He opened the passenger door and nudged her inside. Then he limped around to the driver’s side. As he repositioned the seat, she ran her hand along his thigh.
“Is your leg okay?”
“Just sore. I’ll be fine.” He laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand to his lips. “We’re falling apart piece by piece, aren’t we?”
“Nobody else I’d rather fall apart with.” She caressed his chin. “I’m glad to have you on my side, Sam—now let’s find that thumb drive.”
BY THE TIME they got back to Paradiso, it was almost midnight. Once again, Sam pulled into the parking lot of Melody’s apartment building. With the car idling, he said, “Maybe we should leave this for the morning.”
“Are you crazy?” Jolene released her seat belt. “Melody and Contreras were killed for that video. It’s the proof you’ve been waiting for.”
He cut the engine. “Maybe you should leave this for the morning. I’ll go inside and you can take the car home.”
“I’m in this, Sam, just as much as you are.” She patted his forearm, tense and corded as he gripped the steering wheel. “I’ll be fine. Nobody’s going to be here. Nobody followed us, nobody is tracking this car.”
He opened his mouth, and she pushed open her door before he could raise any more objections. She knew he’d been spooked when someone shot at them, but this wasn’t the same. Was it?
She skipped across the parking lot before Sam even got out of the car, taking advantage of his bum leg. She did wait for him at the base of the stairs, palming Melody’s key. She had every right to be here.
When he caught up with her, he panted. “You don’t play fair.”
“Can you make it up the stairs okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get going. We don’t want anyone seeing us hanging around here.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Too late. There’s a couple standing outside a car in the parking lot.”
Sam said, “Then let’s do a search of Melody’s place first, as you have the key. When they’re gone, we’ll get into the vacant unit.”
They reached Melody’s front door, and Jolene unlocked it and stepped over the threshold. Sam crowded in behind her, whispering in her ear, “Don’t turn the lights on. We don’t want to signal anyone. I’ve got my flashlight.”
Sam snapped the door closed, secured the curtains at the front window and flicked on his flashlight. “We’ve already searched all the conventional places and didn’t see any thumb drive. The cops would’ve scooped up anything like that. It’s time to search the unconventional.”
“What did you remember Tucker saying about the thumb drive?” Biting her bottom lip, Jolene peered into the dim, disheveled room. Had someone besides the police tossed the place?
“Besides thumb, drum, crumb?” Sam aimed his light at the tiled floor. “He said the thumb drive was in the floor.”
Jolene stamped her sneaker against the tiles. “How can something be hidden under tile?”
“That’s what worries me about any information from Tucker. He wasn’t exactly rooted in reality.” He skimmed the light across the room. “Let’s check the closets.”
They combed the floors of Melody’s apartment, which were tiled throughout. Jolene skimmed her toe across two squares. “This is new stuff, too. No chips or cracks or loose tiles. In fact, I remember Melody talking about how she’d had a water leak that ruined the wood floors and the management company was replacing everything with tile.”
“Wood floors?” Sam cocked his head. “Some of these units have wood floors?”
“I know. You could actually hide something beneath wood flooring. Maybe the place where Tucker was hiding has the wood.”
Jolene strolled to the wall Melody’s place shared with the vacant unit next door. “That would explain why Melody gave Tucker the flash drive—so he could hide it in the floor.”
“Then, that’s where we need to be.” Sam snapped off the flashlight and made a move for the front door. “Is that couple gone now?”
Jolene stepped outside and peered over the railing into the parking lot. “They’re gone. How are we going to get in there?”
“Give me some credit. If Tucker Bishop can break into an abandoned apartment, so can I.”
Five minutes later, Sam made good on his promise as he picked the lock on the empty unit and pushed open the door.
Jolene held her breath against the musty smell, as she stepped inside the unfurnished unit. “If the cops came in here, they didn’t have much to search.”
Sam’s flashlight lit up a dirty blanket in the corner. “Tucker’s bed.”
Tapping her toe against the tile floor, Jolene said, “Looks like they replaced this floor, too.”
Sam crept to the back of the apartment and called over his shoulder. “Not in the bedroom.”
Jolene followed the light and joined Sam in the bedroom, the hardwood floor stretched out before them like a treasure map. Now they just had to find the treasure.
Sam slid open the mirrored closet door and lifted a wooden clothes rod from its brackets. “You use this to tap the floor, and I’ll crawl around and use the end of my flashlight. You’re listening for a hollow sound or looking for any irregularities in the seams of the floor.”
They started in opposite corners of the room, tapping away like a couple of deathwatch beetles. Jolene hit each panel of wood with the end of the rod, cocking her head, listening for different sounds.
She approached the lone window in the room and rapped the end of her stick against the piece closest to the wall. Instead of the light, tinny sound she’d grown accustomed to, she heard a deeper sound. She tapped again and tapped the panel next to the first one.
The dark hollow sound had her heart racing and she dropped to her knees. “I think I found something, Sam.”
He was at her side
