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After du the contents of the dirty-clothes hamper into a basket, she carried the load down to the laundry room at the far end of the hall As she set the basket on the utility table, her foot stubbed so under the table

Glancing down, she saw a cardboard box—the box of Slade’s dirty clothes and bedding frootten about it

Natalie pulled the box into the open The sour arain

Why had she kept these things? She should have tossed them in a Dumpster on her way home So why not do that now? Just take the clothes outside and stuff them in the trash for tomorrow’s pickup

She was headed for the door with the box when a sudden thought struck her What if she was holding evidence, maybe even a clue to Slade’s murder?

Donning latex gloves to avoid conta any potential evidence, she dumped the contents onto the table First she shook out the sheets and pillowcase—nothing there The underwear and socks, apart from their smell, held no secrets But the khaki trousers, jeans, and work shirts had pockets, as did the lightweight baseball jacket

The shirts and pants yielded six Burger Shack receipts, two candy bar wrappers, 274 in loose change, a pen, ato less ite a flood of s they’d built together All gone now

She picked up the tan fleece-lined canvas jacket with the Haskell Trucking logo on the front The weather had been warm for weeks, so he wouldn’t have worn it recently, probably not since their separation She iotten till the next cold season

Opening it up, she felt a crackle in the zippered inside pocket Her exploring fingers found a folded slip of paper It was a bank deposit receipt

Puzzled, she studied it The bank wasn’t the one where she and Slade had their joint personal account, nor was it the one used by Haskell Trucking But the Lubbock address beneath the header jogged her memory She’d driven past the bank once, a s with a real estate company, in an out-of-the-way part of town Had Slade made the deposit for someone else, or was this account one he’d kept secret from her, as he’d kept other aspects of his life?

She was still puzzled when she noticed the coasped The deposit aiven as 821,63311 Almost

a million dollars

Natalie’s knees went slack She leaned against the table for support That kind of cash had to be connected to soal

Her first impulse was to phone Tori But it was al Tori would be asleep and even if she wasn’t, there’d be nothing she could do at this hour

If Slade had been involved in soood chance that this receipt could prove someone other than Beau had killed him and framed Beau for it