Chapter 4 Lori
LORI
The kitchen smelled of warm bread and sweet cherries.
Lori pulled the tray of golden rolls from the oven and set them on a cooling rack, breathing in the comforting scent.
The early evening light had faded to dusk, and she’d drawn all the blinds closed before turning on the overhead light.
She and Tessa had agreed earlier that they wouldn’t give anyone the opportunity to stare into the house at night.
Across the kitchen island, Tessa chopped vegetables for a green salad, the rhythmic sound of the knife against the cutting board creating a comfortable domestic soundtrack. Misty lay by the back door, her chin resting on her paws, eyes half-closed in contentment.
This was nice, Lori thought. Normal. Two women preparing food to take to a neighbor’s barbecue on a summer evening. It almost made her forget about the surveillance, the dead seabird, the figure that had escaped by boat.
Almost.
She glanced at the two cherry pies cooling on the counter and smiled. Piper would love it. The girl had mentioned more than once that cherry was her favorite, and Lori had filed that information away. That was why she had made two, one for the next day when Piper was home.
“That smells amazing,” Tessa said, scraping chopped tomatoes into the salad bowl. “I’m sure Mitch and Ryan are going to love them. I know I can’t wait to try them.”
“Piper mentioned she loved cherry pies,” Lori said, wiping her hands on a tea towel. “That’s why I made two. One for when Piper is home tomorrow.”
Tessa fell quiet, and when Lori looked up, she saw that the younger woman had stopped chopping. Her expression was troubled, conflicted in a way that made Lori’s smile fade.
“Tessa? What’s wrong?” Lori asked her.
Tessa set down the knife and turned to face her fully. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.” Lori nodded.
“Has Mom told you about anything going on in Florida?” Tessa asked carefully. “About the deeds for your house and your neighbor Matt Parker’s house?”
Lori felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest. She set down the tea towel and leaned against the counter for support.
“You mean about Trevor’s business partner,” she said quietly. “About the fraud.”
“Yes,” Tessa said. “I wasn’t sure if Mom had told you everything yet. I know she didn’t want to worry you until we had sorted everything out.”
Lori nodded slowly, the memory of that conversation from a week ago washing over her with all its original force.
It had shaken her to the core. Finding out that her late husband’s business partner had defrauded not just her, but many other people, including Matt Parker and another one of Lori’s neighbors.
The houses they had all thought they’d purchased outright were actually leaseholds, a fact buried in deliberately misleading paperwork.
But the worst part, the part that still made her throat close and her eyes burn, was learning that Trevor had found out about it a few weeks before his fatal heart attack.
“Yes, she told me,” Lori said, her voice coming out rougher than she intended.
She cleared her throat and looked at Tessa with genuine warmth.
“And Tessa, I’ve been meaning to thank you.
I was waiting for you to visit so I could tell you in person.
What you did for me, for Matt...” She smiled at the brilliant young woman standing across from her.
“You saved us from a very ugly situation.”
“You’re very welcome,” Tessa said, but her frown didn’t ease. “But that’s not why I’m bringing this up.”
She stopped cutting the cucumber she’d picked up, her frown deepening into something that looked like worry.
“You don’t think what’s going on here could be connected to that in any way, do you?”
Lori’s eyebrows shot up. The possibility hadn’t even occurred to her. She felt her brows dip into a frown as she considered it, turning the idea over in her mind.
“No,” she said, shaking her head firmly. “Matt, myself, and our other neighbor aren’t pressing charges. We just want to own our properties outright, and as far as I know, everything’s been handled quietly through lawyers.” She looked at Tessa questioningly. “Do you think it could be connected?”
“I want to say no,” Tessa admitted, setting down the cucumber and knife. “But your other neighbor, Ian, and his wife Katy—they lost their only daughter a few weeks ago because of that scandal.”
Lori froze in the act of reaching for the cherry pie to check if it was cool enough to cover. The oven mitts hung forgotten in her hands.
“But Ian was working with Trevor,” she said slowly, trying to make sense of it.
“And then he continued working on his own to try and quietly resolve the fraud after Trevor died.” She shook her head, the idea not making sense to her.
“Ian said it was from that stress that…” Lori swallowed.
