Star Struck(64)

“I like Brenda. We’ve vowed to keep in contact even once this case is over.”

“Good,” Garrett said. He felt good that he was instrumental in introducing Hailey to a new friend.

“I sure wished I would have cancelled today’s show,” Hailey said.

“If you’re not fit to go in, call John and let him know.”

Hailey looked at the clock. “No, it’s too late to reschedule our guests. I’ll do it.”

Two hours later, Garrett dropped Hailey off at the studio. Garrett had come up with a plan. He called to confirm Trevon’s whereabouts. It was confirmed Trevon was at the office. Garrett made a detour towards Trevon residence. As best friends, they each gave one another keys and passwords in case of emergency. Garrett never thought he would need to use them—especially in this type of situation. To erase any doubt he had, Garrett had no choice but to do what Trevon would probably see as an invasion of privacy—he accessed his place without Trevon having a clue he was going to be there.

Garrett hoped Trevon’s nosy neighbors were too busy to see him enter. The last thing he needed was for one of them to report back to Trevon; but even so, he had been over enough times to be familiar with most. Garret was careful as he went through the house. He made it a point to put things back in place so it wouldn’t alert Trevon that someone else had been inside. He found similar clippings of Hailey that he had found in Shareeka’s box. He found Trevon’s laptop under the bed. Garrett’s first thought, “What an unusual place to keep your laptop.”

Garrett placed the laptop on top of the bed and turned it on. Surprisingly there wasn’t a password required to access it. As many times as he tried to impose on Trevon the importance of a password, he didn’t listen. Fortunately for Garrett, Trevon didn’t heed his advice. It made his job so much easier.

Garrett inserted his zip drive into the external port. With a few keystrokes, he copied the files on Trevon’s laptop to his zip drive so he could view from his own laptop later. He chose not to view the items there because he would have been tense on edge, worrying whether Trevon would make a surprise visit home. After copying the files, he dusted his fingerprints off the laptop and placed it back under the bed in its original location. He placed the zip drive in his pocket and did one final swoop of the room.

Garrett surveyed the room one last time and didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary. He made sure everything was in tact and headed down the hallway. When he got near the door, he thought he heard a noise. Garrett rubbed the back of his head. He was now laid across the floor in front of the front door. It took awhile to gather his senses. He wasn’t sure how long he had been laying there. Someone had knocked him out but were now gone. Garrett stumbled some as he got on his feet.

None of his personal belongings had been taken so he wondered who else had been in the house. He checked his pocket for the external drive and it was still there. He couldn’t tell Trevon about the incident because he wasn’t supposed to be there. What if it was Trevon? He dialed Trevon’s office number. He picked up. Garrett said, “Hey man, I just wanted to let you know that I was on my way to the office.”

If it was Trevon, he never indicated to Garrett that he knew his whereabouts. As far as Garrett knew, Trevon was at the office, so the question was, who hit him? Garrett hung up the phone and with his mind and body on full alert, he went through Trevon’s house to see if he could find any evidence of the intruder. The intruder had not taken anything as far as he could tell.

Garrett peaked out the window to see if any neighbors were outside. None were, so he took the opportunity to go to his car. When he got to his car, there was a note on his company stationery with the words written – STAY OUT OF IT, written across it.

Garrett got in his car. His mind was on overload as he tried to process the events that led up to this particular moment. Trevon was still not out of the clear. He could have had his office number transferred to his cell number. He dialed the employee he had watching Shareeka. “So she’s been there the entire time? Are you sure?”

After they confirmed Shareeka’s whereabouts, Garrett scratched Shareeka off the list. His cell phone rang, it was Caroline. Garrett said, “Yes, I’m still coming in.” He paused, before saying, “Okay. Call Hailey back and tell her I’m on my way.”

Garrett hung up with Caroline. His phone indicator alerted him to several missed calls. He clicked and noticed most were from Hailey. Garrett knew he should call Hailey back but until he could get the pounding in his head to subside, he would just wait until he got to the studio. He clipped on his Bluetooth and listened to all of his messages as he drove towards the studio. He called Trevon to let him know of his change of plans. Trevon didn’t seem too surprised.