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“We’ve been shopping in town. We were just leaving and heading towards the truck, but I had to go to the bathroom. I called out to her that I’d be a moment. But then I got waylaid by Mrs. Western who was telling me about what happened to Matilda and the naked pee-pee robber.”
He winced at that nickname. That poor guy was never going to live that down. Turned out he hadn’t been attempting to break into Melanie’s place but trying to leave. Seemed he’d spent a good night with Melanie and he’d decided to sleep in while she went to work. However, she’d forgotten to warn him about Linus, her guard dog. Who didn’t like men much. And who had stood on the other side of the bedroom door, growling at him every time he tried to leave.
The poor guy’s clothes had been downstairs. Apparently, they’d started there. Along with his phone. So he’d decided to leave by going over the balcony. Why he hadn’t borrowed something from Melanie’s wardrobe rather than go out naked, Ed had no idea.
“When I finally made it out here, the truck was gone and so was Marisol.”
He frowned. That wasn’t like Marisol. She wouldn’t just leave Gigi.
“Are those shopping bags Marisol’s?” he asked.
“She only had one bag. I don’t know whose they are.”
“All right. Stay here, Gigi. Jace has called the ranch. We’ll find her.”
She nodded, still trembling. He looked around and then gestured at Sammy, who worked at the diner. “Come stay with Gigi, Sammy?”
The other woman nodded, walking over to talk quietly to Gigi.
Ranger pulled up and Ed quickly briefed him. “I’m going to check the shopping bags, Gigi says they aren’t hers or Marisol’s. Can you talk to everyone here? See if anyone saw anything. Also, check to see if there’s camera footage.”
Ranger nodded. He was a man of few words.
Ed walked to the bags and instantly spotted something that sent dread rushing through him. Kiesha’s enormous handbag. The one she went nowhere without. That she wouldn’t leave behind under any circumstances.
Unless it was life and death.
Fuck.
“When do you think he’s coming back?” Marisol asked nervously.
They were stuck in a dark basement. She’d already tried the door, but it was surprisingly solid. The light switch didn’t work, she was guessing that the power was cut off. It was so dark that she couldn’t even see the other two women.
“I don’t know,” Georgie answered as she tried to search around with her hands. She put her fingers into something squishy.
Gross. Gross. Gross.
“But we have to try and get out of here.”
“You know I wasn’t joking when they said this place is haunted. There was a murder-suicide here thirty years ago. Nobody comes out here. Nobody.”
Okay, first things first. Calm Kiesha down.
“Kiesha, we’re going to be fine. There’s no such things as ghosts.” She managed to make her way over to the other woman. Grabbing her hand and Marisol’s, the three of them sat. Funny, she’d thought if anyone was going to panic, it would be Marisol. Kiesha seemed to have the ability to cope with anything.
“Right, deep slow breaths, okay?” Georgie told the other woman soothingly. “I’m going to get you out of here. We’ll all be fine.”
“Sorry. Sorry. I just have this fear of basements and ghosts and spiders. Which is silly since I used to be a ghost hunter. I just had too many encounters with evil ghosts, you know?”
A ghost hunter?
Okay, she wasn’t going to touch that one.
“I’m an FBI agent, I’m used to dealing with high-pressure situations. I am going to figure this out.”
Except she wasn’t good at dealing with high-pressure. Not at all. Even now, she could feel her own panic bubbling in her stomach.
You got this. You have to. They’re relying on you.
