Page 97 of Taken Away

He set the marker down.

"That makes you part of whatever they were trying to stop," Burke said quietly. "Not the whole picture. Just two more pieces of it."

No one in the room disagreed.

Chairs scraped across the floor as the meeting broke up. Eleanor gathered her file while Declan held the door for her. Bennett pushed back from the table.

"Sheriff?" Aubrey said.

Burke looked up. "Yeah?"

"Could I have a word?

Bennett glanced at her.

"I'll be right out," she said softly.

He hesitated only a second before nodding and stepping into the hallway, pulling the conference room door closed behind him.

Burke leaned against the table. "What's on your mind?"

Aubrey reached into her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"I should've told you about this sooner.”

Burke accepted it and unfolded the note.

Go back to Philadelphia.

His eyes lifted to hers.

"When did you get this?"

"The morning after I arrived. I thought it was someone angry about me taking over the winery." She shook her head. "After everything we talked about today... I don't think that's what it was."

Burke slipped the note into an evidence envelope from the stack beside him.

"You had no reason to connect it then," he said. "You do now."

He met her eyes.

"From this point forward, Miss Langford, if anything happens—no matter how small—you tell me immediately."

She nodded.

"I will."

Burke tucked the envelope into his case file.

"Good. Because if someone warned you to leave." He let the thought hang between them. "Then this just became evidence."

TWENTY-FIVE

Blackwood Estate Winery

Aubrey

Aubrey slept exactly forty-three minutes.