Page 99 of Taken Away

She could not control the fact that a killer might still be watching the estate.

She could not control Bennett McCrae sleeping thirty feet above her at the ridge house, wedding ring on his hand and shadows in his eyes, making her feel things she had no business feeling during an active homicide investigation.

But she could control this.

Columns. Clauses. Dates. Signatures. Money.

A soft knock sounded against the open doorframe.

Aubrey jumped.

Walter Grady stood there holding two steaming mugs of coffee. The old bookkeeper looked tired. “Well now,” he said gently. “I had a feeling I might find you here.”

Aubrey glanced at the clock on the wall. “Five forty-two.”

Walter smiled faintly and crossed the room. “Mabel always said morning started when worry quit letting you sleep.”

He set one mug beside her laptop.

Coffee. Two sweeteners. A splash of cream. Exactly how she’d been drinking it.

The realization tugged unexpectedly at something tender in her chest. Someone had noticed. Not that she was here, but how she took her coffee. Mabel had noticed things like that. Bennett did too, in his own infuriating, precise way.

She pushed that thought away.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

Walter lowered himself into the chair opposite her with a careful sigh. Moose immediately lumbered over and laid his giant head on Walter’s knee.

“Well, hello to you too, old man.” Walter scratched behind Moose’s ears, his expression softening. “You’re taking good care of her, aren’t you?”

Moose’s tail thumped once beneath the table.

“He followed me,” Aubrey said.

“Course he did.” Walter glanced toward the sealed office down the hall. “He knows who belongs to Mabel now.”

The words hit harder than they should have. Belongs. The idea sat uncomfortably close to the bone. She’d spent ten years crafting a life where she didn’t belong to anyone.

And yet here she was. Back on this mountain. In Mabel’s world. Drinking Mabel’s coffee order from a man who’d probably known her since she was young and dangerous and invincible.

Aubrey looked back at the laptop before her face could give anything away.

“I need to understand the business.”

Walter nodded. “Then you came to the right place.”

“I need contracts. Distribution history. Vendor agreements. Anything Mabel was reviewing in the last six months.”

For a beat, Walter didn’t move. Then he smiled, sad and fond.

“That sounds like her too.”

Aubrey stilled. “What does?”

“Looking for answers in a file cabinet at dawn.” He patted Moose once more and pushed slowly to his feet. “Your aunt trusted paper. Said people could rewrite stories, but records were stubborn.”

“She was right.”