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That knowledge terrified her. Anxiety welled. Pen ruthlessly battled it back.
Zoey was with Murdoch now. Pen had always liked him, even when he and Zoey were arguing at work all the time.
He cared about her sister. Sydney said he had a thing for Zoey big time. Pen agreed.
Sometimes she wondered how Zoey just keptmissingit.
Or was her sister missing it deliberately, maybe?
Mayberomancereally did scare Zoey to her toes like Sydney had suggested once, and Grace had agreed with? Grace had more experience than Pen and Sydney combined. She’d had a boyfriend when she was eighteen, and then she and her fiancé had been engaged for five months before he’d died back in March. Grace knew all about sex and stuff. And romance.
Grace really liked romantic stuff.
Murdoch was looking down at Zoey like that now. Zoey was turned away, saying something to Nikkie Jean. Why didn’t anyone else see it?
She wanted that. She wanted that very thing for Zoey. She wanted her sister to have someone who loved her like Rafe loved Jillian, and Caine loved Nikkie Jean. And all the rest.
Zoey, more than anyone else in the world, deserved that.
Zoey wasn’t going to Houghton and Melody’s with her. Maybe that was a good thing. Murdoch was telling her he was going to follow her back. But…Elliot Marshall was telling Zoey to let Murdoch drive her, instead. That he would have Officer Miller and Detective Naylor drive Zoey’s Jeep back to Garrity for her so she’d have it in the morning. Garrity was still two hours away.
Zoey didn’t protest—Elliot Marshall was her boss. She did what he said. Mostly.
Her sister could be kind of sneaky sometimes.
Pen stood. She hugged her big sister tightly. “I’m glad you’re riding with Murdoch. I don’t want you out there alone on that road tonight.”
“I’m good. I’m armed. I’ll be with Murdoch. Detective Naylor and his partner will be following us back. I’ll drive back to Finley Creek after court tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan. It may stretch to two days. You know how court is. You just…get some rest. Try to focus on getting through the next week or so at school. Sydney will be ok. I promise. And the TSP will find the ones who did this and get to the bottom of why.”
Zoey hugged her again.
Pen just resisted the urge to cling like she had when she’d been a little girl and Zoey had been her entire world.
Zoey was always going to be hermom. Pen loved her and needed her and always would.
“I love you, Zo. Forever.”
“Right back at you, kid. Forever.”
49
Murdoch pulledMarlie’s drawing out of his pocket and handed it to the woman next to him. “Here. This is what my niece said was on the van.”
Zoey unfolded the crayon drawing as Murdoch started the engine. “Our main witness is seven years old.”
“She’s also definitely not the artist in the family, but she was determined to help me catch the bad guys. I’m going to, and when I do, probably better not watch what I do next. No sense in both of us getting in trouble with IA.”
He fastened his seatbelt then looked at her. Naylor was in Zoey’s Jeep now. They were going to have a three TSP-SUV convoy the entire way to Garrity. “Once we get back to our temporary home, what do you think about shaking Mickey and Minnie and…go hunting for that van?”
“You, Sheriff Lake, are speaking my language tonight.” She turned the drawing a little. “I think it’s supposed to be a bug. And with the partial phone number Pen gave us, if we use the local prefix, we may be able to just look up the number in the directory and go from there.”
“Get out your phone and google exterminators in Garrity?”
It took five minutes of link-hopping to find what they were looking for. “This is too easy.”
Murdoch had been thinking the same thing. “Van was probably stolen. I’m not going to get my hopes up.”
“If it was, it wasn’t reported. We would have found out about it before now.”
