Catriona squinted at him. “That seems wildly specific.”
Broch shrugged. “Maybe his boy accidentally cut himself on an axe while chopping firewood.”
Catriona shook her head as she pulled her phone from her pocket. “Life in old timey Scotland sure sounds fun. I’m glad I don’t remember it. Next you’re going to tell me his mother came down with the plague.”
“It’s possible.”
“No it’s not, that’s my point—”
Catriona’s phone rang in her hand before she could call for a new car. Answering, she heard Alain’s accent on the opposite end.
“Hello, beautiful.”
She scowled. “Don’t hello beauteeful me, Alain. Thanks to you, I have to solve all of your wife’s problems now too. I need you to let Tyler—”
“I’m going to let him go.”
Catriona paused. “You are?”
“Oui. I did. Dez ees taking him to ze airport as we speak.”
“I brought the studio’s jet here to pick him up.”
“Oh. Well, too late. He has a ticket now. He ees going home.”
Catriona nodded, feeling the weight on her shoulders grow a little lighter. “Okay. That works. Thanks, Alain. How much do I owe you again? I’ll bring the check right now.”
Alain’s tone shifted to dismissive. She could almost hear him waving her away from his side of the phone. “Don’t worry about eet. I’m going to consider ziss a learning experience for ze boy. He can pay me back over time. I’m not in any hurry.” Alain sniffed. “I’m rich.”
The feeling that began as relief, sprouted hairy legs and crawled up Catriona’s neck as suspicion.
Something isn’t right.
The taxi left without being paid. Alain—who’d been so determined to teach Tyler a lesson he’d carved a word on the boy’s thigh—now happily let him go and bought him a plane ticket home.
It was as if while they were inside talking to Mo, the whole world had been rotated one hundred and eighty degrees on its lazy-Susan.
Deep in thought, Catriona slowly dragged the scarf off Broch’s neck and twisted her wrist, working the long thin fabric like lazy cowboy’s limp lasso. “Do you mind if I ask what changed your mind?”
“I realized he’s terrible at poker. I should keep him around, no?”
“Mm hm. Good logic. Though I wish you’d come to that conclusion before you carved him up.”
“Ah pardon, pardon. My bad.”
Broch tried to reclaim his scarf and Catriona tugged it away, pacing.
“Right. Well, it’s been nice doing business with you.” Catriona was about to hang up when she heard Alain’s voice again. She put the phone back to her ear.
“—and you don’t have to run ze errand my wife has asked of you.”
“Mo says so? You guys are reconciled already?”
“Oui.”
Something about his oui didn’t sound convincing. “Alain, I’m standing right outside Mo’s studio door. All I need to do is poke my head back inside and confirm with her.”
“Ah, no, you just don’t have to do eet. I will win her back on my own. I will root out the thief.”
“I appreciate that, but how did you know it was about a thief?”
“Er... She’s been complaining a long time about zat.”
“Hm. Well, I gave her my word I’d figure it out for her.”
“But I’ve let ze boy go.”
“I understand that, but this is between me and Mo now. I mean, I guess I could ask her if it’s okay if I let you handle it—”
“No.” Alain barked his answer into the phone. “Don’t bother. I will handle eet. Go home. Tell Sean I said hello.”
“But—”
“Go home.”
“Okay—”
Alain hung up and Catriona lowered the phone from her ear. She looked at Broch, who had ducked back to press himself against the building, hiding from the sun beneath the insufficient awning spanning the length of the industrial park. The glittery vest draped over his arm still sparkled.
The heat had inspired him to remove the vest, and for that Catriona was grateful.
“That was weird.” She wandered to him to take the vest and hand him the scarf. He used it to wipe the sweat from his brow.
“Whit?”
“Alain sent Tyler home.”
“Oan our plane?”
“On a commercial flight.”
“Oh.”
Broch seemed disappointed.
“You thought if the plane left without us, we’d have to drive home.”
“Aye.”
“Sorry.”
She stood staring at Mo’s door, running through her conversation with Alain in her head. Opening the door, she caught the eye of a worker and threw the vest to them.
“Och—That wis mine.”
“It was a woman’s vest.”
Broch pushed past her and plucked the vest from the startled worker’s hands before returning outside.
He glowered at Catriona. “Ah ken it’s a wummin’s vest. Ah wis goan tae give it tae Jeanie.”
Catriona smiled. “Oh. That’s so sweet.”
“Ah ken. Ah’m as sweet as shortbread.”
She chuckled as he folded the vest and scarf against his chest. When he was done, he eyed her.
“How come dinnae ye keek happy? Tyler goan home is guid, richt?”
She nodded. “Yes. But Alain told me not to help Mo either.”
“That’s double guid.”
“It should be, but something about the way he said it. Something’s up. I don’t know if he’s hiding something from Mo or—”
Catriona spotted movement and turned her head towards the parking lot. A man in a white t-shirt and a long duster jacket leaned against a car there, smoking. She couldn’t see past his sunglasses to tell if he was looking at them, but he seemed out of place in the otherwise empty parking lot. She didn’t remember him there a moment before.
She turned to Broch. “Don’t be obvious about it, but see the man behind me? Is it me, or is he watching us?”
Broch’s gaze shifted from her face to over her shoulder.
“Ye mean the laddie walking towards us?”
“Is he? White tee, weird long jacket?”
