Page 46

Robert quickly pulled his on too. He got them some glasses of water, and they drank them. “I’ll pack a bag and take your camera equipment out to the car.”

“Okay. I’m sure Anne will be glad when we get back. I wonder who the mystery guard wolf is.”

“We’ll find out soon.” He packed enough clothes for several days and rejoined her in the living room. Then they packed up her stuff.

“What about Mittens?” Maisie was cuddling with the cat.

He loved that Mittens loved to be held or sleep on his lap or curl up in bed with him.

“We’ll drop her off with Edeen so she can have all the other animals’ company while I’m staying with you.” He could have left her at the house and Edeen would have dropped by to feed her, but Mittens loved all the other animals and she loved people, so she would be happier at Edeen and Lachlan’s house.

“Okay, that will work.”

Then he packed up Mittens and her food, toys, and litter box and called his sister to let her know.

When they drove over to Edeen’s house, Lachlan came out to get the litter box and food while Edeen took Mittens in her arms.

“See you later,” Edeen said.

“Let us know if you need us for anything,” Lachlan said, and Robert knew he meant in the event they had trouble with the murderer.

“We will,” Robert said.

“’Night,” Maisie and Robert said, and then they headed back to the inn.

At the inn, Anne was having tea with William Playfair. He was as dark-haired as Colleen, his eyes hazel. So one of Colleen’s Texas cousins was going to stay with them. Robert wondered if William’s twin brother, Edward, felt like he’d lost out.

“My bedroom is in there,” Maisie said to Robert, making it clear to both her sister and William that Robert was staying with her in her bedroom tonight.

He carried his bag into her bedroom and set it in the corner, out of the way. Then he helped her carry her camera equipment in from the car, and she took out the memory card and put it in her laptop. “I’ll edit these in the morning,” she said.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It’s getting late,” Robert said. “Though I want to know if anyone looked at the security videos for the inn yet.”

“Yeah,” William said. “Anne, Iverson, and I watched it and saw Gus parking at the inn, getting his key, then leaving his bag in the room. He met Maisie and asked her out to dinner. Then he left with Maisie and returned about an hour and a half later.”

“And then?” Maisie asked, all ears, grabbing some water for Robert and her.

“He left again,” William said. “After an hour, he returned. But he wasn’t alone.”

“He was with the killer?” Maisie asked.

“A woman,” Anne said. “She had curly, chestnut-brown hair, pretty features.”

“Sheesh, I really pick them, don’t I?” Maisie said. “Here he asks me out to dinner, then he has a woman stay with him afterward? I kind of assumed he was seeing a woman from the way he hesitated to talk about it when he said he was meeting up with someone.”

“He was with her for only about an hour. Then he left again, taking her with him,” Anne said, “and aye, they were all lovey-dovey. Which really made me mad, considering he’d asked you out first and never indicated he was seeing someone else.”

“Been there before,” Maisie said.

“Yeah, I think your luck might just be changing.” Anne glanced at Robert and smiled.

“Not all wolves are like that for sure.” Robert drank some of his water. “If the guy wasn’t already dead, I would have had words with him.”

“Then the guy returned to the inn again,” William said.“He was wearing a gray hoodie and a wrist splint and black boots.”

“Gus wasn’t wearing a wrist splint or a gray hoodie,” Maisie said. “That has to be someone else.”

“He was driving Gus’s car then,” Anne said. “If the murderer met up with him and then drove his car back here to the inn, no one would have been the wiser. Then he took Gus’s bags from the room, loaded them in the car, and drove off for the final time. Gus’s body might have been inside his vehicle. The man on the video was the same size as Gus, but we couldn’t see his features that time because of the hoodie.”