“Again.”
“What are you seeing?”
“Not the plate.”
She pointed at the rear window.
“There.”
A parking sticker.
The image was blurry.
The officer enhanced it.
A faded decal from a storage facility outside town.
Investigators obtained a warrant for records.
A rental unit there had been paid in cash under a false name.
The security deposit card connected indirectly to an associate of Denny Ross.
Inside the unit, police found more printed surveillance material, disposable phones, computer equipment, and copies of photographs matching those from the garage.
The case stopped looking speculative.
It became organized.
Denny’s people began disappearing from public places.
Not literally.
They stopped lingering.
Vehicles that had been seen near the garage vanished.
The diner across from Nora’s school became important because of one more clue.
Two days after the break-in, Nora remembered something.
She was sitting at the Steel Vultures garage doing homework when she suddenly looked up.
“The matchbook.”
Lucas frowned.
“What matchbook?”
“He had one.”
“Who?”
“The man from the storage room.”