I studied the items. “Yes, I do.”
“Can you tell me who they belong to?”
“They’re mine.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. They’re normally in our garage.”
“You said they’re normally in your garage?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, now can you tell me where we found these things?”
“I’m going to take a wild guess that you found them at the place where Evie’s car is.”
“Did you put them there?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Can you tell me how they got there?”
“No.”
“No? Even though they’re your things?”
“That’s right.”
“Mr Harlow, you don’t seem surprised that these items of yours were found at the site. They were buried, just like Evie’s personal things. Why weren’t you surprised?”
Wherever Evie was now, she was still wearing the bracelet I gave her. She didn’t throw it away in disgust. That meant everything.
“Mr Harlow?”
“I don’t know why they were there.”
“That’s not what I was asking. I’m a little confused that you don’t appear concerned that these particular items were found at the site. A rope? And a knife? Those are some very concerning things to find, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes. I don’t really want to think about it.”
“What don’t you want to think about?”
“She’s my wife. I don’t want to think about anything bad happening to her. I hope you can understand that.”
“Did you know these three items were missing from your garage?”
“No, I haven’t been out there. I’ve been busy looking after my daughters. The youngest was in hospital this week.”
“I’m sorry about your daughter. Let me go over everything we have so far. It seems that your wife was afraid, which fits with her leaving you and with what Marla told us. We’ve seen you pretending to be someone else online in order to find out where she is. And now we’ve found your rope, knife and tape at a site where we suspect that Evie came to harm.”
“That forms quite a picture.” I didn’t need her to spell it out any clearer.
“Mr Harlow, do you know what happened to Evie?” she said.
Sergeant Moss glanced from Devoe to me, raising her chin and pretending hard that she wasn’t holding her breath.
“No. I don’t. Can I leave now? You said I didn’t have to be here.”
She crumpled her shoulders, deflating a little like she’d been pricked by a needle. “Yes, you’re free to go. We would like to get a bit further with this, though, and—”
I stood. “I’ve answered your questions and now I’m done.”
“Okay then. Please do stay local. Let us know if you intend going away. We might have important findings to tell you about.”
She was suddenly friendly again. A distant kind of friendly.
They thought I’d done something to Evie. I would have sounded even guiltier if I’d started raving on about the whole thing being a setup.
There was one thing I was sure of. They were moving close to an arrest. I didn’t know whether talking to them had bought me some time or made it worse. It’d probably made it worse.
Far worse.
Hell, I could probably be arrested on the answers I’d given. I’d admitted to those things being mine. And apparently hadn’t shown an appropriate amount of shock.
I walked out without another word and sat behind the wheel of my car, my heart banging away in my chest. The people who were involved with this, whoever they were, were dangerous. So dangerous Constance couldn’t go to the police and tell them about what she knew. They’d killed her investigator without a second thought. Evie was in danger. And Detective Devoe was moving close to arresting me.
Things dropped into place.
Evie had been desperate to make some money. But she’d trusted the wrong people. Either she had no idea that Lilly had been sick, or someone was preventing her from contacting me or coming home. And Kara was somehow mixed up with the same people.
Nothing else made sense.
Now that I knew where Evie was, I had to go find her. But I only had a few hundred bucks in the bank now. Maybe less. Not even enough for a plane ticket.
It was an insane thought. People like me didn’t go charging off around the world to search for a missing person. I wasn’t like Constance with all her money and no responsibilities. And Lilly needed special care.