But tonight? Tonight they left me unmoved, almost bereft, and I couldn’t shake it. This particular murder was hitting me harder than most. I didn’t know Joey or the woman in my visions, so being as invested as I was probably appeared foolish. But I felt connected to them somehow, and the visions were really doing me in.
“You’ve got a light out on the front porch.”
I looked up in the direction Hobbs pointed, past the blanket of snow and to the eaves of my L-shaped ranch house. “So what else is new. With over fifty-thousand lights, there’s always one, isn’t there?”
Hobbs chuckled. “I’ll fix it. You go inside and warm up. See what the kids are up to.”
That warmed me. My happy place was my house filled with our pets and my familiar. “I’ve got to feed Nana Karen first. You wanna come?”
“Still need a little time, if you don’t mind,” he mumbled on a cough.
Laughing, I nodded my understanding. “I get it. It’s hard enough with Atti, but a reindeer is just crazy, right?”
He grinned. “It might take a minute, I think. But I’ll get there.”
I gave him a warm smile of understanding. “Okay. See you inside?”
“You bet. I’ll have the laptop and some wine ready and waiting.”
I leaned over and gave him a kiss. “My knight in shining cowboy hat. See you in a minute.”
Hopping out of the car, I headed to the barn to check on Nana. The ocean roared, churning and swirling, a sure signal we were in for some bad weather. The night air was bitter cold and raw, but the lights that led the way to the barn made me feel a bit better.
I pushed the door open to find my nana sound asleep. As quietly as I could, I checked her water and food. She hadn’t eaten much since this morning, which meant she’d found candy canes somewhere. It also explained her mid-evening nap. She’d crashed from her sugar rush.
Deep in thought, I went over the day’s events, my brain buzzing with activity.
“How goes it, Sugarbuns?”
I jumped, dropping the broom. “You scared me, Nana! Don’t do that.”
She rose on all fours and hauled her big body upward. “Sorry, honey. So how goes it with my favorite hunk?”
“It’s fine, I guess. We’re business as usual.”
And we were. I was trusting him to explain in his own time who that woman was. I told Nana all about the events of the day, finding out about Leona, and where we stood with our amateurish investigation.
“First, holy cats, Hal! He really fell off the ski lift? Sheesh, I can’t tell you how many times I was afraid of that happening. Never expected it’d be a dead body.”
Snorting, I agreed. “Me neither. But it was and it’s been madness ever since.”
“And how do you feel about my boy telling you he wasn’t cheating on you. You believe him?”
I nodded without hesitation. I didn’t know what Leona was about or why she had to be there when he told me whatever he was going to tell me, but I believed him. “I do.” And as I said the words, I meant them. I felt them this time.
“Good, because all I can say is, based on our conversations, no way he’s two-timin’ ya.”
I stroked the top of her head, scratching her antlers. “I trust you and your opinion, and he was very honest with me about Leona.”
“Tell ya one thing. Sure am glad my hottie was there to help you through those visions. They were humdingers, huh, Punkin’?”
Sighing, I leaned against the rail post of her stall. “They were awful, and I’m terrified I’m going to be too late, Nana.”
She nudged my arm with her muzzle. “Aw, Hallie-Oop, you can’t control everything. You know that. The universe has a plan and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
Tears stung my eyes, frustrating me. “But I can try.”
Nana nuzzled my arm. “You sure can, and I’m proud of the woman you’ve become, fighting for good. But you can’t be everywhere, Sugarplum. That’s just the truth.”
“So I should just give up?” I whimpered, something very unlike me.
“No. That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I’m saying is, you have no control over the plan, and you can feel bad about it, you can cry about it, but then you have to let it go with the knowledge it was never in your hands to begin with.”
I took a deep breath and wrapped my arms around Nana’s neck, pressing my cheek to hers. “You’re right. I wish you were still here in Nana form.”
“I am still here in Nana form. The only thing that’s changed are my boobs aren’t at my waist anymore and now I have antlers.”
I burst out laughing, letting the tears fall down my cold cheeks. “I love you, Nana.”
