Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Trust me, it’s only a few more people than I expected and all of them are locals,” Kenna said as she set out a platter of chips and queso the next afternoon. “It’s just people in the community who want to thank you for what you did.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” I protested.
On paper, I wasn’t even at the fair when Gracie and Lachlan Shepherd stopped Milo Lombardi from kidnapping their daughter and discovered he was the one who killed Alexandra Tate.
The idiot was even driving the SUV that had gone missing along with Lexi.
“No one is supposed to know, let alone thank me.”
“Right, but this is a small enough town that rumors spread even when you don’t want them to,” Kenna told me, crossing her arms and leaning back against the kitchen counter.
“Lachlan hasn’t said anything, and neither have I, but there were other people at the fair who saw what you did.
If we don’t do something to get ahead of this then those rumors are going to get bigger and bigger until some news reporter starts putting their nose where it doesn’t belong.
This way, we draw in everyone who is curious and we spin the story the way we want it spun.
I was the one who figured out the case, you were just the one who happened to be there at the right time and acted on information I gave you. ”
This wasn’t the first time Kenna had explained her plan, and I trusted her to know the right way to handle the people she had invited.
She knew—or at least thought she knew—my secrets and had embraced the cloak and dagger element and had given me a safe and quiet place to stay.
Not just the temporary guest bedroom, but an actual room upstairs along with the secret to getting to the second floor.
“I want to show you something,” Kenna said, peeking her head into the guest bedroom where I was sitting on the bed, thinking over her offer to team up.
I hadn’t agreed to the partnership yet, but I wanted to.
I’d spent the last week tending bar, going on runs with Rogue, and feeling the empty, gaping wound that was left by trying not to solve a case that was right in front of me.
If I didn’t find a way to incorporate investigation into my new identity I knew I would eventually stumble into yet another unsolved case that I couldn’t bring myself to ignore just like I had with Lexi’s. That was just who I was.
Nudging Rogue off me, I got up and followed her into the library, eyeing the large window seat that also looked out on the back yard. I would have to curl up there with a good book sometime when Rogue was outside running around.
“Watch this,” Kenna said, grinning at me.
She moved to the far wall where another floor-to-ceiling set of bookshelves held gorgeous hard cover leather books that looked like they had all been bound identically.
I wasn’t certain if the paper inside actually contained something to read or if it was simply decorative and before I could ask Kenna reached out and pulled on one of them, causing the shelf to swing forward to reveal a narrow staircase.
“This was the servant’s staircase, originally,” Kenna said as if she hadn’t just revealed what she claimed to be a family secret without any fanfare.
Before I could ask any questions, she led the way up to the second floor where she pointed out the main bedroom, two guest bedrooms, and an office that was entirely separate from the library.
She ended the tour by leaning on the guardrail overlooking the living room.
“I want to say thank you for helping me solve Lexi’s case,” she said.
“By showing me the secret staircase to the second floor?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. Not that it wasn’t cool, but I didn’t understand how the two things were connected.
“By offering you a room on the second floor. Somewhere more permanent,” she replied. “I know you’re convinced that this situation is temporary, but I wanted to show you that you’re welcome here. That I trust you, even with my security secrets. You belong here, Hale. You and Rogue both.”
“You just want to make sure I don’t take Rogue somewhere else,” I teased, leaning against the wooden railing beside her.
I paused for a moment, really thinking about what she was saying and what it would mean for me to accept.
It wasn’t the same as accepting her job offer but maybe it was a good first step in the right direction.
“Thank you, Kenna. Rogue and I would be happy to move upstairs.”
“Can’t I just stay upstairs and wait until everyone is gone?” I asked, frowning at the idea of socializing with all these people who thought they knew the truth about what had happened.
“No, you cannot. Not if you want to keep the rumor mill under control. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure everyone’s out the door by midnight,” Kenna assured me. I glanced at the clock, which read 6:37 p.m. A little over five hours. I took a deep breath.
I could do that.
I refilled my drink at the kitchen island, the sound of several conversations around me melding into the hum of background noise.
There were at least twenty people milling around downstairs and it was only the knowledge that they would all be out by midnight and that none of them could access the second floor that kept my nerves from fraying.
“Well, if it isn’t the hero of the day,” a somewhat familiar voice commented from my left. I looked over to find that Mason Campbell had sidled up beside me and was using the ladle to refill his own glass. “Tackling suspects and rescuing children. What can’t she do?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at him.
I still didn’t know what to make of him.
Now that I knew my landlord had been the one to let Rogue out there was no reason to suspect him of foul play.
Still, he had close connections with both of the Shepherd men and that was nerve wracking enough.
The last thing I wanted to do was draw the attention of someone close with local and federal law enforcement and start waving around red flags right under his nose.
I would have to play it cool, maybe apologize for how abruptly I had left after picking Rogue up. Try to appear as boring and unimportant as possible.
“Must be some other kidnapper-catcher that everyone is talking about,” Mason said with a light shrug and a wry smile. Like this was some little secret that we were both in on. He leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t worry, Hale, your secret is safe.”
I wrinkled my nose at that and left him there at the kitchen island with his alcoholic beverage and his bad attempt at flirting.
Making my way over to the living room couch I sat down and glanced at the clock on my phone, willing time to move faster.
I had half a mind to head up to the second story and hide away in my room with Rogue, but every time I considered it someone else I barely recognized came by to congratulate me on helping to rescue Hadley Shepherd.
And then I had to smile politely and assure them it was nothing, that Kenna was the one they ought to be thanking.
I sat on the couch for a while, with a drink in hand, watching as a dozen near-strangers meandered through the living room and kitchen, out into the back yard, and generally everywhere except the second floor.
Really, I ought to just go up now, spend some time catching up on sleep before the fireworks began.
“I know you told Lachlan you didn’t want us to mention it,” Gracie began as she sat beside me on the couch.
There was music coming from the sound system that kept her words from being overheard, but I still felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise as if every eye in the room was suddenly on me.
“But thank you, Hale. Seriously, I don’t know what I would have done if?—”
“There are no ‘if’s,” I cut her off, not wanting to hear the end of that sentence.
If you weren’t there, if you didn’t figure it out, if Milo Lombardi had actually managed to kidnap Hadley.
None of those things had happened, and Hadley Shepherd was safe and sound, standing next to her father in the back yard, talking animatedly and appearing completely unaffected by what had happened to her.
What did she remember, I wondered? Being drawn out of line by Doctor Lombardi and then waking up in her mother’s arms?
Had anyone explained what happened to her or were they pretending everything was fine?
She was at an age where the details would blur and smooth out to become a shadow of a memory, if they decided not to tell her what Lombardi attempted to do.
“Right, of course,” Gracie agreed, but there was still a hint of shadow behind her eyes like she couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened to her daughter if I hadn’t gotten there in time.
I could tell that she was going to keep talking about it unless I could redirect her. Luckily, I had just the thing in mind.
“Can I tell you something?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said as she sat up straight, giving me her full attention.
“When I decided to foster Rogue, the shelter gave me a box of his things,” I told her, a slight smile coming to my lips as I thought about the dog.
There were too many variables to let him downstairs while the party was in full swing, so he was locked in my room instead.
Though I knew he had everything he needed upstairs I still felt a twinge of something that felt a little like guilt at leaving him up there on his own.
Like he was some criminal who couldn’t catch a break even after I’d sprung him from doggy jail.
I would go upstairs and check on him, I decided, regardless of how this conversation turned out.
“In that box was a collar from when he was a puppy.”