Seaside Secrets. Dana Mentink

trips.

      “On his shirt,” Angela insisted, “there are bloody fingerprints where Lila must have touched him. He took her, maybe abducted her.”

      Harry waved a hand. “Hang on just a minute. Before I am accused of everything since the Hindenburg explosion, let me clear my name.” He yanked down the zipper of his jacket.

      Angela’s expression went slack with shock.

      Instead of a yellow shirt, Gruber now wore a tee with “Gruber and Gruber Trucking” emblazoned on the front.

      The shirt was a blinding white, clean as a rain-washed beach.

      * * *

      There was no way what Angela was seeing could be true. Her reeling mind could hardly take it in. “He changed shirts.”

      Gruber sighed. “Think what you want. Look, Lieutenant Torrey, I hope Lila is all right. She’s a great employee, the patients at the clinic love her and my brother, Peter, thinks she’s the bee’s knees. If she’s in trouble, I’ll help you and her any way I can, but I didn’t see her in the stairwell. And this lady—” he shot a disdainful look at Angela “—is obviously too distraught to be of much help.”

      “The lock of hair,” Angela said, wishing she had taken it from Lila’s room. “In the florist’s card. That proves that someone was trying to scare Lila by threatening her son.”

      Gruber arched an eyebrow. “And I suppose that’s to be laid at my doorstep, too? I’ve been nothing but kind to Lila, helping her finish dental hygiene school so she could support the kid. She’ll tell you the same thing once you find her.” He chuckled. “Besides, I really don’t have the time to be a criminal mastermind. I’ve got a trucking company to run and two grandkids to spoil.”

      “Mr. Gruber, I am sorry to have bothered you,” Torrey said. “I’ll contact you if we have further questions.”

      Gruber nodded and strode away, whistling.

      “He’s lying,” Angela insisted.

      Torrey rubbed a hand over his fleshy cheeks. “Right now I have nothing that proves anything happened other than Lila decided to check herself out. You two need to come with me to Lila’s room and we’ll see about this card you say you found.”

      You say you found. Torrey thought she was lying. Or crazy.

      Was she? Or was Torrey involved in whatever had just happened? He was on a first-name basis with Gruber. Her palms grew cold and sweaty as they headed to the elevator. As they passed each floor she worked on breathing, trying to calm her rattling nerves. Dan’s arm slid around her.

      She wanted to push away, but she desperately needed that grounding touch. She shot a look at him.

      He winked. A silly gesture that reassured her more than a volume of words. He believed her. He knew she was not crazy. Dan Blackwater was standing with her. She was not alone, at least in this.