Page 13

CHAPTER 13

After thanking Almond for her time, Maddie and I left Hard Body in a rush, sweeping past weight machines and sweaty bodies like we were in training. The information we’d gleaned over tea and hugs was like gold in my hands. Almond changing her mind about talking to us was a huge point in her favor. She could have refused, and it would have been her right to do so. Instead, she invited us into her inner sanctuary, which was unexpected.

There was always the chance that I was wrong about her.

But I didn’t think so.

Before we left, we double checked that each of us had the other’s cell number, and Almond had been kind enough to text me a photo of the note—something the police had told her to keep to herself. They’d wanted her to delete it, but she refused. Another big checkmark for Team Almond. I promised to treat the evidence with care and said we’d let her know of any updates. I hoped we would have something to share that would move the investigation in the right direction, finding the person behind Harmony’s attack, whomever that might be. Almond could think of no one who wanted to harm either one of them, which made the search more difficult but not impossible.

Maddie and I stopped at a printing shop and made a copy of the note. Then we enlarged it several times to get an even better look.

We thought about dinner, but neither of us were interested in food—not yet.

What we were interested in was answers, and when we got back to the room, I couldn’t swipe the keycard fast enough.

We threw our purses on the antique writing desk, changed into sweatpants and Ts, and flopped on the bed.

“The first thing we need to do is to make notes about everything we talked about with Almond,” I said. “You write, I’ll talk.”

She rolled to the edge of the bed and pulled out a notebook from my laptop case. Then we covered it all. From the day we’d met Harmony and Almond at dinner to today’s events, and everything in between. Discussions we’d had with the nail technician, coworkers and friends, and with Almond herself. Maddie then pulled out my laptop, and we made notes of key points from online articles about the crime and subsequent investigation, which wasn’t much but we didn’t want to leave anything out.

I reached out my hand, prompting her to hand over the pen and notebook.

“My turn,” I said.

“Time to study the note?”

“Not yet. Time for dangling questions.”

Maddie giggled. “You’re so weird sometimes.”

“True. I think we should brainstorm for a while, concentrate on some of our unanswered questions, barring the contents of the note.”

“We should discuss the note, though, and what we think the ‘friends of the PI’ and stuff is all about.”

“We’ll get to that, but not yet. The note could have been written to throw the police off the trail. There’s a chance it’s not even related to us.”

Did I believe that?

I did not.

Still, none of it made any sense.

I’d just met Harmony.

How could the note be related to me?

Maddie flipped onto her back and said, “Questions, gotcha. Thinking …”

While I waited for hers, I wrote down a few of my own.

The big question: Why would someone hurt Harmony?

Expanding from that, I wondered if it was someone from her drug past?

Did she even have a drug past?

I’d wanted to ask Harmony, but because I’d gotten the information from the gossip chain, I was hesitant to bring it up. And Almond had not offered any such story—even when we talked about their relationship—nor had she brought up any sinister characters or situations associated with Harmony’s drug addiction. In her mind, that was a long time ago.

So, was the threat geared more toward Almond, who was known to be less than sunny when she was feeling threatened? During our conversation in her office, she’d admitted to being terrified—because of a threat—yet, she’d handled herself with grace and honesty once she’d loosened up.

How and why were they targeted?

Was it because they were a couple, two females, two races, living together, in love …?

As I pondered that thought, Maddie shot straight up on the bed. “Where’s the weapon the attacker used?”

“Huh, good question. Given Almond didn’t mention it, I’m guessing there wasn’t a weapon found.”

“Or it was found, and the police aren’t saying anything about it.”

Maddie’s cell phone rang.

“Is it Iggy?” I asked.

She shook her head and answered the call. “Hey, Almond. You okay?”

I waved my hand to get her attention in the hopes she’d put the call on speaker, and she did.

“I’m okay,” Almond said. “I remembered two more things you should know about. Could be important or mean nothing at all. I don’t know.”

She had my attention.

From experience, I’d learned people often believed they didn’t remember anything at all—yet once they started talking, even in a roundabout way, forgotten memories tended to surface. It looked like this was one of those moments.

“You’re on speaker,” Maddie said. “I’m here with Sloane.”

“Hi, Almond,” I said. “What did you remember?”

“Okay, first off, the note smelled weird, like cologne.”

Maddie and I exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“Continue,” I said.

“It wasn’t a fragrance either of us use. In fact, I don’t use any at all, except deodorant. I’m kind of allergic. Harmony has all sorts of scents she uses at the spa, but she always washes up for my benefit, but even if she didn’t, this wasn’t one of those massage-y smells. It was more musky maybe?”

“Maybe it was leather?”

A moment of silence, then, “Maybe. It reminded me of like when you go into those New Age shops, and they have incense burning and stuff.”

“Patchouli!” Maddie said.

“Could be,” Almond said. “All I know was it was a strong smell. I mean, it had to be to stick to a note like that after getting wet. I figured it might be a clue?”

I wanted to high-five her over the phone. “It’s a clue, all right. Good job.”

“Thanks. I can’t believe I hadn’t remembered it earlier.”

“It’s not unusual,” I said. “What’s the second thing?”

“I think someone was watching us the day of the attack. After we’d visited with you, we went to get something to eat, went shopping for groceries, the usual stuff. But I kept looking back at this guy. He just seemed to be everywhere we were. Long black coat, a fancy wooden cane, high collar.”

“Like a priest?” Maddie asked.

“Mmm, more like a black turtleneck. I even glared at him at one point, and he was unfazed. I didn’t think anything of it until just a few minutes ago. I feel so stupid!”

“You’re not.” I said. “It could be something or nothing, as you said, but it is information we didn’t have before, which is a good thing. We’ll see if anything comes of it. And hey, I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Did you find the weapon used to attack Harmony?”

“Nope. I even checked every object in the yard that could have been used to see if it had blood on it. Nothing did.”

Another dead end.

“Thank you for calling and trusting us with this information, Almond,” I said.

“Thank you for forcing me to trust you.”

We all laughed, promised to stay in touch, and the call ended.

Maddie dropped the phone on the bed, and our gazes locked.

“A scent and a man with a cane,” I said. “I do believe we’re getting somewhere.”