— Missing?
— We haven’t been able to find her anywhere since this morning, he adds with a sigh.
— She probably just… I don’t know, found a way out of her enclosure?
All four men look at me like I just suggested she flew off on a broomstick.
— We’ve checked every inch of the property, the foreman explains. The fences are intact. It’s like she just?—
— Vanished underground, Alistair finishes.
His gaze meets mine, and I can tell his mind is somewhere else.
— The passage, he murmurs.
— What passage? I ask, confused.
But he isn’t listening anymore. He turns to his employees.
— Get back to your stations. I’ll handle Rosita.
Alistair strides toward me, then guides me firmly out of the room.
— No time to waste.
Once we’re in the hallway, he pulls me toward the back of the distillery. His touch sends a wave of heat down my arm—one I pointedly ignore.
— Did Callum tell you about the passage? he asks.
— What passage? Callum didn’t tell me anything. I just got here to show you what I found in the municipal archives.
He stops short.
— Wait. You don’t know about the secret passage?
— What secret passage? I repeat, despite myself intrigued.
Alistair runs a hand through his already messy hair, making it worse. That gesture should not be as attractive as it is.
— Callum came by yesterday. Hamish had escaped again, and we found him in the fermentation building. He got in through an old underground conduit that seems to connect our properties.
— A secret passage between the McKenzie and McGregor estates? That’s… that’s exactly what I was trying to confirm!
I pull the document from my bag and wave it excitedly.
— Look! It’s a layout plan from 1830, for a project to merge the properties into a single estate. It specifically mentions a covered passage allowing grain to be transported between the farm buildings and the distillery—even in bad weather.
Alistair studies the document.
— So it wasn’t just a ventilation shaft… it was a proper utility passage they intended to build.
He pauses, thinking.
— And if Hamish used it to get in yesterday…
— Then Rosita used it to get out today. She’s probably?—
— At the McGregors’, he finishes. With Hamish.
