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Story: The Wolf of My Eye

“Did we get any footage of the garden?” Maisie asked, hopeful.

“No. The cameras don’t capture images in that spot. We didn’t have any reason to concern ourselves that anyone would steal from the flower garden,” Anne said.

Maisie sipped her tea. “That’s true.”

“Iverson said he was going to put up another couple of security cameras to cover some more areas that we don’t have coverage for right now.” Then Anne frowned. “Wait. What if the two things are related? Gus’s driver’s license in the garden and Jude’s phone being out there?”

“It seems like too much of a coincidence if they aren’t related,” Maisie said.

“Speaking of the phone, Iverson left it here for you to look at. He unlocked it and he left a charger for it. He couldn’t really find anything on it that would explain what he was doing here, but maybe—since you knew him a little better—you can learn something more from it,” Williamsaid. “Iverson did say that Jude had a couple of recent calls that he hadn’t answered and some text messages he hadn’t responded to since he dropped his phone in the garden—which shows he dropped it on the same day that you went out with Gus.”

“Well, darn, I had hoped Jude would reveal something more to us, but the timeline helps,” Maisie said.

“What about the boot prints?” Robert asked.

William said, “Iverson got some good prints off it. He’s running it through a database to determine what the brand of boots is if he can discover it.”

“I wish we knew what size Gus’s shoes were,” Anne said.

“They could have been Jude’s,” Maisie said. “I have no idea what size shoes he wears. I just know he had big feet. The night we went to dinner, I didn’t notice what Gus was wearing on his feet. We also need to find Gus’s car.”

“Iverson took the information Gus gave you on his registration and is looking into it,” William said.

“Where’s Mittens?” Anne suddenly asked, sounding concerned she was on her own.

“She’s at my sister’s place, getting lots of loving.” Robert finished his water.

“Okay, good,” Anne said. “William, I wanted to tell you about our routine for the inn so you know what we have to do in the morning. Sometimes we make breakfast for ourselves before the guests come in if we get up early enough. Otherwise, we have to wait until they’re done eating.”

“You can stay in our guest room, William,” Maisie said.

Each of the three bedrooms had a bathroom en suite, and another bathroom was accessible to the living room.

“There are spare towels in the bathroom you’ll be using, William. If you want anything from the kitchen, feel free to raid it. I’m off to bed. ’Night, everyone,” Anne said.

“’Night,” Robert and Maisie said, and Maisie took his hand, grabbing Jude’s phone off the dining room table, and led Robert to her bedroom.

“’Night,” William said.

“I’ll take my shower after you,” Robert said to Maisie as she closed her bedroom door. “I’m going to talk to William about the case for a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, sure.” She went into the bathroom, stripped off her clothes, and began showering.

Robert went to check on William. He had taken a quick shower and was wearing a pair of boxers and grabbing a cup of water from the kitchen. “Are you going to stay here until we know what we’re up against?” Robert asked.

“Yeah.” William motioned to Maisie’s bedroom. “Looking good.”

Robert smiled. “We’ll see. You made out alright on the lottery.”

“Yeah, my brother wanted to trade places with me in the worst way. He offered to do my chores for a month. Two months even.”

Robert laughed. “I bet. Did you learn anything else from the crime scene?”

“We went over the guest room with a fine-tooth comb. It didn’t appear that Gus was killed in the room. Neither ofthe sisters had seen any disturbances—no furniture overturned, everything was neat and tidy—which would have concerned them. But one thing Anne said was odd was that the bed hadn’t been slept in.”

“Like he’d been murdered before he had a chance to retire,” Robert said. “But he’d been with the woman there, and I had assumed they wouldn’t have just been talking. So that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Right. Anne said the shower had been used.”