Leigh strode up the paved path to unit 104. No interior lights visible from the front. The neighbor’s place was livelier, and she noticed a flicker of light behind the blinds and heard the low drone of a television.

Leigh rapped on the door and waited. Nothing. She rapped again, and the volume of the TV next door went down.

Leigh glanced around the small concrete porch. In the corner was a shriveled fern in a chipped clay pot, and she spotted a package tucked behind it. She crouched down to examine the package. It was a padded bubble mailer from Amazon with a label addressed to COOPER COLLINS. She was in the right place at least.

Leigh stood up and looked at the silent door. There was something going on with Cooper, and she wanted to talk to him. She’d interviewed him twice now at the bookstore where he worked and both times she’d left with the distinct feeling there was something he wasn’t telling her. She didn’t know what, exactly, made her think that, but she’d been taking depositions long enough to know when someone was holding back. The fact that he’d dodged her last two phone calls only reinforced her suspicions.

Leigh rapped on the door again.

Maybe she should have told Brandon her suspicions.

No, she definitely should have told him. He was the lead detective on this case.

But Brandon had already wasted enough time with Cooper—who didn’t fit the profile of a vindictive ex—when the person he really needed to be looking at was Mason Lloyd.

Leigh checked her watch, annoyed with herself for coming all the way out here and netting no new information whatsoever. She could be at home right now, slipping into her fuzzy bathrobe and pouring herself a glass of wine, but instead she was running down leads for an investigation that wasn’t even hers.

“Screw it,” she muttered, turning to leave. But as she stalked down the sidewalk, she felt a niggle of uncertainty. She had spent an hour online tracking down this address and she’d come all the way out here. The least she could do was make sure he wasn’t really home, ducking her visit like he’d been ducking her phone calls.

She walked across the grass, cutting through the neighbor’s lawn before looping around the building. Behind the row of homes was an alley and a string of carports, five in all, each with its own bright floodlight shining down onto the pavement. Every carport had a car in it with the exception of the second unit from the end, which would be Cooper’s.

Leigh stomped her foot. Okay, so she’d officially wasted her trip.

“Looking for someone?”

She whirled around and saw a tall, lanky man walking toward her. Or rather, being pulled toward her by a very big and very eager black Lab.

The dog whined softly and strained against the leash, and Leigh took a step back.