Page 189 of Taken Away

Anne. Cleared.

Walter Grady

Red Stephens

Bennett. Found Mabel. Made the 9-1-1 call.

Mercer. Expansion Deal.

The board was getting messier.

And somehow Anne Langford had managed to stir it up less than two hours after arriving in town.

Burke reached for his hat.

"Find out where she's staying."

Luke grinned.

"You planning to welcome her home?"

Burke settled the hat on his head.

"No."

"I'm planning to see what she remembers."

FORTY

Blackwood Estate Winery

Late Afternoon

The tasting room was in that soft, in-between stretch before closing.

Low jazz drifted from the speakers. The last of the day’s tasters lingered near the windows, watching the sun slide down the vineyard rows. Glasses clinked. The big barn felt calmer than it had in days.

Savannah stood at the host stand, tapping something into her tablet. Chloe was at the merch wall, refolding T-shirts into perfect little stacks. Lockwood sat on a stool near the middle of the bar, a glass of water in front of him and a dog-eared field notebook open in his hands.

Declan O’Rourke occupied a barstool a few seats down, a glass of Mabel’s Chardonnay in front of him, jacket slung over the back of his chair.

Bennett moved behind the bar, towel over one shoulder, swapping out a rack of clean stems.

The double doors opened.

Conversation dipped.

Anne Langford stepped inside.

Nobody here needed another description. They’d all heard the café version.

Still, for a heartbeat, the room went still.

Chloe’s hands stopped mid-fold over a stack of shirts.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Yeah. Copy that.”

Savannah’s stylus froze over the tablet.