Page 86 of Taken Away

Her throat tightened.

“I thought...” She stopped. The words caught somewhere behind her ribs. “I thought she died in her sleep.”

Burke didn’t speak. Neither did Bennett.

He looked away toward the vineyard, as if he couldn’t quite bear to picture it either.

Aubrey turned to him.

“I was just starting to realize I didn’t know the whole story.” Her eyes moved back to Burke. “And now someone killed her?”

Burke’s expression tightened; he gave the smallest nod, acknowledging the loss without looking away from it.

“The prowler.”

She looked at Bennett. Then back at Burke.

“The person outside my window. The porch. The broken latch.”

Her voice dropped to a frightened whisper.

“You think it was the same person?”

Burke didn’t answer immediately.

“Right now, we don’t know that,” he said. His voice stayed calm and steady. “But we’re treating that incident as potentially connected until we can prove otherwise.”

Aubrey swallowed.

“So what happens now?”

Burke glanced at Bennett, then back at her.

“Now we start over.” The words settled heavily into the room. “We stop looking at Mabel’s death as a tragedy… and start looking at it as a crime.”

He held her gaze.

“And I’m going to do everything in my power to find out who did this.”

TWENTY-ONE

Blackwood Estate Winery

Mabel’s Office

Later that morning, after Burke’s words faded, nobody moved.

“And I’m going to do everything in my power to find out who did this.”

The promise still hung in the air.

It didn't change the fact that Mabel was dead.

It didn't change that someone had walked into her bedroom and cut off her air.

It didn't change the memory of a gloved hand on Aubrey's window latch two nights ago.

The office, which had felt warm and sunlit only moments earlier, suddenly felt ten degrees colder.