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Herb hitched his shoulders up. “I don’t know. Could be. But I never read it. I kept her secret safe, just like she asked me to.”
Lacey couldn’t help but stare at Herb. He really hadn’t even taken a peek? For some reason, she believed him. And perhaps that was why Rania had chosen Herb to be the guardian of her private words. Because she knew he was a man of honor. An old-fashioned guy who kept his word.
“Well, if Herb’s noble enough to give you the journal, then I may as well tell you something I remembered, too.” Margie squared her shoulders and looked Nico directly in the eye. “I wasn’t going to tell you, because you haven’t been very forthcoming yourself.” She continued to glare at him. Nico tactfully held his tongue but Lacey could see his patience was wearing thin as a muscle jumped in his jaw with the effort not to command the information from her right this second.
“What did you remember?” Lacey asked quickly, keeping her voice calm and shooting Nico a look over the top of Margie’s head.
“A young man paid Rania a visit one evening about two weeks ago. I was out watering the garden, and I saw him go in her front gate. He came out again less than ten minutes later, and so I didn’t think much of it. I’d actually completely forgotten about it until I saw that same young man at the bakery in town yesterday. It was that apprentice, I think his name is Jayden.”
Lacey considered Margie’s surprising words. What would Jayden want with Rania?
“It would’ve been better if you’d told us this yesterday, as soon as you remembered,” Nico said equably enough, but the way he was clenching and unclenching his hands gave away his tightly controlled temper. “Can you remember the exact day and time this happened?” he added quickly when Margie narrowed her eyes at him.
“I think it was Thursday two weeks ago. Probably around five-thirty pm. Rania would’ve just got home from work, but Karim’s car wasn’t in the driveway. He often goes to the pub for a few beers with his mates on Thursday.”
“Right. Thank you, Herb. And Margie,” Nico said, touching Margie quickly on the elbow. “I know you’ve been trying to do the right thing all along. And this is definitely the right thing.”
“Humph,” Herb said in reply.
Nico showed the other couple out, and he and Lacey watched them trudge back down the hill again.
“Are you going to look at the journal now?” Lacey couldn’t help but ask.
“I want to. But it’s almost time to go to Gabriel’s.”
“And I still need to shower,” Lacey replied.
“I’ll get a squad car to come and collect this straight away,” Nico said, eying the bag with the journal as if it might bite. “I want to submit this into evidence today. Do everything strictly by the book. I don’t want to be accused of tampering with the evidence, or not following protocol. I’ll get Tyrell to look at it first thing tomorrow morning. And I’ll also bring Jayden in for an interview tomorrow, too.”
“Margie might be right, Jayden’s visit might be completely innocent. He works with Karim, after all. It could’ve been as simple as him bringing a message from Karim.” Lacey pursed her lips as she considered Nico.
“Probably. But you know we need to follow up all leads,” Nico agreed. “And this feels like it might be important but I’m just not sure how Jayden fits into this investigation yet. Especially because we know he’s probably gay. So what was his interest in Rania?”
Lacey went off to shower and change and was ready in fifteen minutes, her mind still churning with the new information Margie and Herb had just supplied. But they still had to wait another ten minutes for the cruiser to come by and collect the bag.
They jumped into Nico’s Jeep with two bottles of Nico’s best red wine and headed toward Wynyard.
The morning had gotten off to a rocky start, and she hoped that lunch with Gabriel would put things back on track.
“Are you going to tell Gabe that I saw him and Jayden the other day?” she asked as he zoomed around the curves in the road much faster than she would’ve been game to if she was driving. She admired his strong hands as he drove, long fingers wrapping easily around the steering wheel. She was beginning to love those hands. Love what they could do to her.
“I don’t know yet. I’m not sure it’s the right time. And now we have this other sighting of Jayden, it might be better to keep our cards close to our chests until we’ve figured out what he was doing at Rania’s.”
“I’ll follow your lead,” she assured him. “Personally, I think the longer things are left to fester the worse they turn out in the end.” But she wasn’t one to talk. How many times had she chosen the easy path of not telling the whole truth to her mother, only to have it come back and bite her in the ass later? She understood Nico’s reluctance, however. Gabe was his friend, and if Nico wanted to let him keep his secrets, she wasn’t one to argue.
Gabriel welcomed them into his home with a bright smile and hugged them both. Which surprised Lacey a little and even seemed to surprise Nico at his outward show of affection.
“I’m so glad you guys could make it,” he gushed. “And I’m so glad you’re okay,” he added to Lacey, taking her aside and staring into her eyes.
“Yes, yes, I’m all good,” she replied, a little embarrassed.
“And who would’ve thought your geese could be so aggressive,” Gabe added as he led them down a long hallway to the back of the house and into the open-plan kitchen and dining room.
Lacey cast a sideways glance at Nico. The grapevine had been busy, if everyone knew it’d been the geese that saved her.
Instead of taking the bait, she switched the topic. “Nice house,” Lacey exclaimed. It was very modern and sleek inside. Lacey much preferred the character and charm of Nico’s house.
“I like to think that it’s befitting of an up-and-coming young doctor on the go like myself,” Gabe said with a flourish, taking the bait hook, line, and sinker.
