"We just made it to town. We're on our way first to Specialty Cookies. Faith thinks it might be a lead."
"We're on our way there now." He hoped to God the woman was right, and they found Lila and the others before it was too late.
"There it is," Faith said, pointing out the window while Cameron drove her SUV. They'd meant to split up the passengers, two in Cameron's rental, and the rest in Faith's because the seat was really crowded for three men to squish in back there.
But everyone, Leidolf, Gavin, and Trevor did just that, squished together in the backseat, because Cameron wouldn't let Faith ride with them in the back instead of one of the men, and the men all wanted to stick with the woman who seemed to be in the know.
"I know it's a real long shot." Faith didn't want them to think she knew for sure, but she was used to following dead-end leads in her work, and she figured both Cameron and Gavin would realize that. But Trevor and Leidolf might not.
"It's the best shot we have right now," Cameron said, his voice attempting reassurance, but an edginess was evident.
But all that kept going through her mind was a little girl with dark curls and dark eyes and a winning smile who drew pictures on the sidewalk in colored chalk across the street from her parents' home, annoying the eighty-year-old next-door neighbor who claimed it was graffiti and hosed it down every chance he got.
The day of her disappearance, he hosed down the last memory of her, and that was the last Faith remembered of the smiling little girl. Faith stared out the SUV's window and fought the tears. She thought she'd gotten over the memories so long ago. But every time she had a case like this where the victim was still possibly alive, she felt the same cloud of doom, feared the same ending.
And all she was left finding was the killer on the loose, the victim sacrificed for yet another meaningless cause.
"Faith?" Cameron said, touching her shoulder.
She clenched her teeth and looked at him.
"We're here."
"Right." She grabbed for her door handle, but Gavin was already opening the door for her. And then she saw the quaint little house with the gingerbread trimmings like lilac lace and the rest of the house painted in garish pink, reminding her of Hansel and Gretel and the witch who lived inside with her big oven and children made into gingerbread ornaments in the front yard. Here a white picket fence enclosed the small front yard, and a sign hanging between white porch columns said: SPECIALTY COOKIES, OPEN MON-WED, 1-5 PM.
It was Thursday, so no problem there. Cameron led Faith up to the front door, but none of them bothered to knock. Leidolf whipped out his lock picks and opened the door as if he were a master thief, quietly, without making a sound. Thankfully, there wasn't any kind of an alarm to let the occupants know someone had come in through the front door. But Gavin gave Cameron a look and Faith assumed he wanted to know what business Leidolf was in where he carried lock picks wherever he went. That made her curious, too.
The entryway had a quaint little parlor filled with two antique love seats, curved mahogany legs and seat backs, and bright yellow floral fabric. A counter with an old-time cash register sat nearby. And a plastic display contained chocolate fudge of various kinds— vanilla, with nuts, without, chocolate, next to it, the aroma mouthwatering. But deeper inside the house, the fragrance of gingerbread filled a kitchen, which was decorated in yellow, bright and cheerful. Antique platters and plates and paintings gave the place an old-world feel, but the splash of constant color made it more Alice in Wonderland in appearance, when ironically Faith thought it could be a front for a bunch of "Dark Angel" lunatics bent on killing werewolves.
While Faith investigated each room thoroughly, Gavin, Trevor, and Leidolf hurriedly explored every room throughout the two-story house and the basement also, looking for any sign of hostages or hostage takers.
Cameron stayed with Faith, his gun ready, protecting her while she looked in every kitchen cabinet, in every drawer for some kind of clue.
Just cooking supplies and cooking utensils, nothing else. But then she found a drawer full of receipts. Again, for cooking supplies, shipping orders, nothing that would indicate whoever owned this place was involved in hunting werewolves. She moved on to the basement, but she didn't smell any of the men who had visited them at the hot tub.
"You don't smell them here, do you?" Cameron asked.
She shook her head.
She walked to the second floor up the creaky wooden stairs covered in an old worn tapestry muffling her foot falls and examined the two bedrooms and bath when she got there. All were very feminine with frilly curtains, frilly bedspreads, frilly lace pillows, in frilly pink and purple colors. She looked in the drawers. In one, the folded sweaters were big and bright. In another, she found underwear, all white. In another, she noticed a bright, neon pink strap of bathing suit fabric beneath a pair of denim shorts. She reached for the strap and pulled the bathing suit out and stared at it. The woman in the hot tub. The woman who had seen Bigfoot. Mary.
In the other room, the chest of drawers was completely devoid of clothing. Downstairs in her office, they didn't find anything but her billings to customers and to grocery stores in the area.
"I'll…" Trevor started to say when the front door swung open and Gavin and Cameron pointed their weapons at the entrance.
Kintail held up his hands in surrender, his amber eyes darkening, narrowed. "Just me. Find anything?" he asked Faith, looking at her as if she was the only hope he had in the world.
"A swimsuit," Trevor eagerly said. "She's one of them. A woman."
"Older, gray-haired, heavy-set, Mary McNichol's her name," Cameron said, holding up an invoice.
"And the men?" Kintail asked.
"It appears they've never been here. We couldn't find any trace of their scents." Faith looked back at the kitchen. "But there was an empty bag with her cookie company's name on it at one of Charles's cabins that's under renovation. We smelled all of them there. So they work together, only the men must avoid her house for some reason."
"Do you have another clue?" Kintail asked.
"No, but if we split forces, we could ask various business owners, like these grocers," Faith said, pointing to a list of the places Mary sold to wholesale, "if they know Mary and have any idea about a redheaded Chris and a dark-haired Matt. It's worth a try. Surely someone's seen the woman with the men, and they'll know last names and an address."
"I'll go to the grocery store here," Trevor said.
Kintail waited for Faith to say where she planned to go. "I'll be checking out the lodge where Cameron and I first stayed. A clerk I talked to knew a lot about you and your wolves. Maybe she knows something about Mary and her friends," Faith said.
Kintail looked like he wanted to go with her, but she handed him a list, thwarting him. "You might want to have your people check out these other businesses that dealt with her. Before long, everything will be closing. So we need to hurry."
Almost in panic, Kintail immediately began snapping orders to his men, while Cameron escorted Faith back to the SUV, with Gavin and Leidolf joining them.
"If we make Faith one of our partners," Gavin said, walking with them back to her SUV rental, not leaving Faith and Cameron's side for an instant, "we could sit back and watch her work and she could solve all our cases for us. Of course we'd provide her with protection. Think that could work?"
Cameron opened her door for her and shook his head at Gavin.
"I don't know," Gavin said, smiling, "I really think she's worth taking a chance on."
But she wondered if he'd think so if he knew what she and Cameron had become. She climbed into the front passenger seat and watched as Leidolf came around to the left side of the car and climbed in. She thought he was going to go sleuthing on his own. He'd been so quiet all along, she wondered what he was thinking.