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Ben began to make his way up the stairs, then paused. “Is Victor Maplehurst still here? I didn’t see his car in the parking lot.”

The gleaming green MG hadn’t been there this morning, at least, although Ben supposed the other man could have gone out for an early drive.

“No, he left right after breakfast,” Mabel replied. “He said something about needing to be in Portland for a meeting.”

Well, that was convenient. Then again, maybe it was a good thing that Ben wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into the guy here at the B&B. That would be…awkward.

Still, if Maplehurst’s meeting was real, then Ben would eat his nonexistent hat. More likely, the man had fled town after hearing what had happened with the Northwest Pacific crew the night before. He’d definitely want to get out of here before the mob showed up with the torches and pitchforks.

Because even though Sidney still seemed a bit shellshocked from finding her mother’s and grandmother’s footprints the night before — not to mention seeing how everything magical about the clearing had vanished with the rising sun — he had a feeling she’d be ready to go after the lumber company and let everyone know about the illegal clearing operations just as soon as she’d showered and gotten some food in her.

“Ah, okay,” he told Mabel, who was now watching him with a slightly quizzical expression, as if she wasn’t quite sure why he would care about Victor’s comings and goings. “I’m going to miss seeing that car in the lot.”

The questioning look in her eyes disappeared at once. “It’s a beauty, isn’t it? My friend Augie had one back in the seventies. Gorgeous thing. Anyway, I need to get to work in the kitchen.”

Ben nodded, glad of the chance to escape upstairs.

Once in his room, he showered more quickly than he’d planned to, mostly because he’d lost a few precious minutes during that exchange with Mabel Whitaker.

Even so, he was out the door about a half hour later, and only very slightly late to his breakfast with Sidney.

She’d gotten there before him and was sitting in one of the booths near the front window. Her hair looked a little damp, so he guessed she’d rushed through her post-shower prep so she could get to the café by ten.

“Maplehurst is gone,” Ben told her as he slid into the booth, and her nose wrinkled.

“That doesn’t surprise me. He’d probably want to get as far away from the scene of the crime as possible.”

About the same thing that Ben had been thinking, so he nodded.

Eliza, obviously having noted his arrival, came over and set down a pair of menus on the tabletop. “Coffee?”

“God, yes,” he said, and she grinned, even as she addressed her next words to Sidney.

“Same for you, hon?”

“Yes, please,” she replied, adding, “Preferably with an IV drip.”

Eliza’s grin only broadened. “Coming right up.”

Sure enough, she was back a moment later with two big, chunky mugs full of steaming coffee. “And to eat?”

Ben ordered steak and eggs and hash browns, while Sidney asked for a custom omelet with jack cheese and bacon and tomatoes and black olives, making him think that she’d also realized she needed something a little more substantial than a donut.

Once Eliza had jotted everything down and told them she’d have it out as fast as possible, she headed back to the kitchen.

Sidney picked up her coffee and breathed in the aromatic steam. “I feel better already.”

“It was kind of a rough night,” he agreed, then allowed himself a sip. Yes, it was too hot, but he needed that caffeine in his system sooner rather than later.

“That’s for sure.” She breathed on her coffee again and added, “I stopped by the shop on the way over here so I could put up a sign that it would be closed today. I figured that with what we saw last night… everything we saw…I would probably have my plate full today.”

The way she emphasized “everything” told him that she fully planned to be up in Mayor Tillman’s business as soon as they were done with breakfast.

“Both of us,” Ben agreed. “I still need to analyze those letters we found on the standing stone, but I knew neither of us would be very functional if we didn’t get something to eat.”

“And that’s why I’m here,” she said. “Part of me wanted to go charging right over to City Hall. But then I told myself that might not turn out so well if I didn’t have some brain fuel to help me along.”

“Do you think Tillman knows anything about what Northwest Pacific is up to?” Ben asked then, and her shoulders lifted ever so slightly.

It seemed she hadn’t planned any forays into the forest today, because even though she was wearing a fresh pair of jeans, she’d also put on a pretty sky-colored top that brought out a faint hint of blue in her otherwise gray eyes, along with a pair of nude-toned flats.

No doubt she wanted to look put together when she went to get in the mayor’s face.

“I don’t know,” she said, expression growing cloudy.

“I want to believe that he doesn’t know anything about the clearing operation, that he would never go behind our backs like that.

The problem is, he’s done some misguided stuff in the past under the guise of ‘doing what’s best for the community.

’ He might not have even seen it as a betrayal. ”

Ben drank some more coffee. It had cooled down enough that he could have a proper swallow this time, and that made him feel a bit better.

Still, he was kicking himself now.

“I should have gotten some photos of the clearing operation,” he said. “This would have worked out better if we had some physical proof of what Northwest Pacific was doing.”

“You were kind of busy,” Sidney reminded him. “I mean, it’s sort of hard to be taking pictures and inserting yourself between a bulldozer and a tree at the same time.”

She had a point there. Still, if he’d had his wits even a little more about him, then they would have incontrovertible proof that Northwest Pacific had been up to some pretty dirty deeds last night.

“Besides,” she continued, “we were both there. We saw what we saw. People will believe us.”

Ben wished he had her faith in humanity. He felt his brow rising at an ironic angle as he listened to those words, but she spoke again before he could comment.

“If it was just you, then sure, I suppose I can see why people might have more questions. This is me, though. I’m from Silver Hollow — I’ve lived here my whole life, except for when I was at college. People will know that I didn’t make any of this up.”

Eliza came by with their food right then, so they both paused to thank her and help themselves to a couple of fortifying bites.

But after Sidney had scooped up a few forkfuls of omelet and taken a bite of bacon, she said, “And after breakfast, I’m going to ask Mayor Tillman some very hard questions.”