Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4) by Olivia Jaymes (reading women .txt) 📕

in dark pants and a hoodie, with the hood up. I didn't see their face, but the figure was bulky. I'm assuming it was a male but it could have been a female wearing oversized clothing."

"What were they doing?"

Jenna was beginning to calm down with Knox so near, her heart rate beginning to return to normal. He seemed to have a good handle on what was happening.

"If you look inside, you'll see. I think they were searching for something." He beckoned to her. "I'm going to go in and make sure the house is clear. Wait here for me, this won't take long. Then you can enter."

True to his word, he wasn't gone long before returning for her. He was also correct when he said that she'd see what he was talking about. The house was a shambles. Drawers open, contents strewn all over. Couch and chair cushions cut open, the stuffing ripped out. The kitchen cabinets had been opened and their contents thrown around.

"I'm afraid to look at the rest of the house."

"It doesn't get any better," Knox warned. "Unless your sister is a total slob, they tore apart her bedroom and office too."

It looked like a bomb had gone off. Repeatedly.

The mattress was pulled off the frame and cut open. Every single drawer had been dumped onto the floor, the contents strewn around the room. She couldn't take a single clear step. The curtains had been torn down and all the clothes in the closet had been thrown out, along with dozens of pairs of shoes and purses. Lori adored buying handbags and she'd had a large collection.

The office was no better; in fact, it was worse. Lamps had been overturned, file cabinets emptied. It appeared that every single solitary piece of paper had been thrown into the air, landing willy-nilly on the floor. It would take days to put this place back together.

"What on earth were they looking for?" Jenna asked, picking up a lamp and setting it on the desk. "Lori wasn't a government spy, for heaven's sake. She didn't have any secrets."

Hands on hips, Knox was scowling at the mess. "What about a diary or a journal? Did she keep one of those?"

"I have no idea. She had a journal when we were teenagers but I don't know if she kept it up." Her gaze ran over the rubble. "Is that what you think they were looking for?"

"Maybe. I don’t know."

"But why now?" Jenna asked. "It doesn't make any sense. After all this time, they're just looking now?"

"Because we're looking into Lori's disappearance. Before they didn't have any worries."

"You sound almost happy," Jenna said with a frown. "They've just destroyed my sister's home."

"Because we've shaken them up. Good. Now is when they'll start making mistakes. We need to keep them off balance. Keep up the pressure. They're starting to get scared after being complacent for months."

That did sound like good news. But...

"I'm happy but I still have a huge mess to clean up here."

Knox peered into the open filing drawers. "You said that you and Michelle checked this place and nothing was missing, right?"

"Yes, except for Lori's purse and phone."

Knox rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. "Did anything look out of place? Maybe a man's belongings? A tie or something like that? Even a coffee mug that didn't look familiar?"

"I don't remember anything like that but I have to be honest–that's not what we were looking for. We were looking for her possessions that we knew she would never leave without." Jenna sat on the edge of the desk. "So what happens now? Do we call the police? I'm sure Detective Bauer is going to love this."

"Maybe this will finally convince him that there is more to this case than just a young woman running away from her life," Knox replied in a grim tone, pulling his phone from his pocket. "But I doubt it. He doesn't seem the type to change his mind easily."

Jenna had real doubts that Detective Bauer would change his tune. He wouldn't want to admit that he might have been wrong.

They were on their own.

Just the two of them...and whomever had ripped the townhouse apart.

Detective Bauer had been only slightly more helpful in the afternoon than he'd been earlier. He did admit that it was a weird coincidence that Lori's townhouse was broken into and torn apart just one day into Knox's investigation, but he wasn't convinced that the two events were related.

"Correlation doesn't equal causation," he'd said, taking notes while the other officer he'd brought along had photographed the scene. "Could just be a strange coincidence. Let's not jump to any conclusions."

Knox, on the other hand, didn't give a shit what Detective Bauer thought. He didn't seem the type that wanted to truly work on...anything. In fact, Knox was puzzled as to why this guy was even a police officer, let alone a detective. Mysteries didn't seem to excite him, nor did doing actual investigative activities such as questioning suspects. Bauer mostly wanted Knox and Jenna to drop the subject and go away.

Plus, Bauer wouldn't even talk to Jenna at all. He'd only speak to Knox, which was total bullshit. He might think Jenna was uptight or difficult but that wasn't an excuse for completely freezing her out of any discussion. This was her sister's home and she knew a hell of a lot more about it than Knox did. Yet, the detective still didn't want to talk to Jenna. He'd avoided her the entire time. If this wasn't an active investigation, Knox would have been quite amused