She rubbed my cheek with her cold nose. “Love you back, pretty girl. Now go figure this out with Hot Sauce Hobbs so me and him can have a nice talk about how he should look after my favorite girl.”
I gave her one last squeeze. “I will. See you in the morning.”
She snorted and settled back on her haunches before lying down in her stall. “You better believe it.”
“Sweet dreams,” I whispered as I covered her with her favorite blanket and headed back to the house.
Closing the barn door behind me, I tromped through the snow, catching a glimpse of Hobbs in the kitchen, uncorking a bottle of wine. Handsome and tall, he looked comfortable in the space as he moved to grab wine glasses and scoop up Phil, who was a little in love with Hobbs.
He nuzzled him before setting him on the floor and gathering up tiny Barbra to drop on his shoulder as he pulled some cheese and crackers from the fridge. His familiarity made me smile.
My heart fluttered deep in my chest, and in that moment, I knew he was telling me the truth. I truly knew.
I also knew he’d help me figure this out as long as I was willing to try and find out who the woman was.
She’d become even more important to me than discovering who’d killed Joey.
With new determination, I headed back into the house.
As Hobbs sipped his wine, he scrolled videos on Uncensored Intimacies, stopping each time he saw someone with unusual-colored hair.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Nope. Not yet. And quite frankly,” he said as he turned his head sideways, “I didn’t know some of this was possible. Physics don’t seem to matter to these people.”
I giggled. “Thanks for taking the hit on this on.”
“It’s the least I can do. Hashtag team HAH,” he joked.
Groaning, I rested my head in my hand and blew out a breath of exasperation. “I wish we had more to go on. The only other clue we have is that she might be a teacher. Maybe we should be looking up teachers with the name Sabrina? We’re never going to find her at this rate, Hobbs. I don’t even know what she looks like other than she has burgundy hair.”
He grabbed my hand and entwined his fingers with mine. “But you know what the room Joey wanted to see looks like. The logical conclusion to draw is she stayed in that room. If we find a video, maybe we’ll find a clue like the Internet sleuths.”
If…
I looked at the PDF Hobbs had printed for me—the one Saul had sent to both our emails—of all the people who’d stayed at the lodge over the last two years, which, by the way, was a lot of people.
So many people.
I was only halfway through the list, but so far nothing. Pushing the printout away, I fought a sleepy spell with a long yawn.
“You’re beat, honey. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but…”
“Coffee. Coffee will help me. I need a jolt of caffeine.”
Hobbs pushed his chair out, the scrape on the hardwood loud in the silence. “I’ll make it.”
Snapping my fingers, I produced a steaming cup of coffee with cream on the table. “You want one, too?”
He mock-gasped. “Won’t Atticus raise a stink if you use your magic for personal gain?”
“Not tonight, he won’t,” Atticus said as he flew into the room, hi
s colorful wings buzzing. “How are you, Halliday? Can I get you anything?”
I smiled at him, though it exhausted me to lift even my face muscles. “No. Thanks, Atti. I’m fine.”
He landed on the table’s surface, cocking his head at me as he sauntered across the printed paper. “Where are we in this investigation, Poppet? When can you call it a night?”
I squeezed my temples to ease the ache. “Not until I find out who and where the woman in my vision is. Then I’ll stop.”
Atti snorted his disapproval. “Precious child, that could be in an hour or it could be next year! You must take a break. You look positively dreadful with those circles under your eyes, which are as red as the ornaments on the tree.”
“I’ll be fine once I get some coffee in me. Now go to bed.” I shooed him off the printout. “It’s almost eleven. Way past your bedtime.”
But he flapped his wings in indignation. “I’ll do no such thing. Let me help you, Poppet. What can I do?”
I fought a burst of tears and instead sipped my coffee. “Can you help me find the name of the woman who wants to take her own life? Maybe she’s on that list there. But I mean, who knows, right? We could be all wrong about everything and then she’ll die and—”
“Halliday Valentine, stop this right now!” Atti chastised, wobbling his way over to put his tiny beak in my face. “Gather yourself this instant. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. We do not give up. You will not give up. I won’t let you. Now, have your coffee, for which I won’t scold you for producing out of thin air, and pull yourself together. We have a young woman to find and if we don’t find her, it won’t be because we didn’t try!”
