-1Surprises

Lamp was missing. It had taken us a while to notice, but she was missing. Sometimes we’d wander off for a few days to get some peace, and we were scared, but we hoped that was all it was.

She’d been gone a week, when we realized she was missing.

For us this meant one of two things.

One, she was dead.

Or two, she was the killer and she was hiding.

And I was the one who had to find out.

I went to Lamp’s house, stopping to pick up Jeremy as an after thought. Best not to go alone.

We used my key to get in, and yet again I was surprised someone hadn’t changed their locks. Particularly Lamp, she being the logical and rational one.

After getting inside, we went straight up to her room to look around for any clues about where she might’ve gone.

She’d left her laptop in the room. It was one of the few things none of us would ever go anywhere without. So I had hopes for her not being the killer.

Those hopes were dashed when I turned around and saw my other missing knife on her vanity.

“Son of a bitch,” I hissed.

Jeremy came up beside me. “What?”

I walked over to the knife to be sure, before commenting.

Yeah. It had my initials I’d carved into it. It was definitely mine.

“This knife is mine. It went missing the same time as the one they’d found in Ni’s back. Oh, Gawd. I think this means Lamp is the killer.”

“That sounds logical, but come and look at this,” he said, pulling me over to Lamp’s laptop.

“Look at this. She’d been looking into homicide detectives in the area. And,” he pulled up her email, “She’d been emailing one. I think she was on her way to one, the real killer must’ve found her.”

“What about the knife?”

“Well, I don’t think Lamp would leave evidence if she was going into hiding, but I’m not the smart one here, so your opinion is the one that matters.”

“I… think we should talk to Nathan and Fishy about it.”

He shrugs. “Your call. You want to go, or do you want to keep looking around?”

“Take Lamp’s laptop and put it in the car. I’ll keep looking to see if I can find anything else.”

“Why are we taking Lamp’s laptop?”

“So Fishy can do whatever it is she does with computer’s to see what’s been deleted and crap.”

“Okay. …and Fate?”

“Yeah?”

“Just… be careful, okay? If you hear someone coming up the stairs, make sure it’s me.”

“Will do,” I answered. Of course, I knew that I wouldn’t hear someone coming up stairs. I’d be too focused on looking around, and I’m deaf when I’m focused.

I dug through the papers on her desk. I noticed they were unusually messy. Lamp was generally very organized. Either she’d left in a hurry or someone else had been going through her crap.

Nothing incriminating or useful on her desk, so I moved on to her closet. When I told Fishy I was heading over her, she’d said Lamp kept important things hidden in a panel in the bottom corner of the back of her closet wall, so I go check it.

The panel slides off down there and I find a bunch of cash and a notebook.

I put the cash back and pulled out the notebook. It was full of scribbled ideas, her suspicions for who was the killer.

That settled it for me.

If she’d been on the run, she’d have taken the emergency cash.

She was innocent.

Which meant that most likely:

She was dead.

Damn.