“The dogs vanished?” Philip repeated, cool and calm. But his stare was so intense, he might as well have been yelling at Carson. “As in disappeared from my property? How many?”
The tone of voice and the way he held himself, chest puffed up, looking down his nose at Carson, spoke of a quiet fury. If it had been someone else, someone not used to stress and pressure like a security guard would be, Addison thought they might have melted beneath Philip’s steady gaze.
“Three, sir.”
Philip’s nose rose an inch. “How could you let that happen?”
Without waiting for an answer, he pushed his way past Carson and headed through the house to the backyard. Addison held Princess close and rushed to keep up. Her heels clicked on the marble floors, echoing around the absurdly cavernous hall. Princess grumbled as the jostling slowly dislodged the fascinator from her head.
Once Addison crossed the threshold to the veranda, exclamations and excited chatter accosted her ears like a swarm of angry bees. The guests huddled around the tall wrought-iron fence at the edge of the property.
The wall of bodies slowed Carson and Philip down. Addison caught up, following in their wake, as the guests made way for them. She couldn’t let herself fall behind. She needed to find out what had happened.
More dogs had gone missing. Twice in one week couldn’t be a coincidence. It had to be connected to the cocktail mixer somehow. Addison held Princess tighter, like the doxie might disappear right out of her arms.
Philip pressed his way to the front of the crowd as Carson gave him an update. Addison strained to listen.
“I’m not sure how it happened, sir. We’re still looking into it. We have guards posted at every entrance. No one has left with any other dog but their own.”
Philip wheeled on the head of security, coming nose to nose with him. “Obviously, someone has. Now what are you doing about it?”
“We have the place on lockdown. No one in or out. The police are on their way.”
“Good,” he said, turning away. “Keep me posted. And find my dog, Baxter.”
Carson nodded and turned around. He reached up to his earpiece and murmured something, but Addison missed what he said. The gathering crowd quickly swallowed him. She decided to stick with Philip.
When she broke through the thick mass of people, she stumbled into a semicircle of open space. At the center of the commotion, three guests argued with the security guards who had checked her in at the door.
“Just calm down. The police are on their way,” Guard One was saying.
A man wearing a toupee wagged a finger in his face. “The police? The police? Then what are you here for? What were you doing when they disappeared?”
“Yeah, what are you doing to find them?” another man asked. He had his back to Addison, but she’d recognize that coiffed hair anywhere. Rex Harrison.
A young woman with tears sparkling in her eyes ran over. “Oh, Philip.” She grabbed the front of his sports jacket. “He’s gone. Someone took my Lionel. You said it was safe here.”
“Don’t worry, Kayleigh.” He patted her hands and gently dislodged them from his lapels. “I’m taking care of it.”
He handed her his pocket square, and she dabbed at her eyes.
“You’ll be lucky if I don’t sue,” said the man in the toupee.
“This is a disaster,” Philip muttered under his breath so only Addison could hear. “How could this have happened? I don’t understand. I had safeguards in place.”
He looked distraught. In fact, he looked as upset as she had felt at the cocktail mixer. His body tensed like he wanted to take action, but it seemed there was nothing to do but wait for the police. He began to pace.
Addison laid a comforting hand on his arm. “It’s not your fault. You did everything you could. Maybe they got out of the yard somehow? Found a gap in the fence or dug a hole.”
Now she sounded like Felix. She recalled the way he’d comforted her at the cocktail party, tried to convince her it was going to be okay when all the facts pointed to the worst-case scenario. But now she understood why he’d done it, because she wanted to do the same for Philip.
“My Rosie would never run away,” Rex said to her. “She’s too well-behaved. Someone stole her. I know it.”
“My property was secure,” Philip said. “I took every precaution I could for this party.”
“If it was secure, then how did the dogs get off the premises without anyone noticing?” Rex practically shook with anger, his hair falling down in strands across his tall forehead.
Addison saw a finger rise from among the crowd to point straight at her. It was Penny.
“It was Addison Turner!” the famed handler called out. “It’s the cocktail mixer all over again.”
“What?” Addison sputtered, practically laughing at the absurdity of it. “Me?”
Philip stepped forward. “Absolutely not. She was with me the entire time. She had nothing to do with it.”
But Penny’s comment sent a surge of whispers and sidelong glances through the crowd. Those who hadn’t recognized Addison before now put a face to the name.
