Page 62 of Hunted in Hope Town

“Look, Sutty, I’m here to help you. Be safe, get to the bottom of things, and stop whoever sent that threat. It’s not going to be easy or comfortable, or you wouldn’t have reached out for my help. You would have handled it yourself, like the pro you are.”

“If you recall, I just asked you to look into a few things, not show up unannounced.”

Boyd grinned. “Come on now, it’s been a while, but you’re very familiar with the Boyd Cavalier experience.”

He was, and maybe he should have been annoyed, but there was something so familiar about this. Working together. Their different tactics and personalities and how it…matched, complemented.

Which he supposed was the real problem. He knew Boyd wasn’t totally wrong to push this. He just wanted him to be wrong.

They poured their coffee in silence, sat down at the table. When the silence finally broke, it was Boyd who spoke, his voice low and serious.

“I thought about it some, and maybe my theory isn’t quite right, but there’s something to do with her, not you. I believe that.” It was the serious that got to Ellis, because Boyd tended to go lighter and more irreverent, even when things were serious.

Still. “She was a teacher. The only connection to anything remotely criminal was me investigating them.”

Boyd frowned at that. “A teacher,” he said, clearly thinking about that in some deeper way. “In Chicago.”

“I think I’d know if she taught one of the Carusos’ kids or something, Boyd. They all get sent to private anyway.”

“But it doesn’t have to be a Caruso. Just someone connected. I think it’s the thread to pull. Who was she connected to that year, in the school. It can’t hurt.”

Ellis couldn’t argue with it can’t hurt, even if he hated it. “The internet up here isn’t the best, and that’s a lot to sort through.”

“Yeah, what the hell else are we going to do up here?” Boyd looked around. “To my way of thinking, it’s this or set a trap.”

Luckily Ellis didn’t have to make that decision, because Kirsten emerged from their room. There was a confused expression on her face, and she was holding her phone weirdly. Kind of like holding it out to him.

“Dr. Leigh emailed me,” she said, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“The psychiatrist,” Ellis explained to Boyd. “What did she say?”

Kirsten handed her phone to Ellis, who tilted the screen so Boyd could read the email at the same time.

Kirsten,

I wanted to check in on you and make sure everything is okay. Remembering things can be painful and confusing. Sometimes it can be hard to talk in person. If you want to write things out, that’s an option too. I’m here for you either way.

Dr. Leigh

“I don’t think this is right,” Kirsten said. She was wringing her hands, pacing again. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“Why?”

“She’s never emailed me before. She would just…call.”

“The time stamp is ten thirty. It was late. Maybe she was worried she’d wake you up,” Boyd suggested, but he was taking it seriously. Ellis knew the question wasn’t doubt, it was working through the possibilities.

“Then she’d wait until the morning and just call. It’s not time sensitive to check in on me. She’d call me in the morning. Either she has some kind of reason to believe something is wrong and is fishing, or…”

“This isn’t Dr. Leigh,” Ellis finished. “It’s someone fishing for information on what you remember,” Ellis muttered. Which meant Boyd’s theory about Kirsten knowing something had a hell of a lot more credence now. “But who?”

“Her assistant might have access to her work email, right?”

Ellis nodded. “Colleen would be the most reasonable culprit in all this.” But he still couldn’t figure out how she was connected. Neither his nor Zach’s nor even Boyd’s investigation had unearthed any connection to anyone they knew of from the Carusos.

“She was pretty pissed off about Ellis telling her she needed to back off,” Boyd said.

“This isn’t just petty revenge because he wouldn’t cheat on his wife,” Kirsten replied, frowning. “I didn’t like the woman, but you’re talking about… It’s too much.”