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“Well, thanks for the treat,” she said. “If you ever find time in your schedule to hang out with your best friend, let me know.”
“What about Thursday night?” Maddie offered. She hated it when Lydia got pouty.
Lydia rolled her eyes. “I’m working at the restaurant,” she said as though it was so obvious. “Just . . . never mind. You’re too busy with the bakery and the bartender. I get it. I’ll talk to you later.”
Before Maddie could even respond, Lydia slipped out the door. She hated how easily her friend could get a rise out of her. One ten-minute discussion had been a roller coaster of emotions for her. The insults rolled so fast and furiously off Lydia’s tongue, Maddie almost couldn’t keep up with them. And the stuff about Emmett . . .
She wasn’t going to let her friend plant seeds of doubt about her new relationship. She was happy and Lydia was jealous, that was all. Emmett wasn’t interested in having anything to do with her family. Emmett was different, he didn’t care about the money or the family reputation. He’d barely blinked when she’d picked him up in her Mercedes. None of that impressed him at all, and she liked that.
Then again, maybe she was wrong and he was just a really good liar.
Chapter Twelve
Maddie felt stupid. It was Saturday night—technically Sunday morning, around two thirty—and she was standing outside the electronics store with a flashlight and her binoculars. Emmett had insisted she meet him tonight to continue their stakeout and catch the Pen—vandal.
“My car is still in the shop,” she’d argued.
“We don’t need it,” he’d said.
So here she was, waiting on Emmett’s arrival. The street was silent. Woody’s had closed a half hour earlier. Rosewood was a ghost town, especially near the electronics store, which faced away from the square. It overlooked the Methodist church and cemetery, not exactly late-night hot spots.
No one had vandalized the town since the incident with her car. Even though the vandal had managed to make his point on her hood, Maddie wondered if their pursuit of him had scared him off. Their Wednesday night community service session had been spent picking up trash at the park. Emmett was certain he’d strike again soon, so tonight, they’d try again.
“Sorry I’m late,” a voice said from behind her.
Maddie jumped and spun on her heels, finding Emmett on the sidewalk heading in her direction. “Lordy,” she whispered as her heartbeat slowed. “Don’t sneak up on a girl in the dark.”
“Sorry,” Emmett said, leaning in to rub her shoulder and give her a reassuring kiss. He fished into his pocket and took out a key. “Come on,” he said as he gestured toward Green’s Electronics.
“Why are we going in there? And why do you have a key?”
“Brian gave it to me,” he said, unlocking the door.
Brian had gone to high school with Maddie, and his father owned the local electronics store. She wasn’t sure what that had to do with their stakeout, though.
“Come on,” Emmett said. Once inside, he locked the door behind him.
“Why are we here?”
“You’ll see.” Emmett took her hand and led her through the aisles of flat-screen televisions and accessories to the back of the store.
There, he opened a plain white door marked NO ENTRY and ushered her through it. To the left was the stockroom, stacked high with computer boxes and Blu-ray players. To the right was a staircase.
“We’re going upstairs.”
Maddie followed him up to the second floor similar to what she had at her bakery. Upstairs, there was a living area that looked like it was used as a break room, and a desk piled with receipts and ledgers. On the far wall, a ladder was mounted, leading to a locked panel in the ceiling.
“We’re going up one more level to the roof.” Emmett climbed up the ladder and unlocked the door, pushing it open and stepping through. “Come on,” he said, offering his hand.
Maddie hung her binoculars around her neck and nestled her flashlight into the purse slung over her shoulder before she started up the ladder. “I thought you were afraid of heights.”
He took her hand and helped her up. “This isn’t too bad. We get a great view of town, and no one, not even the Penis Picasso, will expect us to be up here watching.”
Maddie smiled and shut the door to the ladder. “That’s brilliant. Unless, of course, Brian is the vandal.”
Emmett chuckled and shook his head. “He’s much too busy playing on his computer to go out into the real world. It was his idea to use the store. Since the roof stretches all the way over the antiques shop and Good Soles shoe store, we can see around the square.”
He was right. This shop was the perfect vantage point to see almost anything going on, and no one would be able to see them. As much as she hated to admit it, her big white Mercedes hadn’t been the most subtle vehicle for catching this guy. Now this . . . this might work.
