“I don’t like this,” I breathed.
Gamma opened the window and vaulted inside, noiseless as a cat.
I followed her with less panache but as little noise. Inside the kitchen, we paused to regroup. The house was quiet, and we moved through the rooms together, checking corners and searching for any sign of other intruders, or enemies lying in wait for us.
There was no one.
Inside the master bedroom, Gamma closed the curtains, shut the door and switched on the light. The room was a mess, the closet doors flung open and empty of clothing. The bed was unmade, as well, and the drawers in a desk opposite had been pulled open.
“He’s gone,” Gamma said. “He packed everything and ran.”
“Then he had to have been guilty of something, right? He was involved in Hannah’s disappearance?”
“Maybe. That’s what makes the most sense.”
“What do we do about this?” I asked. “We don’t know who drove that powder blue car or where Briggs has gone. We have no idea who chased us down either.” Though it was Kyle, right? It had to be.
“My guess is that Briggs was working with your ex-husband,” Gamma said. “And that he’s been killed or has fled for fear of that happening. I doubt a rogue spy will show any loyalty to a dirty medical examiner. Briggs must’ve known that his time was up.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “None of this helps us.”
“No, it doesn’t. We don’t know why Hannah was taken.”
“Maybe she knew too much?”
“How?” Gamma asked. “How might that be the case?”
“I don’t know.” Frustration nearly overwhelmed me, and I tugged my fingers through my hair. “None of this is making sense.”
Gamma switched off the lights in the bedroom, plunging us into cold darkness. “We had better get back to the inn,” she said. “Detective Crowley might suspect us and come looking. And we’re not going to find out anything else here.”
20
The following day…
Remarkably, I had one large bruise on my arm to show for last night’s activities and that was it. My headache was gone, my neck was stiff, but I could manage. Not that there was much to manage in an inn where there weren’t any guests.
Regardless, Lauren had come into work as usual and had fixed us a delicious breakfast.
I sat at the kitchen table, eating it without really tasting it and staring off into space. Brian hadn’t come to join us, possibly because he’d found his new favorite hobby—gardening—or because he couldn’t stand the stress.
Gamma pushed her waffles around on her plate, occasionally sighing.
“What’s going on with you two this morning?” Lauren asked, in her friendly twang. “Y’all haven’t touched your waffles. You usually love them.”
“I’ve eaten mine,” I said, gesturing to my empty plate.
“Sure, but you ate them like you didn’t taste a bite. I’ve been watching both of you for the past couple of days and you’re not acting right.”
“Everything’s fine, Lauren,” Gamma said. “We’re just concerned about the inn, that’s all.”
“You sure that’s all that’s bothering you? Brian isn’t acting right either. He’s all pale and jumps like a squirrel whenever anyone says a word.”
“I’ve got to go to the kitten foster center,” I said, grasping at the excuse to get out of here before I let my cover slip too much. “Thanks for the breakfast! It was great.”
Lauren frowned at me, twirling one red pigtail around her finger. “If you say so, Charlie.”
I hurried off to the kitten foster center and shut the door behind me. The assistant on duty, Marie, sat in the incubation room and waved at me, barely glancing up from her magazine. She was attentive to the kittens, middle-aged, and unbothered by all the craziness at the inn.
I plopped down in the center of the room, and my favorite kitty Sunlight came over, immediately. He jumped into my lap and purred and rub up against me. It was a warm welcome and definitely what I needed.
“You’re so low effort,” I said to him, stroking his furry ginger head. “I’m going to miss you when—” But I couldn’t finish the sentence. When I left? Heck, I hadn’t been able to leave Gossip to hide out in the underground, and that had been a threat to my life.
Why would I do it once the threat was gone?
I let the question drift around in my head, unanswered.
The kitten foster center’s door opened, and Gamma entered, her expression dour. Not that it had been anything else the past few days.
“Charlotte,” she said, glancing over at Maria in the incubation room, “let’s talk outside in the sunshine. I’ve just received some interesting news.”
I gave Sunlight a quick kiss on his furry head, set him aside, and followed my grandmother out of the back of the kitten foster center. We stopped under the trees, and Gamma checked the bushes were empty.
“I’ve spoken to Brian,” Gamma said. “He hasn’t had any contact with Grandpa and his friends since yesterday. Most unusual.”
“What do you want us to do about it?” I asked.
“Nothing yet. I just thought you ought to know.”
“All right.” That was alarming. If Brian was worried, then we had to be too. The last time we hadn’t had contact with the NSIB, he’d panicked and taken me straight into hiding. Now, that wasn’t an option.
The agents had come out to Gossip to deal with Kyle. The ultimate prize would be capturing him rather than killing him, and after the way Special Agent in Charge Grant had acted about keeping us safe and in the inn, it was beyond strange that he had suddenly fallen silent.
“Detective Crowley has also taken the seal off the library door,” Gamma continued. “So, it’s accessible again, not that it matters.”
No guests to use the library. “That’s good. Then Grandpa and his friends can resume their places around the inn, right?”
“Correct,” Gamma said. “Or they would
