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“My name’s Frankie,” I inform her, hitting the path.
“Lea MacManus,” she replies quietly.
So she’s already taken his name. Crazy.
This is it. The moment I’ve been waiting for. Where to begin, how to ask. I’m not going to have many chances to get this right. I wait till we pass the dock, clear the edge of the base camp. Then I turn to her, take a deep breath, and call out over the noise of the crashing waves: “I know what happened to Noodles the cat.”
CHAPTER 23
LEA RECOILS IN THE SEAT beside me. Her hand goes to the door as if she’s preparing to bail from the moving vehicle, while her eyes widen in fear. Of all the reactions, this isn’t one I’d been expecting.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Her fingers scrabble with the handle.
“Hey, hey, hey. I’m here to help. Honestly, I swear. I’m a friend. Come in peace.” I’m babbling, her own anxiety triggering mine.
“How do you know about Noodles?”
“I read the letter you sent to your sister.”
“My sister?”
“Kaylee Pierson? Well, Keahi Pierson now.”
If anything, Lea’s eyes grow wider. “You! You helped her? You’re in on this.”
Now I’m totally confused. “In on what?”
“Who are you?”
“Frankie Elkin. I search for missing people. Your family, well, your sister, reached out to me. They’ve never stopped looking for you, Leilani. They want you home safe.”
“You’re a private investigator?”
“No. Just a woman with a weird hobby, not being good at sports or skilled at crafts.” I’m still babbling. Honestly, it’s like I’ve never done this before. But Lea’s response is throwing me for a loop. No relief or even denial. Just terror. In ever-increasing amounts.
“Stop. Just, let me go. Release me now, and I won’t tell Mac anything. I promise.”
“You don’t need to be afraid of him.”
“Afraid of him? What’s wrong with you?”
I have totally lost control of this conversation. I take a deep breath, slowing the UTV just in case Lea decides to jump out. Given the size of MacManus’s bodyguards, I don’t want to discover what will happen to me if Lea winds up injured on my watch.
“Keahi received your note. The one explaining how you ended up with MacManus. That you just realized she was still alive, and that you forgave her and loved her. She’d thought she’d lost you, too. You have no idea.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Keahi Pierson is your older sister, right? AKA the Beautiful Butcher?”
“Yes.” Lea’s tone is hushed, guarded, like revealing a secret told only in dark corners after midnight.
“I found a second note. In your bedroom here. Well, the tiny room across from the master.”
Lea shakes her head. “Please just leave me alone. Whatever it is you want, I can’t help you.”
“It’s okay. You can trust me. I don’t care about Keahi. I won’t betray you to MacManus. I work for the missing. And that’s you, Leilani. You are my focus.”
“Then why did you help her?”
