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Do I believe him? I think I can buy the possibility he didn’t recognize it as Penny’s necklace. Others noticed it because it was interesting, but it’s not as if it was a five-inch disk. The rest is harder to swallow. He finds a broken necklace, and when he hears that a woman is missing, he never thinks that might be connected? Yet the story we’ve heard is that Penny was seengoing into the forest on her own. A broken necklace suggests abduction, and no one has suggested that.
So what does the necklace mean?
Could Penny’s disappearance be unconnected to her walk in the forest? Could she have come back and then been attacked as she reentered town? Could Pierre have attacked her, found the broken necklace later, and stuffed it into a locked drawer, knowing only he had that key? Or could he have taken it as a souvenir?
I don’t like the part where everyone seems to have known Pierre was pestering Penny, and yet I can’t pretend I’m surprised that no one thought it was significant. Kendra apologizes and feels terrible, but he wasn’t the first guy she had to speak to about “overactively pursuing” a member of the crew. She also had to warn a woman who was pursuing a guy.
In Pierre’s case, it was garden-variety pestering. He was interested and wasn’t taking no for an answer until someone told him to cut that shit out. Penny hadn’t been fazed by it. Just uncomfortable and feeling a little guilty that a guy was so interested and she wasn’t willing to “give him a chance.”
I have Pierre show me where he supposedly found the necklace. It was caught on a bush right behind the clinic. I search for signs of any disturbance there. Marks on the ground? Broken twigs? When I find nothing, I call Dalton over. He also declares there’s nothing. Next up is Storm. We give her a scent marker for Penny, and she finds nothing.
All this makes Pierre’s story more than a little suspect, but he swears by it. He was at the clinic for two early appointments—verified by those who had the appointments—and between the two, he stepped onto the back porch for a coffee. He saw the necklace glittering in the bush, retrieved it, and figured a couple had been fooling around in the forest and it broke. His nextappointment arrived, so he took the necklace inside and stuffed it into the locked drawer and then forgot about it.
I don’t know what to make of this. Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority. Nanette has already spread the story of the necklace, as has the other woman who’d been there, and Gunnar has done his part confirming it.
The only person not calling for Pierre’s head seems to be me. Okay, Dalton and Anders agree that we need additional evidence before taking him into custody, and Kendra is more worried about the mob mentality, as is Yolanda—the latter being less “worried” than “pissed off.”
Kenny is due to arrive tomorrow, and he’s taking over the carpentry from Pierre, so Yolanda wants him on that plane out. His presence is now too distracting to the others.
We try to eat lunch in the commissary, but the continual stream of people demanding to know what we plan to do about “that man” has us retreating to our house to eat. Anders volunteers as Pierre’s personal assistant, helping him with his work while keeping him safe from the others.
Dalton and I settle on the back porch with the remains of our lunch. Dalton kicks back, feet up, beer in hand.
“Nickel for your thoughts,” I say.
“They aren’t worth that much.”
“Yolanda might be right,” I say. “Ship Pierre out tomorrow. Make sure everyone knows he’s under house arrest down south and hasn’t escaped justice. That fixes the disruption, but if he did actually hurt Penny, then we’ve shipped out the only person who knows where to find her body.”
“Yep.”
“And if he didn’t, then she’s still out there, and I’m left focused on investigating Pierre rather than hunting for her.”
“Yep.”
“You know you’re not helping, right?”
“I do believe I already evaluated the value of my opinion in this matter at less than a nickel.” He takes another slug of his beer. “I can’t get a read on Pierre. I don’t like his attitude, but being whiny and defensive isn’t a crime. I don’t like the story about the necklace, either, especially when there’s nothing to suggest an altercation there, but it also makes sense. Guy goes out. Spots it. Brings it in, stuffs it away, and forgets it. Could he have not noticed it on a woman he liked? Hell, when you first came to Rockton, I certainly noticed you. First because you pissed me off. Then because I wanted to figure you out. Then because I found you utterly compelling, as much as I didn’t want to.”
“Thanks…”
“But despite all that—and working side by side—it took me a while to notice you were wearing a necklace. I don’t think I’m a clueless guy, but I wasn’t interested in your jewelry.”
“I think the only thing I can do right now is contact Émilie and have her set an investigator on Pierre’s backstory. I know there was a basic background check but let’s see if there’s any history of predatory—”
Storm lifts her head from the deck and growls, her gaze fixed on the forest. I peer into it, but see nothing. The dog pushes to her feet, still growling, head lowered. Something is out there. Something or someone.
Dalton gets to his feet first. He peers into the forest and then grunts and plunks back into his chair. “If this is a social call, don’t be lurking around the forest, making our dog nervous.”
“I am not lurking,” a voice says. “I am approaching at a measured pace. Also, I am not the one making your dog nervous.”
Storm moves to the edge of the back deck, hair on end as she growls. The source of unease glides into view. Lilith’s gray wolf, Nero. The woman herself follows. When Nero reachesthe clearing behind our house, she says something to him and he stops.
“May we approach?” she asks.
I lay a hand on Storm’s head as I murmur that it’s all right. The wolf enters the yard, with Lilith beside him. They stop again at the edge of the porch.
“May I?” she asks.