“Funny that she was present during both incidents,” Penny noted coolly.
“So were you,” Philip said. “So were all of us.”
“You can’t blame me for this one,” Addison told her. “I’m just a guest here.”
“Maybe you had help,” she said. “A partner in crime.”
Noises of affirmation rippled among the guests. Heads nodded up and down.
Addison threw up her hands. “Like who?”
A honking horn interrupted her. Through the vines covering the wrought-iron fence, Addison could see a vehicle pull up to the mansion’s back access.
Curious, the crowd surged forward, bulldozing Addison closer to the gates. She cradled Princess close to protect her from bumps and elbows. For a moment, she worried they’d be trampled.
The van crawled forward. The driver impatiently honked the horn again, but the security guards kept the gates firmly shut.
Guards One and Two rushed ahead of everyone. They waved their hands in the air to signal the van to stop. Guard Two moved a hand across his throat in a “kill the engine” motion.
The van shut off, and the door popped open. The impatient driver jumped down onto the flagstone driveway. It was Red Bra.
She took in the crowd from the other side of the iron bars. “What’s going on?”
Carson pushed his way through the mob with Baxter on a leash. Philip rushed over, bending down to his English mastiff as if he had to touch him to believe he was safe.
Carson stalked up to the gate. “Where have you been?” he asked Red Bra.
“The bar.” She eyed the crowd with confusion. “Making a supply run.”
Guard One turned to his boss. “This was the only vehicle to leave the premises.”
“Did anyone search this van when it left?” Philip demanded.
The security guards glanced at each other. Eventually one said, “Yeah, but it was just full of empty barrels and boxes.”
“How do you know they were empty?” Carson asked them. “Did you look inside them?”
They silently conferred with each other again before shaking their heads.
Carson swore. “Who was in charge of this vehicle!?” he called out, as though it was the guests’ job to know and not his.
“I’m the supervisor.” A deep voice carried over the crowd.
Addison turned, along with everyone else, to see Felix walking down the drive. He came to a stop next to her and crossed his arms.
“How can I help you?” But with the scowl on his face and his head cocked like he was ready for a fight, he didn’t come off as helpful.
Carson faced him, calling his tough-guy bluff. “Were you aware that your employee left the premises?”
“Of course. I’m the one who sent her. We ran out of supplies, so she went to the bar to stock up on a few items.” Felix was close enough to Addison that she heard him mutter, “The Head Turner was more popular than I expected.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Penny note the exchange. The look on her pinched face made Addison’s toes curl with annoyance in her pink heels.
Red Bra grabbed the iron bars and stared helplessly through them as though already condemned. “What have I done wrong?”
“How long ago did you leave?” Carson asked her.
Felix stepped in and answered before she could, keeping the focus on him. “About an hour ago.”
“That was when I last saw Gumball,” the man with the toupee said.
“This guy was at the cocktail mixer last weekend too.” Rex indicated Felix as “this guy.” “Maybe he stole those dogs.”
Penny turned to Addison, almost gleefully. “Looks like we’ve found your partner in crime,” she said, eliciting a sudden uproar from those around her. It sounded like calls for blood to Addison’s ears.
“She had nothing to do with this!” Philip yelled over them all. “She’s my guest here.”
“I saw them talking together earlier, at the bar,” Kayleigh said between shuddering sobs.
“Probably conspiring,” Rex added.
Addison shot daggers across the stone driveway at Rex, sorry she’d considered him attractive for even a second. “I was ordering a drink.”
“They must be working together,” toupee man agreed.
Penny never said another word. She didn’t have to—her nasty theory had taken root and was growing all on its own, fed by everyone’s fear and anxiety.
Addison threw up her hands, ready to argue. Felix sidled close to her and shut her down with a look.
“You’re dealing with a mob mentality here,” he advised under his breath. “You’re going to lose. Stop before they pull out their torches and pitchforks and you have a real problem on your hands.”
She glared at him as if this were somehow his fault. Heck, maybe it was. Maybe he did steal the dogs. After all, he was so determined not to help her find the guilty party. Maybe that was because he was the guilty party. But by the looks on everyone’s faces, he was probably right about keeping quiet, so she took his advice.
She held Princess close to her chest, like someone might want to get revenge through her own dog. An eye for an eye. “Well, it looks like it’s not just my problem anymore,” she informed Felix coolly. “Now, it’s yours too.”