Page 22

CHAPTER 22

Mike shook his head, his face blanketed with concern.

I was sick about the fact I could be putting his daughter in harm’s way, but I didn’t look away from him. Chin lifted and gaze steady, I wanted him to know I had this under control, even though I didn’t.

My poker face was getting better with age.

I hoped.

My recommendation to Andi and Mike was to sit tight. They both looked at me, baffled by my comment. We were looking at multiple jurisdictions, a lot of assumptions, and an undertow of concern that something just wasn’t right. I wouldn’t call it outright panic, but the feeling was at a low boiling point. Now more than ever, facts were what I needed. Not emotions. But my head was spinning as to where to begin.

“First, we need to find out if there have been any threatening notes left anywhere else,” Maddie said, focusing on the facts when I could not. “Kim, Iggy, Kat … we hadn’t known how important it was to ask them about it until now. So, we will. In fact, Sloane, let’s ask Kat to do a search in the FBI database for other crimes that involved a note like this one.”

I felt the investigator in me de-icing from the shock as I regained some degree of intention.

“Good idea, Maddie,” I said. “What else … Andi, let me have a look at that note again.”

She handed it to me. “Sure thing.”

“You’ll have to take this to the police, if not today, tomorrow,” I said.

“Okay-doke.”

Maddie leaned closer to me, and we read the note out loud. Then we examined the cross at the bottom a second time.

Maddie traced it with her finger. “What’s the meaning of this cross, I wonder? Some religious symbol?”

“Or roads, maybe a map?” Mike threw in.

I stared at it for a moment, and then I gripped Maddie’s arm so tight she squealed. “I’ve seen this before … just like this with the dashes and everything.”

Andi’s raised arm, straight up, as if asking to be called on. “Oh, I have too!”

“You have?” her dad asked.

I’d seen the symbol on Dr. Beetle’s business cards. Long after we’d left Savannah, I had googled it, out of curiosity. The image was a hoodoo symbol for crossroads, where the spiritual and physical realms meet. Put that together with the scent, which reminded me of her little shop on River Street, and I felt certain …

Andi jumped up and grabbed her father’s shoulders. “Dad, it has to be Dr. Beetle!”

“But why would she write a note like that?” Maddie asked. “How did she get to the mountainside of North Carolina to leave the note for Harmony? How?—”

“I have no idea,” I said, heading toward the door. “But we have to make some calls.”

“You can’t just leave us hanging,” Andi whined.

“We won’t,” Maddie assured her. “We just need some time to think,” then to Mike, she added, “Can you keep this under wraps for another couple of hours at least?”

He nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“Andi, you stay right here with your dad,” I said. “No arguments. If you’re where we can’t reach you, it’ll cause worry for all of us. I promise we’re not going to leave you out.”

I was surprised when she ran over and threw her arms around the two of us. “Y’all helped me and my friends when there seemed to be no hope. I’ll do whatever you say.”

We hustled to my car. “To the Marshall House,” I said. “We figured out one mystery while staying there. Time for another.”

Maddie slid behind the wheel. “On it.”

We were there in no time, at the same hotel we’d stayed during our first visit to Savannah, when Andi had been kidnapped. We even got our old room when we checked in, which was unexpected. Talk about serendipity. To be back at the place it had all started.

As we lugged our bags through the door, Maddie shot me a wink. “That’s the universe working for you.”

She’d read my mind.

Now I needed the universe to lead me to the person wreaking havoc on my mind, body, and soul.