They drove home, and Jamie found she didn’t want the night to end. They’d basically talked shop all night and that was fine, but she wanted something more. “You want to come in for a bit?” She glanced around for Gwen’s car but didn’t see it.
He looked at her. “Can you . . . stay out longer?”
“Maybe . . .”
“We could go to my place?”
Jamie yearned for it so badly she almost leaned toward him. “Let me check on Harley and Emma, okay? I’ll just be a minute.”
She hurried up the front walk to the door. It was locked. She rapped on the panels, then searched in her purse for her key, letting herself inside when no one answered. The hairs on the back of her neck lifted. It was nine-thirty. They could both be in their rooms, but something felt wrong.
She nearly fell over from fright when she walked toward the stairs and saw Harley frozen in midstep, halfway down.
“Jesus!” Jamie’s hand flew to her chest. Then, “Are you all right?”
“I heard the front door open.”
“That was me. Sorry. I just wanted to check on you.”
“You always come in the back.”
“I know. I’m . . .” She drew a breath. “I’m going out for a nightcap with Cooper. Is Emma in bed, I assume?” At Harley’s nod, she exhaled with relief. “Is that okay? Did Gwen come by?”
“I guess.”
“You guess it’s okay, or you guess Gwen came by?”
“Nobody came by.”
“Really? Huh. I thought . . .” She broke off. “Gwen said she was going to stop in and make sure you guys were okay.”
“Why wouldn’t we be?”
“I don’t know. A lot of terrible things have happened. I just wanted to make sure you were safe, that’s all.” So, sue me. Jamie could feel herself getting upset and tried to crank her emotions back down. For a moment, when she’d walked in, she’d felt real fear.
Harley looked past Jamie, then back at her. “I was kind of scared,” she admitted.
“Do you want me to stay?”
“Nah.” They could both hear Duchess whining and scratching at Emma’s door. “We’ve got the dog.” She turned, lightly ran back up the stairs and Jamie exhaled a breath and traced her steps to the front door and outside.
Back in the car, Cooper looked at her and asked, “What?”
“I don’t know. Gwen told me she’d stop by and check on them, but she never did, apparently. She sounded kind of odd when I talked to her earlier.”
“She’s the one who told you to tell me to be careful.”
“Yep.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes. Then Cooper said, “You want to stop by her house?”
“Do you mind?” Jamie looked at him with relief.
“No. It’s not much out of the way.”
“I’ll call her. See if she answers.” She placed the call, but it rang and rang and went to voice mail. “You think she turns off her phone at night? Some people do.”
“Hard to say.”
They got to the house. The fake Spanish moss might be gone, but the carved symbols in the trees and the odd little collection of items in various places on the lawn, wooden art pieces and religious symbols, were still there from Gwen’s parents’ days.
They walked up to the front porch. There was one dim light on in the area Jamie remembered as the kitchen. Maybe the oven light, she thought. She rang the bell and long, deep, solemn notes tolled within. The hairs on Jamie’s arms stood on end.
“I know this sounds crazy, as if I’m trying to be like Gwen or something, but I know something’s wrong. She’s off beat, but reliable. I hadn’t seen her in years, but she hasn’t changed. She’s loyal, and I was a rotten friend. But Gwen’s the same.”
“What do you want to do?”
She was relieved he didn’t act like she was being hysterical. “I don’t know. Find her.”
“Let’s see if her car’s in the garage.”
Like Jamie’s mother’s house, Gwen’s had a detached garage to the side and rear of the house. Cooper was tall enough to look in the windows along the top of the garage door. “Not in there.”
“Oh. She’s out. Huh. That’s weird. She didn’t check on Harley and Emma.”
“When was she going to stop by?”
“Well, I would’ve thought by now.” They’d walked back to Cooper’s SUV and climbed inside. “She said she had something to do first.”
“Workwise?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe she’s at her office?” he suggested.
“Maybe.”
“You want to check?”
“I’m sorry to be so worried. It’s just not like her. She knew how important it was to me to have her kind of monitor them.”
“Let’s just go see.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were outside the building that housed Gwen’s office. There was a light on at the end of the hall, where her offices were. Cooper tried the outer door and found it unlocked. “Is this the way it is at night?”
“Doesn’t seem like it would be.” Jamie’s heart had started beating deep and hard. “Her office is down the hall.”
They walked back together. There were no lights on in Gwen’s office.
But the door was ajar.
“Wait here.” Cooper’s voice was a taut whisper as he unbuttoned his cuff.
Maybe it’s nothing, Jamie told herself, even while her whole body shivered. Maybe I’ve infected Cooper with my paranoia.
He pulled his sleeve over his hand, pushed the door open farther and flicked on the light switch. Hesitating, he called, “Gwen? It’s Cooper Haynes.”
No answer.
“I’m coming in,” Jamie said.
“No, stay where you are.”
She came up behind him. “I don’t want to stay in the hall.”
He almost argued with her, but then let it go. He moved toward Gwen’s office door, which, like everything else so far, was not closed completely. Jamie followed closely behind him. Every nerve in her body felt like it was on alert.
Cooper pushed open that door as well. She knew he was being careful not to add his prints to whoever’s might be on the door handles and light switches.
The door swung inward. Jamie saw a shattered cup on the wooden floor in
