Page 72 of Secret Sins

I heard the smile in her voice, and when I opened my eyes, I kissed the top of her head. "Thinking of you to calm myself down."

"Did it work?"

Nodding, I saw that Kaylee had stopped and was silently waiting for us. When Bailey nodded too, she led us to the conference table, and we all sat.

"This is probably as private as we'll get, unless I commandeer Eric's actual office with an actual door."

"This should be fine," Bailey responded.

Pulling her notepad from her breast pocket, Kaylee wrote something at the top. "What details can you give me about this guy?"

Bailey told her of the man coming into Bookish and the strange vibe he gave her. Stating it wasn't enough to report, Bailey told her that, nonetheless, the guy made her very uncomfortable. "And then Alex told us last night that the man was in Corner Café, asking for Van."

"Asking for him by name?" Kaylee clarified.

"That's what he said."

Nodding at Bailey, Kaylee said, "I'll talk to Alex when we're done here. Do either of you have a photo of this guy?"

Pursing her lips, Bailey shook her head. "I've never had a reason for surveillance cameras. I don't think Alex has any, either, but you can ask him."

"Describe him for me."

After pausing, Bailey said, "There wasn't anything about him that stood out. He had on a black ball cap, and he'd pulled it so low over his face that I couldn't make out his features. Um, Caucasian. Tall-ish."

"Okay. Taller than Van? Shorter?"

Flushing at Kaylee's piercing gaze, I swallowed and waited for Bailey to answer.

"About as tall." She closed her eyes. "No, that's not right."

We waited while she tapped her fingers on the table.

"Van is tall enough for the top of the shelves to come to here." She demonstrated, holding her hand sideways at breast height. "But the other guy, it was more like here." Her hand rose a few inches.

"Are you 6'2" or 6'3", Van?" Kaylee asked.

"Uh, 2." My mouth was dry, but at least I no longer felt trapped.

"Thought so," she muttered, scribbling away. "So the lurker is more like 5'11”, 6 feet. Build?"

Bailey tilted her head. "Pudgy, I guess? Not obese, but not slender. A bit of a paunch. Mostly, I didn't look closely at him, but I did give him a cup of coffee."

"And you didn't see his hair color, eye color? Birthmarks, scars, tattoos?"

Again, Bailey closed her eyes. Her hand came up to her neck, her fingers trailing behind her ear. "Something here."

"Was it dark like a mole?"

"Dark, like a tattoo." Sighing, Bailey opened her eyes. "But I can't bring up an image in my head of what it was. Maybe a star or something."

"Okay, I'll just put down small tattoo or birthmark."

"What should we do next?" Bailey asked.

"Well." Kaylee put down her pen and folded her hands. "I'll speak with Alex, see if he can fill in any gaps on the guy's description. Maybe it was a coincidence, and it's not the same person in both instances."

"He asked for Van." Bailey cleared her throat. "It wasn't a local, or I would have recognized him. So would Alex."