“YOU HAVE TO come to her room with me.” Parked in the hospital lot, Landon wasn’t leaving the car until Bobby agreed.
He shook his head slowly. “Two on one looks like we’re ganging up on her.”
“You said you’d help.”
Groaning, he shoved his fingers through his hair. “I did.”
Tension crackled between them as they crossed the pavement. Or maybe it was all in her imagination. What was real was the heavy, quivering lump filling her stomach. Thin conjecture it might be, but if Orran was responsible for any part of what happened, the truth would hurt worse than the physical assault.
And how would they know for sure?
No matter what Ciara thought she’d seen, they couldn’t prove or disprove Orran’s past possession of stolen goods. Landon stopped in the middle of the hospital entrance. “Let’s just go. Even if we convinced the authorities to search, she’d never allow her name connected to a warrant. Orran might see it.”
Bobby held her gaze, a sad curve to his lips. “What if we don’t ask and this is the clue we needed? If there’s another attack we could have prevented?”
Tiny hairs lifted on the back of Landon’s neck.
Leaving the elevator on Ciara’s floor, they found Tait loitering in the hallway outside her room. He raised a hand in a half-wave. “Doctor’s in with her now. He said to wait.”
Landon’s heart jolted. “What’s wrong?”
Tait angled his head to the side, lips mocking. “Paranoid much? It’s routine rounds.”
Facing a possible suspect, was it any wonder she was jumpy? Landon hitched her purse strap more securely onto her shoulder. “Enough has happened this past week to make anyone expect the worst. Did Anna reach you today?”
“Yeah, that’s too bad about the bracelet. Poor girl can’t catch a break. I’ll head over to Orran’s tonight and check his files. The man’s obsessed with paperwork. There’ll be a receipt there somewhere.”
“Ciara’s afraid he’ll be angry.”
The outside corners of Tait’s eyes pinched. “It was a mistake to post the pic online. But he won’t blame her.” He slouched against the wall, shoulder butting into the bulletin board with its health and safety notices. “That doctor’s taking forever.”
Landon made a show of looking at the round white wall clock. “Bobby, can we come back tonight? I have too much homework to wait around.”
As true as that was, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate until they’d talked with Ciara. But not in Tait’s presence.
~~~
That evening, the hospital corridors were quieter. The daytime bustle had given way to the soft buzz of occasional conversation and monitor beeps from patients’ rooms.
After she and Bobby had a few quiet words with the security guard, Landon knocked softly on Ciara’s door and peeked into the room. The visitor’s chair was empty. Good.
Ciara stood at the window, fingers tapping the side of her satiny pyjama pants. The oxygen tube stretched a thin line to the pole by her bed. She whirled toward the door, then grimaced and pressed her palm to her forehead. Her other hand tugged white-wired earbuds free.
“Hi, guys. Thanks for coming. Tait said you’d been here.” She motioned them in and climbed to sit cross-legged on the bed. “Landon, you can sit with me and let Bobby have the chair.”
Up close, her colour was almost normal except for the bruising on her cheek, which had ebbed to a sickly yellow. Her hair had a freshly blown-dry sheen, and her coral lipstick matched the rosebuds on her pyjamas.
Landon tucked a foot beneath her other leg and asked what the doctor had said. “Are they releasing you soon?”
“Any day now.” Ciara rocked forward and back, jostling the mattress. “I’m dying for puppy cuddles. But Tait’s still waiting for the security system he said he’d install.”
Ignoring Bobby, she fixed Landon with a wide-eyed stare. “I’m afraid to go home.”
Landon reached for her hand. Zander would go ballistic if she offered to sleep on Ciara’s couch for backup. “You could stay with us if the inn doesn’t feel too vulnerable after the robbery.” Anna had rebooked most of this week’s guests into other accommodations.
The worried motion ceased. “Would Anna be okay with that?”
Landon grinned. “Have you met her?”
“The inn would be perfect.” Ciara squeezed Landon’s hand tight enough to compress the bones before letting go. “Ken and Kimi offered to put me up, but they have a one-bedroom suite. I’d be in the way.”
