it now, he noticed the black dirt on the back floor mats.