Page 30

CHAPTER 30

My cell phone rang, and I cursed it, refusing to move from my position of rumination—and plotting.

It rang again and again, and I shot my hand out, searching for the phone in the expanse of the comforter. “Where is the dang thing …” I growled as I whipped the pillow off my face.

“Looking for your phone?” Maddie asked.

I glanced at her and saw my phone dangling from her fingers.

She handed it over, and I looked at the screen.

Cade was calling.

With a guilty wince, I answered. “Hey, honey. We’re in Savannah.”

I thought it best to just get it out there.

I figured he wouldn’t be too happy that I hadn’t checked in sooner, and I was right.

“You don’t have to tell me you’re in Savannah because I knew that’s just where you’d be. You and that sidekick of yours.”

Maddie snickered and leaned in, saying, “Hey, now. I can hear you and your big voice. Sidekick, huh?”

Given she’d gotten involved in our call, I put it on speaker.

“Uh, hey, there, Maddie,” Cade said. “Sorry about that. You’re not a sidekick, and you know it. But I worry … It drives me nuts sometimes, these murders you two are always stumblin’ on, even when you’re not supposed to be working. It’s just … well, it’s unbelievable.”

Maddie went to respond, and I raised a finger, stopping her.

“You’re right,” I said. “I should have let you know what was going on. You know I can handle myself, and I’m not alone, so stop worrying, please?”

“Sloane, when it comes to you darlin,’ I’ll always worry.”

“We’re safe and sound at the Marshall House. I’m sorry I didn’t call before. You know how investigations make you lose track of time sometimes.”

“Yeah, I do,” he said with a sigh. I could hear the crunch of gravel underfoot. “I’m comin’ on down there. Three heads are better than two— Oh, what the heck is going on … oh, hell no!”

“Cade?” I said his name twice more, then looked at the phone. Still connected. “Cade, are you okay? Talk to me.”

Maddie and I exchanged concerned glances, waiting for him to respond.

“My tires are slashed,” he said with a heavy breath. “I ain’t goin’ anywhere for a while, looks like. Hang on.”

The thought of his tires being slashed in a quiet ice-fishing community … well, it seemed unusual.

“Did you drive over a nail maybe?” I asked.

No response.

Maddie tried next.

“Is the rest of your truck okay?”

No response.

A feeling of dread rush through me. “Are you okay?”

In the background, I could hear Cade cursing, then some other men’s voices. It sounded like they were walking around, inspecting the damage.

I heard a man say, “Hold tight. I’ll call you a tow, buddy.”

Cade thanked the man, then came back to us. “I heard your questions. No, it wasn’t a nail. The front and back tires on the driver’s side were cut with a sharp object. Big cuts, not little notches or nicks. Yes, the rest of the truck is okay. Yes, I’m okay, except for the fact I’m pissed off by the whole thing. By the time I get down there, you?—”

“Will already have the situation resolved,” I said, sounding more assured than I felt. Truth was, I was relieved he wasn’t here. I loved the man through and through, but he could be too protective at times. Him being here would put a rock in my shoe, and I had no desire to be hobbled right now.

“How did it go with Andi?” he asked.

“She’s much calmer now.” My comment had a smidge of truth, if at all. But a smidge counted in times like these.

I finished with, “Take care of your truck and get on back to New Orleans. I might even beat you there.”

“Yep, will do. In the meantime, don’t do anything crazy, all right?”

Nothing I did was crazy, per se.

Crazy was in the eye of the beholder.

I thought back to what he’d said about always worrying when it came to me.

“We won’t do anything crazy,” I said.

Maddie shot me an exaggerated wide-eyed look and mouthed, We won’t?

I nudged her arm, and she shook her head at me, covering her mouth with her hand to stop herself from laughing.

Cade mumbled a few words under his breath, then said, “All right, then. I’ll meet you back at the condo. Just keep in touch with me a lot more than you’re doin’ now and let me know you’re ETA as soon as you figure it out.”

“I will,” I said, vowing to be better about keeping him informed as to my shenanigans , as he would say.

I took the phone off speaker and asked him about his trip. He told me all about it—not just the food, accommodations, and breathtaking scenery, but also some of the nutty antics between him and the boys. We ended the call laughing, which was just how I needed it to be.

But as soon as the call was over, doubt seeped in as I thought about his slashed tires.

I wondered if there was a note.

I should have thought to ask.

Cade might not have even seen it yet or there might not be one at all, but I needed to know.

I shot him a quick text: Curious, did the tire slasher leave a note or anything?

While I waited for him to respond, Maddie said, “Everything okay? You got quiet, and you have that look on your face, the one you get when you’re about to wig out.”

Sometimes I would swear Maddie had a direct connection to the inside of my head. I took a deep breath in. As I released it, I showed her my text.

“Oh,” she said. “But that would make no sense. The guy’s here, not all the way up there.”

“True,” I said with a shrug. “But weirder things have happened.”

My phone buzzed with Cade’s response: Sure was a note. Tucked up under the windshield wiper.

“No way,” Maddie said.

I resisted the urge to send a flurry of texts and instead sent just one: What did it say?

Everything in me wanted to call him, except I knew my tone would give away all the calm coolness I’d displayed on our previous call.

Cade wrote: Guess I parked in someone’s spot, and the guy got fired up over it.

Slashing someone’s tires over a parking spot seemed a little over the top, but there was a nutjob at every corner. The good news was it didn’t sound like “our guy” had left the message.

But I had to make sure.

Send me a picture of the note.

By some miracle, he didn’t question my request and sent me a shot. A full sheet of wide-ruled notebook paper, chicken-scratch handwriting in pencil that said: Hope the message is clear, douchebag. Stay out of my space.

“Okay, so what happened to Cade is unrelated to what’s happening here,” I said, showing the image to Maddie. “Let’s get some rest. My heart has been through enough for one day.”

I set the phone on the nightstand and turned out the light, falling asleep to the rhythm of Maddie’s soft snores.

At about one in the morning, my phone rang again.

This time, it was Andi’s father.