“It turns out, all three of these look-alikes were having some financial struggles,” I say as Sherlock and Lucky come away with their own ball of yarn and curl up next to the fire.
Lucky vocalizes something that sounds eerily like words. Caleb talks about money all the time.
Misty saunters toward me, and I scoop her up while Fish hops up onto the sofa, landing on the other side of me.
Misty yowls. McKenna says weddings are expensive. She likes to tease she’s never getting married again.
“It’s not cheap.” A dull laugh sputters from me. “But I guess it’s only as expensive as you allow it to be.”
Fish hops next to Misty and the two of them snuggle up, looking far too adorable in the process. Misty’s full gray coat makes her look like a genuine furball with nothing but a pair of bright blue eyes peering out at you.
Fish mewls. Bizzy and Jasper hardly care about their wedding at all.
“Fish.” My mouth falls open at the thought. “We do too care. We’ve just been so busy, and well, I sort of think everything is just going to fall together. Besides, there’s really not much more to do.”
Sherlock brays as if he were laughing. Jasper said just this morning he can’t wait to get married so neither of you would have to worry about the wedding anymore. He says he feels as if his life is about to start.
“I don’t know if I should coo or boo. But I feel the exact same way. If you would have told me a year ago I’d be marrying the ornery detective who kept threatening to arrest me, I would have laughed. But now my wedding day can’t get here soon enough. And not only will I be gaining a husband, I’ll gain his entire family. He’s got three brothers and a sister. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a sane sister.”
Speaking of which, I hope Macy straightened out that nightmare with her credit card.
Lucky lets out a howl. Caleb has a brother. My Uncle Zeke. Whenever Caleb has to go out of town, it’s off to Uncle Zeke’s I go. He shares his pizza with me and we stay up late watching the big game.
I make a face as I stare at my laptop.
“Uncle Zeke sounds like the equivalent of Auntie Macy, but you’d have to replace the big game with a rom-com.” Or at least that’s where I’m hoping she focuses her viewing pleasure.
About a half hour drifts by as I surf from one social media site to the next. It seems all three women spent a fair amount of time updating at least a couple of their favorite social media sites before they disappeared. None of them were over-sharers, which is probably a good thing in general but doesn’t do a lot to help considering the fact they’re all out there somewhere unaccounted for.
It’s not until I fall down the rabbit hole of one of Embry Knight’s posts on do-it-yourself birdhouses, a craft she was making out of popsicle sticks with her daughter, that I note an odd response she left for one of her friends. The friend asked if she would be free for a movie that night and she replied, Sorry, not tonight. I’m hitting the Collective.
“The Collective,” I say, leaning my head back into the sofa and searching the ceiling. “Why does that sound familiar?” I quickly try to contact the friend she was speaking to—who goes by the name of ReadingMaven—but her account is marked private. “Collective.” I shake my head. “I’ve heard that word somewhere before. Where was it?” The past few days run through my mind in jagged clips, but I come up empty.
Lucky rises and shakes out his fluffy salt and pepper fur. He’s so strikingly handsome with those bright blue eyes, and his fur reminds me a bit of a tuxedo. He’ll make a perfect groomsman at McKenna’s wedding.
Bizzy? He lifts his head my way. Did I hear you mention the Collective?
“Yes.” I sit up straight. “Do you recognize that word?”
Could I have heard Caleb or McKenna say it?
Lucky moans. I sure did hear it. In fact, I heard it a lot the last time I visited with Uncle Zeke. He was yelling at someone on the phone and he was very, very angry with that darn Collective. That’s what he called it over and over again. That darned Collective.
Fish unleashes a sharp meow. What does this mean? Could Zeke be connected to those missing women? He’s not the killer, is he?
Misty hisses her way. Watch your little pink tongue. McKenna is hoping Zeke will see what a cutie Michaela is and take her out on a date. McKenna thinks they’re a match made in Maine.
A small laugh thumps through me. “That sounds just like McKenna.” I turn to Lucky. “Do you know who Zeke might have been speaking to during that heated phone call?”
The fuzzy beast shakes his head. I stole a piece of pizza and took off for the living room to take a nap. I didn’t care to listen in any further.
“Lucky, where can I find Zeke? Do you know what he does for a living?”
Misty perks up. I do. McKenna and I just took a trip there a few days ago to drop off some treats. He’s a foreman working on a very important job right here in Cider Cove.
“A foreman?”
Lucky barks. He works for Caleb’s construction company.
“Is McKenna still the project manager?” My fingers twitch over my phone, and without putting too much thought into it, I send her a text.
Just heard that Reed Construction Company is working right here in Cider Cove! The Cottage Café just so happened to bake too many blondie bars. I’d love to take some over to your crew. Just give me the location and
