The Sweetest Thing (Book 1) ✓

30 - New Lead

          Dax

"Hi, Dax, hi boys! What are you doing here so late?" – Rebecca stepped out of her car, my sister right beside her.

"I think the better question is – what are you two doing here?" – Earlier that day, Lily sent me messages saying that Caitie would stop helping her at the bakery, because Rebecca thought the payment wasn't fare, so I knew that she didn't has a reason to be here...if the late hour wasn't another major indicator.

"Oh, Caitie forgot something in the shop and wanted to come and take it."

"And how would you get inside? You don't have a key, don't know the alarm code..." my sister was looking everywhere but me, knowing that I didn't buy the bullshit that her friend was trying to sell me.

"Oh, we thought that Emily might be still here and tried our chance." Becca was quick with the lies, didn't even blink, making me think of how much more of them she told me throughout our relationship and I didn't catch them.

"Well, you thought wrong. You can go home now." I didn't have the time, nor the nerves to deal with them right now. I needed to focus on finding Lily.

"What's going on here?" My sister finally opened her mouth.

"Nothing you need to know."

"Why? Tell me. Why the Police is here? Where is Emily?"

"Don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"What I said. I don't know where she is. Someone took her and I don't have the time to chat with you about it. Go home, I'll call you if I found anything or if the detective wants to talk with you."

"Why would he want to talk with me?"

"Because you work here...or at least you did until this afternoon. Maybe you saw something suspicious, heard something, I don't know. The detective would decide. So, I need you to go home and..."

"She is staying with me." Like always, Rebecca didn't like to be left out of a conversation and find a way to interject.

"Whatever. Just stay someplace where you can be found by me, or the Police, got it?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Good. No go."

"You sure she didn't just decide to go away?"

"What do you mean, Becca?" I honestly didn't have the energy to deal with her.

"Well, I don't know. But...you said that someone took her. But are you sure about it? What if she decided that she doesn't want to be here anymore, or find some other, better place. Run away with a new guy and..."

"I'll stop you right now, Becca. I don't care what you think and I don't care about that conspiracy theory you want to start. But I know Lily and I know that she wouldn't just disappear. So, like I said, go home and let us do our job."

"But what if..."

"GO! NOW!" The two girls jumped from my outburst. Luckily, they finally followed my instruction and left the place, so that I could concentrate on my way more important task.

The detective chose that moment to come out of the bakery and join me and my team.

"We are waiting for the forensic team to come and search for and collect evidence. Not that there's many. There isn't any signs of a struggle or fight or something like that. Whatever happened it was quick and without any traces." I didn't like that news. That mean that whoever did it knew what he was doing, probably some kind of a professional. And I couldn't understand who might be so angry at Lily to hire a man to kidnap her. She was living an easy life, didn't have a lot of friends...or enemies. There was literally no one I could think of. She hasn't told me of any problem in the bakery, maybe some angry customer or something like that. And that was exactly what I told the detective – I had no clues.

"What about the previous incidents connected with your girlfriend? The breaking in at her apartment and then the bakery a few months ago?"

"I don't know. Your colleagues haven't found any leads that show them who was responsible for both of the incidents. I'm honestly surprised that you are dealing with today's problem and not some of the other detectives that already know about the other cases..."

"It wasn't supposed to be me, but shit happened and well, here I am. Hopefully with fresh eyes on the cases, maybe I'll be able to help and solve them, who knows."

"Yeah, who knows..." I was starting to lose faith in the capabilities of the detectives working in our town and this new, at least for me, guy didn't make me believe in them any more than I already did.

"Okay. The important part is to stay optimistic and when the forensic team come and..."

"Can I suggest something?"

"What would that be?" I wasn't sure that he'll let me do it, but it was worth the shot. Literally didn't have what to lose at that point.

"Can I get in the bakery with Ace and let him search for clues? It will be quick and he won't touch anything, just smell and see if he can find something unusual."

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea, officer Hall."

"We were both in there a few hours ago, it won't be like tampering with evidence per se. We wouldn't be introducing some new stuff in the scene. And Ace is very good at his job, so I don't see why don't we use him?" I saw the gears moving inside the head of detective Conway, trying to see the pros and cos. I knew that it wasn't a good idea to let outside people on a crime scene. But if we wait for the tech guys to come and do their job...there's a bigger chance to lose a smell that could lead us to the perpetrators.

"Okay, fine. I can see this idea could help us. Just...really, no touching. Walk around and get out quickly, put those on your boots, so that you won't leave your footsteps." He gave me a pair of blue disposable overshoes and I walk towards my car to let Ace out of it.

"C'mon, boy, let's find our girl." We walked into the bakery and like the detective said, nothing looked out of order. There were no signs that something happened here. "C'mon, Ace, search." And he started walking around the room, moving quickly and efficiently throughout the place, smelling everything and searching for some kind of a lead.

"So, how you will know that he found something?" Detective Conway had joined me in the shop. He stood beside me, while keeping his eyes on Ace the whole time. "He'll bark or something?"

"Depends on what he finds. He has different signals that he knows and I'm looking for them."

"Like what?"

"Like this one." Ace had look around the whole place. Smelled around all the tables, and then had gone to the kitchen. There was nothing here. Until he got to the front door where he took a good whiff around it and sit down in front of it.

"Shit!" I finally had an idea what was happening and I didn't like it at all.

***Who's a good boy now!
So, do you remember what Ace's signal mean? What Dax figured out?