“We took in Buckhorn,” Patience said. “That took us, what, ten minutes?” She laughed a little too hard and exchanged a grin with Jason.
“Oh, come on. It took longer than ten minutes,” Jen said. “Stop bad-mouthing Buckhorn.”
“It only took longer than ten minutes because of the ice-cream shop,” Jason said.
Patience chuckled. “I did love the ice-cream shop and sitting outside watching the early tourists. That was fun. Then we shopped some at the antiques barn and general store, before meeting up with everyone else at the bar and having a few beers,” Patience said, possibly explaining why she was so talkative.
The taco-salad bowl came to him. Finn let Casey take some before he helped himself and passed it on.
“What about you?”
Casey looked up as if surprised Patience had directed the question at her. “I spent the day collecting a few things of my grandmother’s.”
“You could have come along,” Jen said. “We needed someone who could beat Patience at pool. She and Jason hustled up all the old men in the bar.”
“We made eighty dollars.” Patience pulled out a wad of money from her jeans pocket. “Not bad for a day on the town.”
Casey’s smile never reached her eyes, Finn noticed. “So you two are pool sharks?” He got the feeling that she’d noticed Patience fingering the necklace and had picked up on her odd behavior.
Patience shook her head and finished chewing the bite she’d taken. “We have a pool table in the man cave at home.”
“You’re married,” Finn said, realizing for the first time that she was wearing a wedding ring. He’d just assumed they were all single or divorced.
“I’m practically a newlywed.”
“You didn’t bring your husband,” Casey said.
“Gracious, no,” Patience cried. “He’d be bored to tears. Anyway, it was only for the staff...” Her gaze landed on Finn. “And Finn,” she added quickly and then frowned. “You never really explained why you were invited, though, did you? Or did I miss it?”
“He knew Megan,” Jason said between bites.
Patience mugged a face at him. “I’m sure a lot of people knew Megan, and they’re not here.”
“My father and I worked for her family, landscaping, so I knew Megan that summer before she came out here.” He shrugged. “But as it turned out, coming here was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Both Jason and Benjamin guffawed at that. “Yes, aside from making your fortune before forty.”
Finn ignored them. Instead, he looked over at Casey. “I met Casey and am buying this hotel and property—once we sign the papers.”
“I guess that’s why Devlin was knocking them back at the bar,” Jen said.
“Probably also why he isn’t here,” Jason added.
The room grew uncomfortably quiet for a few moments. “So you all went shopping?” Finn asked, looking at Jason.
“Yeah, right. Devlin and I drank and played pool at the bar until the girls showed up and showed us up.” He laughed at his play on words.
Finn looked to Benjamin.
“Patience and I prowled around in the antiques barn until Shirley dragged us to the bar.”
Shifting his gaze to Shirley, Finn hated that she seemed to realize that he was interrogating everyone. But his instincts told him that one of them had come back here to write the note to make Casey not trust him. He really wanted to know who it had been—and why.
“Me next? I had to check in at the motel. Some of us still have jobs,” Shirley said, sounding defensive.
“What’s with all the questions?” Jason asked, frowning down the table at him.
“Just curious what you all found to do in Buckhorn,” Finn said, realizing Jen hadn’t weighed in. Also, Devlin wasn’t the only one missing, he realized. Claude wasn’t here, either.
But before he could ask, Jason stopped eating to look at him and asked, “What did you find to do?”
“I spent most of the day making the necessary calls that go along with buying a hotel,” Finn said. “The rest of the day I did more exploring—which reminds me,” he said, turning to Casey. “I couldn’t find a key to get down to the basement.”
She frowned. “I can look later,” she said and pretended interest in her dinner plate. “This taco salad is delicious.”
“Okay, truth? Shirley did most of the cooking part,” Jason said. “The rest of us just did some of the chopping, at least the ones who hadn’t had too much to drink.”
“Claude’s not joining us?” Finn asked.
“The last time I saw him was at the campfire last night,” Jason said and shrugged.
“That’s right. He wasn’t at breakfast,” Jen said. “Or at the bar.”
“Anyone see him in town?” Finn asked. There was a general shaking of heads. “No one has seen him since last night?” He shifted his gaze to Jen.
“Don’t look at me. I left him at the campfire when Shirley and I came into the hotel to find a room. We never left the room after that.”
He turned to Shirley, who didn’t look up from her plate, which told him everything he needed to know. Jen had just lied about staying in all night. “What was Claude driving?” Jason told him. Getting up, he excused himself to go down the hall to the service door where he scanned the parking lot.
“His rental car’s gone,” Jason said, suddenly next to him, startling him. “But Devlin’s rig is still here, so he couldn’t have gone far, although he’s not in his room.” Finn let go of the door and turned back toward the kitchen.
“No one saw Claude leave?” he asked when he and Jason returned to the kitchen. There was general agreement around the table that no one had seen him drive away last night.
“I left him down at the campfire,” Jason said. “Everyone else had already gone in. Devlin was right in front of me. Claude was saying he wished he hadn’t come back, didn’t know why he had. He kept saying the poor