“It’s sweet the way they’ve stayed around longer in case you needed them. He must have been a fantastic boss.”
“I can’t believe how kind they’ve been. Especially with the way things ended.” Ciara cut her gaze sideways toward Bobby as if to ask Landon to keep the job disaster between them.
Ken seemed like a peaceful man, apart from that one glimpse of anger. He said he didn’t blame Ciara for her ex’s scheme. But the attack came after he and Kimi arrived. Their rental car had covered some dirt roads that day—like the one to The Ovens. He recognized the value of the jade bangle too.
How vengeful would a man—or his wife—have to be, to travel clear across the country after a broken-hearted girl? It didn’t matter. Landon had a sick feeling the villain was much closer to home.
She gave her head a mental shake. Time to quit stalling. “Ciara, remember the ruby goblet you saw at Orran’s, the theatre prop?”
“Why?” The word came out small. Quiet.
“What if it was real? If it was stolen and you remembered… you’d be a threat.”
Bobby held out his phone. “Did it look like this?”
Ciara’s hands pulled tight to her body. “I don’t—no.” Her chin tipped up, and her arms unlocked to glide her palms over her pyjama pants.
He tapped the screen. “What about this one? Or this?” He shrugged at Landon. “I was bored after supper.”
Shaky fingers reaching for the phone, Ciara let out a sound like a strangled hiccup. “Let me see.”
She scrolled the images, then expanded one and peered at every bit, her round cheeks hollowed. The tip of her chin shook. She thrust the phone at Bobby. “That one. There’s a nick in the rim the same as I saw.”
Her knees drew in to her chest and she locked her arms around them, puckering the satiny fabric. “It was heavy for a prop. I told myself it was lead.”
A weight lodged in Landon’s gut. “I wanted us to be wrong.”
“Sunday, after I had to give the insurance people the details on what was stolen, I looked online to see if any of my things had been posted for sale.” With a gulp of air, Ciara leaned her forehead on her upraised knees. “I found a goblet that sent me looking for other ones. Orran played it calm back then, but I knew he hadn’t wanted me to see the one at his house.”
Bobby scraped his chair closer. “If you knew…”
“I wanted it to go away!” She sniffed. “So he had a stolen object when I was a kid. That has nothing to do with what’s happening now.”
Straightening, she pinned Landon with a tear-filled gaze. “You’ve met Orran. He’s physically incapable of throwing me over that cliff—or making a getaway on foot.”
“We think he hired someone, maybe to keep Tait from finding out.” Landon had vowed to help Ciara. How did she end up in a position to cause more pain?
“If I hadn’t told anyone yet, why try to kill me now to keep me quiet? And trash my place?” Ciara’s head whipped back and forth between them. “Would Orran give me a gift and then steal it back?”
Landon glanced at the door. Had the nurses heard Ciara’s cry? “Bobby, would you get her a glass of water?”
As he picked up the foam cup from the bedside table, Landon shifted sideways to put her arm around Ciara.
The girl’s entire frame shook. “I can’t believe this.”
Landon’s fingers moved in a slow circle over Ciara’s shoulder. “The other collectibles thefts, remember how Orran said the one guy deserved to be robbed?”
When Ciara didn’t answer, she added more. “That priceless Burmese ruby pendant he was talking about here in the hospital, the one that vanished Sunday overnight? We have to report this.”
“I have to see him first. Maybe he can explain.”
Bobby returned with the water. When Ciara shook her head, lips shut, he set it on the table in easy reach and flopped back into his chair. “Ciara, he’s been away. Could well have been in the city when the pendant was stolen. They’re saying it was an expert job.”
Her lips clamped tighter. “One whisper of this would ruin his business. I refuse to take that chance. What if we’re wrong? I saw that goblet for seconds. Years ago. The rest is pure speculation.”
Landon squeezed Ciara’s shoulder. “The police know how to be discreet. They won’t say anything without proof.”
