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Story: The Wolf of My Eye

“Maybe the gardens or with a view of the ocean. The guests should be off exploring by then, so it should be just us there,” Robert said.

“We figure you and Maisie will set up the camera equipment, and then once Maisie begins taking pictures, she can start talking to her,” Edward said. “If Maisie isn’t able to get anywhere, we’ll try to handle it carefully so Chelsea doesn’t leave.”

“What if she tries to leave?” Robert asked.

“We take her into custody. We have to know the truth. Does she know if Jack murdered Gus? Does she know where Jack is? Did she have any part in this? We’ve talked to Grant, and he said that if she cooperates during the questioning, we can just do it here. But if she stonewalls us, we’ll take her to the castle.”

“Alright. That sounds good,” Robert said. But who knew how wrong the plan could go?

Chapter 22

After the last of the guests had eaten their breakfast and left the dining room, Maisie and Anne finished cleaning the kitchen. Then Robert and the brothers sat down with Maisie to go over the plan. “Have you decided where you’re going to do the photo shoot?”

“In the garden. It’s close to the unit where Gus stayed. Since Chelsea saw Gus there, it should bring back more memories when I question her. She did appreciate that he put her name in to win the photo shoot but said she hadn’t heard from him since she’d seen him last. I didn’t pry because I didn’t want her to go silent on us.”

“I agree. Besides, seeing her face-to-face is much better because we can see emotions and smell them too,” Robert said.

“I’ve got a couple of rooms to clean,” Anne said. “But during the ‘special event,’ I’ll be manning the desk.”

“I’ll help you with the rooms,” Maisie said.

“I’ll be glad when this is resolved and we don’t have to have all this additional security,” Anne said.

William and Edward clutched their hearts as if she’d wounded them with her comment.

Everyone laughed.

Once they had done their chores, the birdbath, birdhouse, and bird feeders came in for the inn, and the guys all helped Anne and Maisie set them up in the garden. Robert and the brothers returned to the inn after that. Once Anne and Maisie filled the feeders with birdseed and the birdbath with water, they returned to the inn to find the guys had grilled hamburgers flavored with steak sauce, onion, and green chiles, with french fries on the side—totally the Texans’ menu—for them for lunch. Maisie and Anne loved it.

Robert was smiling. “It was fun cooking with these guys and learning something new to fix.”

Maisie took a bite of her burger. “Wow, this is really good. We’ll definitely have to make this back home.”

“Yeah, this is delightful,” Anne said.

“Now I know their secret,” Robert said.

Anne and Maisie thanked the guys for a delicious meal.

“So what happened concerning Ike and his brother’s body?” Anne asked.

“He had it moved to Glasgow for a memorial service,” Robert said.

“I’m so glad he was able get some closure,” William said. “When he looked at the video, he believed right away that the man in the splint was Jack because of his clothes.”

After they ate, Maisie made sure she had a fresh battery in the camera and figured out her lighting in the garden. She’d taken lots of pictures here, and they turned out beautifully, so she knew that this would be a good spot for it.

The men had cleaned up after cooking while Anne was taking care of the check-in desk.

A pretty woman with chestnut-brown hair and bright-blue eyes arrived, and Maisie said, “Hi, are you Chelsea Bowers?”

“Yeah. Are you Maisie?”

“I sure am. Congratulations on winning the photo shoot contest.” Maisie almost felt guilty about the lie, but if they could find out what they needed to—and she was actually giving Chelsea a free set of professionally taken photos—they had to do it.

The guys were in the house, and she saw Robert watching her from the window. Maisie nodded to him, letting him know that this was Chelsea.

He came outside. “Hi, I’m Robert, Maisie’s mate and assistant.”