There was nothing like an Atticus Finch pep talk to set you back on the straight and narrow. Squaring my shoulders, I heeded his words and looked closer at the list.
That’s when I heard Hobbs gasp and push the laptop away.
“Do tell, Mr. Dainty. Have you found some new form of intimacy you weren’t aware of that now has you enrapt?”
Hobbs shook his head and sighed with a hangdog grin. “No, sir, but I think I just stumbled on something pretty important.” He pushed the laptop toward me and pointed to the tab that read Coffee is Life, the place from the receipt we’d found. He clicked it, and everything began to swirl in front of my eyes.
My mouth fell open. It was the woman with the burgundy hair. Same cut, same color.
And her name?
Sabrina Caldwell.
Chapter 14
“Motherclucker! I can’t believe you found her!” I yelped, suddenly wide awake as I stared at the pretty face of Sabrina Caldwell.
Poor Stephen King groaned at my excitement, stretching his stout body in his bed as Phil snuggled closer to him.
Sabrina did, indeed, have burgundy hair. She was petite with a heart-shaped face, full lips painted red and a wide, generous smile. She stood next to a tall, lean man with round glasses and a thick thatch of brown hair. He had a T-shirt on that read Coffee is Life, worn jeans and an apron.
Hobbs pointed to the screen. “That’s her boyfriend, Igor Brown. He owns the coffee shop. And her brother is—ready for this? Grady Caldwell.” He pointed to the man who looked exactly like Joey.
Happy. Alive. With his sister, who loved the color purple and was a teacher.
I hopped up and ran around the table to kiss him smack on the lips, bracketing his face with my hands. “You’re amazing! How did you figure that out?”
“Yelp reviews help a lot more than just finding out how good the coffee is. It was just a chain of events. Someone mentioned how great the coffee was and how much they liked the reno Igor did recently. Then I went to their Facebook page and found pictures of not just the reno, but of Igor’s girlfriend Sabrina and her brother, Grady, all with him, helping with the renovation, and all tagged in the pictures. I followed the tags to their respective pages, and while they’re mostly private, I saw they both live in Westbrook, where the café is. Sabrina’s a teacher and Grady’s a software engineer.”
I gave him another big fat kiss. “You’re the smartest person I know.”
“Ahem!” Atti cleared his throat in indignation. “Pardon?”
Grinning at him, I stroked his tiny head. “You’re smart, too, Atti. Now, we have to pass this on to Stiles. I’d better text him because we have a whaaat?”
“A lead!” Hobbs sang out, scaring a sleeping Barbra Streisand, who lifted her gray fuzzy head and gave it a shake in confusion.
“Yes! We have a lead!” I repeated, reaching for my phone in my back pocket. Frowning, I discovered it wasn’t there. “Did I leave my phone in your car?”
Hobbs, who was intently looking at the Coffee is Life Facebook page, shook his head. “I don’t know. Want me to go check?”
“Nope, you keep working your magic, and please send Sabrina a message on Facebook. I don’t know if she’ll get it because we’re not friends, and she might find you suspish because you’re a cute guy, but at least we can try. And while you do that, I’ll check your Jeep.”
Grabbing my coat from the back of the chair, I ran out the front door to the driveway, only to be hit in the face with fat snowflakes.
I zipped to the car, my sleepy spell gone, and pulled it open, checking for my phone. I looked under the seat and on the floor, but nothing.
Well, dang.
Running back inside, I remembered the last time I’d used it was when I was texting Stiles at the lodge. I must have left it there. Probably after being so shaken up by my vision.
Hobbs could text Stiles for me, but I had some sensitive stuff on my cell I’d rather people didn’t see…
I thought of Hobbs’s warning earlier today about putting a passcode on it, and I wanted to kick myself.