“Things leak.” Then her spine straightened, and she gave a brisk nod. “I know. You two sneak into his house. If you find anything, I’ll admit what I saw. Tait often works out there, so I’ll ask him to visit me.”
“Wait, no.” Landon flailed her arms, bouncing the bed and pulling a creak from the frame. “No breaking in. Tell them what you know, and they’ll do a legal search.”
“If you really cared, you’d help me.” Sucking air through her teeth, Ciara clasped her ribs. “Fine. They’re releasing me any day now. If Orran’s not back, I’ll go myself. Right from here, before he can get home.”
Bobby curled forward in the chair. Elbows on his legs, he addressed the floor. “Ask Tait to show you around.”
“Orran won’t have left anything in plain sight.” Her mouth shaped a mutinous pout. “Without my memory of the goblet, you have nothing to give the police for a warrant, so it’s you or it’s me.”
Landon left the bed and walked to the window. Orran might be the one person Ciara had left to look up to. Ken still fit, but her part in the corporate takeover had cut that tie, at least in her mind. The assault, the thefts… she’d been through so much. Of course she’d hold out against believing her faith in Orran was a lie.
Wouldn’t Landon feel the same about the people she respected in her own life? She stepped to the foot of the bed. Tears trickled down Ciara’s cheeks as if she’d abandoned the dramatics and settled for victimhood. Bobby’s entire countenance was a flat no.
Watching him, Landon folded her arms. “We can’t let her go alone.”
Scowling, he slouched low in the chair.
Before he could speak, Ciara said, “I’ll tell you where he hides the key. And my code for the alarm.”
Shivers prickled Landon’s shoulders. An alarm. This was their way out. “He’s bound to have changed it since you were a kid.”
“Each user’s is unique. Mine might still be active.” Ciara’s gaze shifted from Landon to the doorway. “Hi, Shaun.”
Shaun took a few steps into the room and leaned his soft-sided guitar case against the wall. “So this is where the party is.”
His slim-cut black leather jacket hung open over a black tee shirt and black jeans. A silver chain gleamed at his throat. A motorcyclist would travel light, and he certainly hadn’t bothered with variety.
He eyed Landon and Bobby. “Her stepfather asks, I was never here.”
“He has no business running my life.” Somewhere in the distraction of greetings, Ciara had wiped her tears and found a confident posture. “Thanks for coming, guys. Landon, I’ll text you that information later.”
Bobby pushed up from the chair and motioned Landon ahead of him toward the exit.
He didn’t speak until they reached the parking lot. Then he planted his feet on the pavement. “This is insane. I’m going back in there to tell her no.”
“She played us like a pro, didn’t she?”
His stubble-framed lips turned down. “We could get arrested.”
The evening sky still held the light, but clouds of little flies roamed the predusk air. Landon waved them away. Breaking into Orran’s place… If they were caught, what would that do to Bobby’s reputation? She kept forgetting this quiet, unassuming guy was an author with a public following. Her fingertips twisted the thin purse strap dangling from her shoulder. “Just because I’ve been talked into this doesn’t mean you have to do it. I’ll ask Roy.”
“He’d do it too.” He glanced upward, shaking his head. “Man Breaks into Private Home to Save Grandfather Jail Time.”
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate you—honest. Roy’d think it was fun.”
“My parents would dump on us both like the proverbial ton of bricks. Ton and a half. No, I’m in. It won’t be the most asinine thing I’ve ever done for a girl. And don’t ask.”
He’d be thinking of the girl from his past. The one he’d said could be Landon’s evil twin. She met his eyes. “Thank you. I feel a little safer going with you.”
Bobby shoved his fingers through his hair. “You said no more fighting for answers—support and simple questions. How can you think this is a good idea?”
“I don’t. But it’s a worse idea for Ciara to go, and you know she would.”
She pressed her palm to her breastbone, fingers fanned. “I don’t feel like I’m pushing this time. More like helping. But if the key’s not there or the code doesn’t work first try, we get out of there fast.”