Page 25 of Smokescreen

Olive almost asked him if he knew the woman had a thing for him. But she decided not to. She’d let him figure that one out on his own.

“Should I call Hannah in here?” Reid asked. “I can find out if she saw anything.”

Olive shook her head. “No, don’t do that. I want to keep her in the dark a while longer. Besides, I don’t want her to get spooked. If she’s not the one behind the doll, then seeing what someone did with it may very well send her running.”

“Good point.” He let out a sigh and shook his head. “I don’t like this. Maybe it was a mistake asking you to come here.”

She gave him a pointed look. “You wouldn’t be saying that if I was a man.”

Reid blanched as if her words surprised him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you’re letting your chivalrous side come out, and that’s admirable. But if you’d hired a man and he’d been threatened, you wouldn’t be second-guessing yourself.” She paused before finishing with, “I can defend myself.”

“I know you can. I apologize for making it sound otherwise. I just don’t like seeing anyone who works for me in danger.”

Olive squeezed his forearm. “That’s a good thing. It makes you a good boss. Never stop being like that.” Then she quickly withdrew her hand and crossed her arms over her chest. “But in this case, I’m the private investigative agent. Let me handle myself.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he muttered, offering a playful salute.

The two of them exchanged a smile, and admiration glimmered in Reid’s eyes.

Then as quickly as the moment started, it passed.

Reid tapped his finger on the arm of his chair. “What are you going to do about the doll?”

“I’m going to take it down and examine it. But I doubt there’s any useful evidence on it.” Olive could dust it for fingerprints, but she’d have to call in a favor to run those prints. She wasn’t sure it was worth it in this scenario. “Whoever did this wants to get under my skin, and I can’t let them think they’ve won.”

He nodded slowly as he processed her words. “I can respect that. We don’t want to make this person up the ante either.”

“No, we don’t.”

A moment of silence passed between them as they each seemed to process today’s events.

Finally, Olive stood. “Well, you said you had work to do. So I’ll let you get to it.”

Reid rushed to his feet. “Should I walk you back up?”

“I’ll be fine.”

But Olive was definitely going to keep her eyes wide open in light of this new threat.

CHAPTER 11

NINE YEARS AGO

The crash still reverberated in Olive’s ears.

What had happened down there?

She jolted out of bed.

Something was wrong. She was sure of it.

She couldn’t just lie here, especially if her family might be in danger.

She rushed to her bedroom door and threw it open.

A shadowy figure lingered there.