“I think I left it at the lodge. Would you call and check?”
“You bet.” He scooped his phone up and punched in the number.
“Marshmallow Hollow Ski Lodge, how may I direct your call?” someone on the other end said.
Hobbs handed it to me. “This is Halliday Valentine. Who is this?”
“It’s Abel, Miss Valentine. Bet you’re calling about your phone. You left it here at the lodge.”
My cheeks went hot, praying he hadn’t gone through it. “Oh, thank you, Abel. I’ll be right over to pick it up.” I clicked the phone off and gave it back to Hobbs.
He pushed his chair back and grabbed his keys. “I’ll take you, honey.”
But I shook my head. “Nope. You keep searching and send Stiles a text with what you found for me, please. I’ll be back in a jiff.”
Now he held up my keys. “Hold up, don’t you need your keys?”
Smiling, I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Wait, are you gonna…zap yourself there? I thought you said it was a crapshoot and we might end up in Siberia?”
“That’s only when I’m under stress. I don’t feel seriously stressed right now. I feel hopeful. But I do need to get my phone back before someone goes through it and sees those pics I took this morning. It’s quicker—and no guff from you, Atti,” I warned.
Hobbs gave me that look he gave me when he was going to remind me he’d told me so. “I told you to put a passcode on it.”
“You sure did, and the second it’s back in my hands, I will. Now please text Stiles for me and message Sabrina, and maybe even her boyfriend Igor, being very careful not to mention my vision and frighten him until we know better what’s going on and if Sabrina’s okay.”
Hobbs hopped up from his chair as if in protest, but I blew him a kiss and snapped my fingers, not hearing what it was he said.
I landed on the side of the lodge, in an area off the back of the kitchen, where very few people went, and I was grateful that my spell worked just as I’d envisioned in my head.
If nothing else, it meant I was less stressed. I definitely felt better. We’d found Sabrina, and now I needed to get in touch with her and prevent the unthinkable, but we were close—so close—and th
e relief I felt was enormous.
Looking up at the sky, swollen and heavy with snow, I knew we were in for a big one. Man, it was freezing out here tonight. I tucked my chin into the collar of my jacket and headed toward the lobby doors.
Abel waved to me from behind the door as he scooped up some plastic red cups. He pointed to the front desk with his eternally sunshiney smile. “It’s over there on the desk.”
“Did you get stuck with cleanup?” I asked, looking around at the cluttered tables and the mussed cushions of the plaid couches by the fireplace.
“Sort of, but I don’t mind. I have a bit of insomnia. It helps to work the excess energy off. I’m just doing the rough draft of cleaning. The housekeepers will get the rest in the morning.”
Maybe Abel wasn’t so bad after all. If nothing else, he used his time constructively and appeared to be a team player. Still, the conversation he had earlier with Clarissa niggled at me.
“Hey, is everything all right between you and Clarissa? It looked like you two were having an argument earlier.”
He gave me a sheepish look, two bright spots appearing on his lean cheeks. “It was really no big deal. We just had a minor disagreement.”
He liked Clarissa, that much was clear, but I didn’t want to pry into his private life and make him any more uncomfortable. I knew something was bothering him, but I had bigger fish to fry.
“Well, thanks for taking care of my phone, Abel. Appreciate it.”
I turned to go grab it when he said, “Miss Valentine?”
“Please, call me Hal.”
“Hal. Ever done something because you liked someone, that you later regretted doing?”
I laughed an ironic laugh. If he only knew. “Have I ever. Plenty of times. Why do you ask?”
He looked like he was considering telling me, but then he shook his head and waved me off, but his eyes said he was sad. “It’s nothing. I was just wondering. Have a great night, and if I don’t see you, have a Merry Christmas.”
I reached out and patted his shoulder. “You, too, Abel.”
He turned and left, going to the back of the lodge toward the rear exit, leaving me feeling a little sad for him. It was rather obvious to me that he had a crush on Clarissa, but she’d liked Joey. That could make a working situation very uncomfortable.
Carnage in a Pear Tree Page 12
