Grace’s phone rang while Lily was still jumping up and down on the couch, celebrating the pancake win. “Hello?”
“Grace, hi. It’s Tessa.”
“Hi, Tessa.”
“I’m calling because Dillon got a call from Clint Wheeler a few minutes ago. Apparently, you filed a report with him about some things happening around your shop?”
“I did. Reno made me.”
“Reno’s also sitting at our kitchen table looking at his hat. He hasn’t said anything for ten minutes, and Dillon’s getting concerned.”
Outside her kitchen window, the rain was falling hard, and the surface of the lake danced as drops splashed into it. Grace asked reluctantly, “What did the sheriff say?”
“He stopped by the bakery last night. Found Reno sitting out front in his truck and asked if he had a key to the store and knew how to access your new security camera’s footage. He did, and they went inside and pulled the surveillance video.”
Grace heard a male voice speaking in the background and Tessa said, “Reno wants to apologize for not calling you before he let the sheriff into your shop, but he knew how tired you were yesterday and he knew you would say yes, anyway.”
“Tell him I appreciate that and he’s right. I would’ve told them to go in.” She added, “What did they see on the video footage?”
“Clint wants to talk to you about it in person.”
“Tessa. What did they see?”
There was a small pause on the other end. “I think Clint should walk you through it.”
Grace’s free hand went to the counter and she gripped it tightly. A chill of dread swept through her, and her gaze went to Lily playing innocently in the living room.
Tessa was speaking again. “. . . isn’t bad, Sweetheart. Wheeler just thinks you should see it for yourself. He’s at the station now. He called me to ask you to come by this afternoon precisely because he didn’t want to alarm you. And Grace?”
“Yes.”
“Reno would like to come along. He hasn’t asked but I can tell he’s really worried about you, so I’m asking on his behalf.”
“Tell him yes. And Tessa? Thank you.”
She put the phone in her pocket and headed for the living room to get her car keys. Outside the front window, a navy car came down the road and circled around the teardrop at the end of it. It didn’t pull into any of the three driveways that snaked away from it.
It wasn’t a van. Just a car. And the driver didn’t slow down.
Grace watched it go as the sudden spike of adrenaline drained slowly from her bloodstream. She’d never been afraid when Liam was alive. He was a Navy SEAL for goodness’ sake. He could handle anything or anyone who came their way. Lately, it seemed as if she was afraid all the time.
With one last, nervous glance outside, she told Lily they were going for a drive in the rain.
7
Lake Road was slick with rain and visibility was terrible as rain slashed across her windshield. Grace drove with both hands on the wheel and the wipers on high, squinting at the weak illumination of her headlights as steam curled up off the asphalt.
In the back seat Lily narrated the drive in detail. The difference between a regular cloud and a rain cloud. Why Marshmallow didn't like to go outside in rain. The order of importance of all eight of her stuffed seals, which had a complicated ranking system that Lily had apparently devised recently. Then she went quiet, the way she always did when the car's motion lulled her into a relaxed, sleepy state. She watched the lake go by with the same fascination for water her father’d had.
Ironic that she had her favorite seal pressed against her cheek. Grace had started giving Lily stuffed seals as a way of reminding herself that part of Liam was still here with her in the form of their baby girl. Lily didn’t understand the significance of the seals yet, but one day she would. The time she’d tried to explain to Lily about a year ago that her daddy was a SEAL, Lily had burst into tears, upset that her father was a literal sea creature.
Grace was grateful for her daughter’s silence now. She needed time to compose herself and move past the unreasoning terror that had gripped her back at the cottage. But no matter how hard her logical mind tried to tell her instincts that there was nothing to be afraid of, the jittery charge of adrenaline refused to fade.
She checked her rear view mirror at least a hundred times on the drive to Tessa’s place, and every time a set of headlights came into view behind her, she sped up until she left the other vehicle behind. Thankfully, none of them sped up to keep pace with her.
The Lawrence farm came up on the right. Even from the road she could see Loretta standing indignantly in the front pasture, registering her opinion of the rain to anyone who hadn't asked for it. Brown Dog was parked on the farmhouse’s wraparound porch, sitting by the back door like a furry traffic cone, watching her car turn in.
She rolled to a stop, and the dog ambled around the porch and out of sight with the dignity of a creature that had never been in any hurry. Must be nice to be that unflappable. She didn’t think of herself as being flighty or nervous, but the strangeness around her store had her feeling both flighty and nervous. She couldn’t imagine how scared she would be if Reno hadn’t been keeping an eye on the store and making common sense security suggestions to her.
