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“But I wasn’t going to let some asshole make me skip cocktails and coloring,” I tell her defiantly.
“I’m surprised Etienne didn’t make you stay home tonight.” She glances toward the bar, where he is still waiting for Marcus.
“He tried,” I grumble. “But we came to a compromise. No alcohol, I’m not allowed to leave the table, and he’ll be watching from the bar.”
“He couldn’t say no to you, could he?” Fawn giggles softly, and I join in, shaking my head.
Glancing around the sparsely occupied room, I tell her, “I wish there was a way we could see if he’s here tonight.”
“Sam’s good at coming up with plans. Once she’s here, we’ll figure something out.”
“Great idea.”
Reaching into my bag next to me on the booth, I grab my favorite set of colored pencils and the coloring book Etienne sweetly gave me when he picked me up from campus this evening. It’s all things Vermont. I turn to the page with Champ peeking out from Lake Champlain, and after selecting the perfect shade of green for the mountains, I color.
Samantha arrives in her usual whirl of excitement, dropping onto the bench next to Fawn. Tonight the other littles in our group are spread out at nearby tables. They’re too busy coloring, eating, and chatting quietly to pay too much attention to the three of us as Fawn and I fill in Samantha about what has happened.
“Why can’t the police find and stop them?” Fawn asks softly. “It’s not fair.”
“Strictly speaking, he hasn’t done anything illegal yet,” Samantha tells us, snagging a nacho from the nearly decimated plate and humming with pleasure as she eats.
“But he’s scaring Violet," Fawn states fiercely, warming my heart. I really do have the most amazing friends.
“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” Samantha says, rolling her eyes.
“They got several sets of prints from the coloring book,” I tell them, grabbing my boring tea and taking a careful sip. “But it’ll take a day for them to run them. Apparently it’s not like it is in the movies.”
“Police work can take an annoyingly long amount of time,” Samantha grumbles in agreement before taking an almost angry bite of another nacho. “No guarantees he’ll be in the system either.”
“Have you tried calling them? Maybe you’d recognize their voice?” Fawn nibbles on a carrot stick that had garnished the mac and cheese balls’ plate.
“No, Marcus said not to respond, in case he took that as me being interested. He also told me to save the message but block the number.”
“He’s right. If you engaged with him, he could later argue that you wanted contact,” Samantha tells us.
“That’s total bullshit,” Fawn whispers loudly, and Samantha and I nod in agreement.
“I’ve got an idea!” Samantha says, grabbing her purse.
Chapter 12
Violet
“I’ll text him,” Samantha says, pulling her phone out of her purse. “What’s the number?”
“What?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Fawn argues nervously. “Maybe we should leave the detective work to, you know, a detective.”
“Here’s the plan,” Samantha says firmly, ignoring Fawn’s sound advice. “I’ll text him a few times, and you two can look around and see if anyone is on their phone.”
“What will we do if we find them?” Fawn asks the question that had already sprung to my mind.
“Marcus is here. We tell him.” Samantha looks confused. “Really, we would be helping him by pointing him to a person of interest. As law enforcement, he can’t sit at the bar and prank text to identify a suspect. But we can, as long as it doesn’t become harassment. Unlike someone I know, I don’t want Detective Daddy spanking me.”
I smile widely as Fawn throws the end of her carrot stick at Samantha, who smiles knowingly but doesn't comment further.
“Always the lawyer.” I giggle before grabbing a mozzarella stick and taking a bite.
