Trail of Secrets(41)

                He finished the call and slipped the phone back in his pocket. “Maybe Rick can come up with something that will help me know which direction to take. Carlos was a gun for hire—if he was attacking Dan, it was on someone’s orders. If we can track down who he’s been working for, that might give us some answers.”

                Callie buckled her seat belt and settled back in her seat. “I hope so. Now where are we going?”

                “I’m taking you back to my house. I think we need to get Dan’s notebook out and look at it again. Maybe he’s left a clue somewhere in there that will help us out.”

                Callie glanced at the clock on the dash. “And I need to check in with the nurses in the Critical Care Unit to see how Uncle Dan is doing. They promised they would call if his condition changed. I haven’t heard from them, but I still call them every few hours.”

                She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket as Seth started the car and pulled into traffic. She’d hoped the nurses would have good news for her, but it wasn’t to be tonight. By the time they arrived home, she was beginning to feel the disappointment Seth must have experienced earlier.

                Her uncle was barely hanging on to life, and the man who might have answered the question of who wanted him killed was now dead. Ever since she’d gotten off that plane, it had been one horrifying experience after another. When would all this come to an end?

                Maybe Uncle Dan’s notebook did hold the key to who might have wanted to kill him. If so, it was up to her and Seth to find the answer.

                * * *

                Seth stood at the kitchen sink and stared out over the backyard. He still couldn’t believe that Carlos Allen was dead. Just a few hours ago he’d thought he might be on the verge of finding out who was behind all that had happened to Dan and Callie in the past few days. That hope had gone up in smoke when his fellow officers killed Carlos. Now he had to find another way to solve this case.

                With a sigh he poured two cups of coffee and set them on the kitchen table. Callie walked in the door at that moment. “Thanks for making coffee. I need some.” She slid into one of the chairs and glanced up at him. “I thought your mother would be here, but I didn’t see her upstairs.”

                Seth shook his head. “No, she’s off with some of her friends. She left a note saying they were going bowling tonight.” He pointed toward the notebook she’d placed on the table. “I’ve looked at that notebook dozens of times with Dan, and I’ve never seen anything that led me to any conclusions about Hope. There has to be something that I’m missing.”

                “Maybe you’ve always looked for clues about Hope’s identity. This time we need to search for anything that might point us in the direction of who wants Uncle Dan dead.”

                He nodded. “So what do you suggest?”

                “I think we should go through this again and look at each page. See if there’s anything that he may have added since the last time you looked in here.”

                “Okay. I can do that.”

                For the next thirty minutes they turned the pages of the notebook and discussed every detail that Dan had noted on each page, but Seth had seen all this before. Nothing appeared to have been added until Callie turned the page and he saw a flyer for Midtown Mission.

                He reached for it. “Where did this come from?”

                “You haven’t seen this before?”