“If you were her, what would you do? She can’t keep running. We know she has limited funds. She has to look for a job. Why not a small tourist town where people with money have built huge summer homes and would love a nanny? Most are probably from out of state and have never heard of Natalie Berkshire—not that she will use her real name, I would imagine. It would only be for the summer or maybe just a few weeks. Exactly what she’s looking for.”
He shook his head. “I’m still surprised she’d stop so close to where she was caught.”
“Because she knows that we expect her to run farther,” Mo said and took a sip of her coffee. “She needs to find a job, and if I’m right, disappear into a family with her next victim. She’s getting desperate. I believe that’s why she made the mistake she did.”
“What mistake was that?” he asked and took a bite of his doughnut, chasing it with a sip of coffee. He frowned at the cup in his hand.
“You do take your coffee with sugar and cream, right?” she asked.
He looked up in surprise. “How did you—”
“It’s no mystery. You had an old cup in your pickup. It was written on the side along with your name and the logo of your favorite coffee shop.” She grinned.
“Okay, you’re observant. I’ll give you that. What mistake did Natalie make?”
“She let her guard down and got caught. She’ll want to do what comes naturally to her, which isn’t running. She’s here in this town. I feel it.” Mo saw his skepticism and reached into her pocket to take out a scrap of paper. She handed it to him. “The apartment comes with a garage where she can hide the stolen car—if she hasn’t had a chance to get rid of it already.”
“Where did you get this?” he asked as he turned the strip of paper over in his fingers. He had nice hands, she noticed. Long fingers. Strong, tanned hands. A man’s hands. She felt a shiver at even the thought of those hands exploring her body.
“You want my jacket?” Brick asked, thinking she was chilly. He was already starting to take off his jean jacket.
She shook her head. “It was on a bulletin board in the only grocery store in town advertising a studio apartment cheap with the telephone number on the slips of paper on the bottom. Only one other slip of paper had been pulled off so I figured the ad hasn’t been posted for long.”
“That doesn’t mean Natalie took the other one.”
She nodded in agreement. “But there is one way to find out.” She pulled out her phone and called the number. No answer. She left a message saying that she was looking for a long-term rental and hoped the apartment was still available.
When she looked up at Brick, she expected to see disapproval in his expression because of how easily the lie had come to her lips. Instead, he was rising to his feet, his eyes fixed on his pickup parked in front of their motel unit. She watched him walk over to the truck and pull what appeared to be a folded sheet of paper from under the passenger-side windshield wiper.
As he unfolded the paper and read what was written there, his gaze shot to her. Mo felt her heart begin to pound.
BRICK HANDED MO the note he’d found on his pickup’s windshield. He watched her quickly unfolded it and read the words neatly printed there.
Chasing me won’t give you the answers you want. You should be looking for the man Tricia had been seeing. I don’t know his name. I only saw him once. Blond with blue eyes, about six-two or six-three. I swear I didn’t hurt the baby. But if Joey was her lover’s baby... By the way, someone is following you.
He watched her refold the note and put it into her pocket without a word. He could tell that she was upset, but what was written on the note didn’t seem to come as a shock compared to what Natalie had already told her at the hospital. Was it why she hadn’t let Natalie tell her that day at the house before Joey died? She hadn’t wanted to hear it, still didn’t want to believe it.
“We going to discuss this?” he asked when she still said nothing.
Mo opened her mouth, but closed it as her cell phone rang. She checked the phone and then took the call, listening for a few moments before she said, “That’s too bad. I’m one of the new teacher aides at the elementary school.” Brick’s eyebrows shot up. The woman was a born liar. “Do you have any other units?” If Mo were right, Natalie would have only taken the apartment short-term, apparently now making the landlord regret renting it. “I’m moving here soon and anxious to get settled into a place.” Again she listened before she smiled. “I’d love to see it.” If Natalie had rented the apartment, she would have already been moved in, he thought.
Mo gave the man her number again and disconnected. “He’s going to call the new renter to see if she’s home and he can show the apartment. She only rented it for a few weeks.” When the phone rang, he started and saw Mo take a breath before she picked up. “Hello? Yes? Oh, that’s too bad. But could you at least tell me where it is? I could drive by. If I like the area, I’ll get something temporary until it opens up.”
He saw her nod before she disconnected. “Let’s go,” she said and started for her side of the pickup. “She’s at the apartment. But the call from her landlord will probably spook her.”
“You’re that sure the woman who rented the apartment is Natalie?” he said, wondering if Mo was ever wrong about anything. She didn’t bother to answer, her gaze on the street ahead as she repeated the