Her throat suddenly feeling dry. “That Trevor’s heart gave in.
” She swallowed back the tears burning the back of her eyes.
“I lost Trevor because of it.” Her throat clenched, and her heart squeezed with the familiar ache of grief.
“Why would Ian and Katy come after me? I knew nothing about the situation until your mother told me a week ago.”
“I don’t know,” Tessa sighed, returning to the vegetables but without her earlier focus. “I’m just grasping at straws here, trying to make sense of who’s watching the house and why.”
Lori carefully turned the cherry pies on the cooling racks before turning back towards Tessa. “Do you think we should mention this to Mitch?”
“I think so,” Tessa nodded decisively. “We can’t leave any stone unturned. Even if it seems unlikely, he should know about every possibility.”
“You’re right,” Lori agreed.
She hadn’t even thought of her problems back home in Florida.
It had been a huge shock to find out that her husband’s one business partner was the son of very dangerous fugitives.
Wanted for racketeering and property fraud.
Although Carrie and Trent had assured Lori that everyone involved with that man had been arrested, you just never knew.
So Tessa was right. Mitch did need to know.
She drew in a breath and blew it out as a thought hit her.
What if whoever this was was after her? Fear followed that thought, but she shook it off again.
Stop being silly, Lori, if Trent is convinced everyone involved is in federal prison…
Still, the thought now nagged at the back of her mind.
Lori turned back to check the timer on the last batch of rolls in the oven.
“Your baking smells amazing, by the way,” Tessa complimented.
“Thank you,” Lori said with a smile, grateful for the return to lighter topics. “The rolls should be done in ten more minutes, and then we can—”
Lori’s words froze in her throat as Misty’s head shot up so fast, the dog’s paws hit the tiles with a resounding click that made both women jump.
A low, rumbling growl ripped from the dog’s throat, unlike anything Lori had heard from the normally gentle German Shepherd.
Misty leaped to her feet, barking frantically as she rushed from the kitchen.
At the exact same moment, the power went out.
Darkness dropped over them like a blanket.
The comfortable glow of the overhead light vanished, along with the hum of the refrigerator, the tick of the oven timer, and all the small electrical sounds that made up the background noise of a house.
Lori and Tessa froze where they stood. Through the darkness, Lori could hear Misty’s continued barking, the sound coming from the direction of the utility room.
“Lori,” Tessa whispered, her voice tight with fear. “I think Misty is barking at the basement door.”
“That’s my thought too,” Lori agreed. Her heart was hammering in her chest as her eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness.
She could make out Tessa’s silhouette across the island, see the faint outline of the doorway where Misty had disappeared. She moved carefully around the island, and together they crept toward the utility room.
Misty stood at the basement door, her barks echoing in the small space, her entire body rigid with alertness.
Tessa quickly stepped around Lori, reached out, and turned the key in the lock before stepping back beside Lori, her eyes wide in the darkness. They peered toward where Misty continued her frantic warning.
“We should call Mitch,” Tessa said softly, her voice barely audible over the dog’s barking.
Lori already had her phone out, grateful for its glowing screen in the darkness. Her hands were shaking as she found Mitch’s number and pressed dial. He answered within three rings.
“I hope you’re not calling to cancel,” Mitch said, his voice warm and slightly teasing. “Ryan’s already got the grill heating up.”
“No...” Lori’s voice came out soft and uncertain, nothing like her usual tone.
Mitch’s voice immediately shifted to something serious and alert. “What’s happened?”
She could hear him moving, hear the urgency in his steps before she’d gotten the words out.
“It’s probably nothing...” Lori started, but even she didn’t believe that.
“I can hear Misty barking,” Mitch said. “What’s going on?”
Lori took a breath and forced herself to speak clearly. “We were in the kitchen finishing the food we’re bringing over. Misty started growling, and then she flew at the basement door, right as the power went out.”
“Get out of the kitchen,” Mitch ordered, his voice carrying the kind of authority that made you obey without thinking. “Go lock yourselves in the office. Ryan and I will be there in two minutes.”
“But I need to let you in,” Lori said. “The door’s locked and—”
Mitch cut her off. “I have a key. Go, now.”
Lori looked at Tessa. “Mitch wants us to lock ourselves in the office.”