Finn opened his laptop computer and showed her the screen. “Here’s the video,” he said, hitting the play icon.
The clip was so brief she almost missed it. A man dressed in black stepped out from behind the dumpster, stared at the building for a moment and then disappeared from view.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize him.”
“I was afraid of that,” he said wryly. “But I had to ask.” He put the video in reverse and paused it when the man’s face was on the screen. It was a profile view, and grainy due to the distance. “How about now?”
The guy had a unibrow thing going on, but she hadn’t got a clear view of his facial features. “Maybe,” she hedged. “The unibrow is similar, but I wouldn’t be willing to testify in a court of law.”
“Okay, I understand.” Finn shut down the video. “Thanks for trying.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to confess about her limited vision, to tell him everything, but she just couldn’t do it. Besides, her issues didn’t matter one way or the other. She wasn’t dating Finn. Being together like this was temporary.
Her impending blindness wasn’t.
“Do you think Malina’s purse might be here somewhere?” Finn asked, changing the subject.
Grateful for something to do, she jumped to her feet. “I’ll check.”
Leaving Finn and Abernathy to keep an eye on Mikey, she went up to the master suite. The closet was split in half, and one side held Malina’s things. She rifled through them, searching for the black purse her sister favored. Finding it near the back, she pulled it out, her heart pounding. It was bulky, and heavier than she’d expected.
Was it this simple? With trembling fingers she unzipped the main pocket and drew the edges apart to see what was inside.
No package. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. There was a thick black wallet inside, which accounted for some of the weight, along with a variety of other things, including a hairbrush and makeup kit. Opening the wallet, she found the usual credit cards and several receipts. Her eyes widened when she saw there were five crisp one-hundred-dollar bills tucked inside.
Cash and a missing package didn’t bode well. She wondered if the cash alone would be enough to satisfy Cocoa’s captors but doubted it. She suspected the value of the package was much, much more.
Where was the puppy? And what would the men do if she couldn’t find the missing package?
SIX
Finn kept an eye on Mikey playing with Abernathy while he subtly searched the playroom. Although he didn’t believe Malina would hide drugs in the place where her son spent time playing, he wasn’t about to make any assumptions. If she had been using, she might not have been thinking clearly. So he’d do what was needed to check this room off the list.
Maybe he should get one of the drug-sniffing K-9s here to see if they could find the drugs. That, of course, would only work if the package was actually drugs and not cash or other stolen goods.
By the time he finished with the playroom, Eva had returned from the master suite carrying a large black handbag in one hand and a wallet in the other.
“This was all I found,” she said, holding up the wallet. “Five hundred dollars in cash. If the package contained drugs, it’s likely gone.”
He raised a brow and came over to see the crisp hundred-dollar bills. “I don’t know, to be honest, five hundred doesn’t seem like enough to risk a dognapping. In the world of drug dealing, it’s chump change.”
“She may have spent most of it,” Eva said, her eyes full of sorrow and resignation. “Maybe this five hundred was all she had left. I don’t want to admit that she was involved in anything criminal, but even I can see this doesn’t look good.”
Finn glanced at Mikey, making sure the little boy wasn’t listening. He was still playing with Abernathy, who was good-naturedly taking the hugs and tail tugging without protest.
“I was thinking of arranging for one of the drug-sniffing K-9s to come sweep the house, just in case.”
Her brow furrowed. “It doesn’t feel right to do that while Pete’s not here. It’s his house, not mine. Can’t we just look ourselves?”