that I wasn’t finished snooping, though it might appear that I was.
The patrol officer was gone, so I walked over to Grady’s vehicle, a nice-looking pickup that to my knowledge had never been used for its intended purpose. Grady liked to say that he had the common touch, and driving the truck was just one way he showed it. I tried the driver’s side door, but it was locked. As I peeked in through the windows, I noticed that the rear pass-through window was unlatched.
There was only one thing I could do. I hopped up into the truck bed, not with a great deal of finesse, I’ll grant you, but I managed it. After I slid the window open, I tried to imagine how I was going to get in far enough to open the door. There was no way I was going to fit, and seeing me stuck there was not an image I ever wanted in my husband’s mind.
I might not be able to fit in all of the way, but I could still reach inside. The truck interior was as neat as Grady’s living room had been, but there might be something under the seats, not that I could reach them from where I was squatting.
I was trying to extend my reach when I heard my husband’s distinctive cough behind me.
“Have you taken up breaking and entering, Savannah?”
“No breaking, and not much entering,” I said. “I noticed that the back sliding window was unlatched, so I thought I’d check it out. Did you have any luck inside?”
“We found this,” he said as he held up a bagged cell phone. “There are about forty messages on it, but no sign of Grady.”
“That’s a relief,” I said. “It must have slipped out of his pocket.”
“And he didn’t notice instantly that it was missing? I’m not happy about this,” he said.
As Zach helped me out of the back of Grady’s truck, I noticed a man on foot approaching us. He had on a cap with the Carolina Panthers logo on it, and he wore running shoes, shorts, and a knit shirt. I didn’t even recognize him until he was twenty paces away from us.
“You’re a hard man to track down,” I said.
“That’s funny, I’ve known where I was all along,” the mayor replied.
“SINCE WHEN DID YOU TAKE UP RUNNING?” ZACH ASKED Grady as we joined him inside. Davis had left us the second he knew the mayor was safe, and Grady had promised us a ride back to the station when we were ready to go.
“It’s something new,” Grady admitted. Though he was five years younger than me, the weight of his office had aged him somewhat over the years. His face had too many added lines, and not enough caused by laughter.
Grady patted his stomach. “If you want to know the truth, I’ve put on a few pounds since you two left.”
“At least a few,” Zach said, and both men laughed. If either one of them had made that comment about me, there would have been bloodshed, and none of it would have been mine, but they seemed to find it acceptable enough between the two of them.
“So, you were never in any danger at all,” I said. Grady’s smile faded. “I wish that were true, but I have been getting some threats lately.”
“More than the usual ones?” Zach asked him. Though he was trying to keep his tone light, I could tell that there was an undercurrent of concern for his friend there.
“Yeah, I seem to have acquired a couple of real kooks.”
“Shouldn’t a police officer be guarding you, then?” I asked.
“I’m not the president, or even the governor,” Grady said. “I don’t exactly have the budget for police protection.”
“Then find the money,” I snapped.
“Are you sure you want to use that tone of voice with the mayor?” Grady asked.
“When he’s being pigheaded, I am,” I said.
Grady laughed. “I miss you both.”
“You should at least have an officer run with you,” I said.
“Does she ever let up?” Grady asked my husband.
“You know her better than to ask that,” he said. “But she’s not wrong.”
Grady shook his head. “I’m not about to have somebody looking over my shoulder all of the time. It would feel like I was in jail.”
“Better there than the hospital; or worse, the morgue,” I said.
“I’ll think about it.”
Zach handed him the telephone he’d found, still safely ensconced in its evidence bag. “Then you should take this with you wherever you go, and I mean it. If you can’t call out on it, we can still use it to track you.”
“Yeah, I admit leaving it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. I just wanted to get away for a while, you know?”
“Is the pressure getting to you?” I asked softly.
“It’s been pretty bad lately, but I can handle it.” It was clear that he wasn’t happy with the serious tone of our conversation. “Let me grab a quick shower, then I can take you back to the police station so you can get your car. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”
“If the alternative is to have you drive us like that,” Zach said, “I think we can spare the time.”
