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LATER, DANA SAW TROY and Evan in the national park talking and decided to move closer behind a tree. She kept quiet to see if she could find anything out by listening.
“Stay away from her, Evan.” Troy’s voice was filled with contempt, it would seem. “She’s getting too close to the case.”
“Too close?”
“You know what I mean?”
“No, I don’t Troy. Just what in God’s name do you mean?” Evan challenged Troy but Troy held his ground. What on earth was going on between them?
Just then a spider crept up near her and she froze.
Okay, it’s only a little bitty spider nothing to it. She tried to coach herself to no avail. Why were humans, so big and powerful, afraid of a little creepy crawly thing with, okay, eight legs?
But...Dana let out a scream and both men turned around.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was, um...looking for Truffles. My kitty.”
“You took your cat for a walk?” Troy asked incredulously.
“Sometimes.” Liar. Who takes their cat for a long trail walk? She’s not a dog, you know.
Before Dana could allow them to probe any further, she nonchalantly jogged off calling out Truffles name and pretending not to be bothered by it all, her heart pounding hard in her chest.
Oh, goodness. They really must think something was wrong with her now. She left both men behind with a puzzled expression plastered on their face. Well, actually, Evan seemed a bit amused by her interruption. Not annoyed like his partner, Troy.
But at least she got out of that one—for now.
Later in town, Dana headed off to the grocery store to pick up some food for the Victorian. The fridge was looking about as bare as her bank account right now.
She spotted Troy making a phone call from a phone booth, dressed as a technician guy.
What was he doing? Didn’t most people have cell phones these days? Or perhaps, he wanted to make sure that his phone would not be bugged. As she walked, she kept glancing at him, not paying attention to where she was going when...
Splat!
She tripped and landed head and hands first into a cement tray.
“Hey, lady, watch where you’re going?” a workman called out.
“Now you tell me?”
She got up and tried to get the substance off her. “Great! I’ll need to shower all day now.”
Detective Troy looked up from where he was to see the commotion but quickly left the scene. How odd?
Was that even him?
Was he undercover for another job? Maybe he didn’t want his cover blown.
Before long, an ambulance was on the scene and luckily Dana was all right. Well, physically at least. Her emotions were spiraling out of control right now.
At the hospital in the emergency room, she waited to see the doc and had the TV turned to the entertainment channel to get her mind off stuff.
“Darling, oh thank God you’re all right.” Aunt Petunia made her way in.
“How did you know, Auntie?”
“Oh, I’m your next of kin now remember? Besides, I bumped into Gerdie-Sue and she told me what happened.”
“That’s strange. I didn’t even see her around.”
“What were you doing darling. Walking into a cement like that? Didn’t you see the signs?”
Dana sighed and grinned. “I didn’t do it intentionally, Auntie. I was just...” watching detective Troy acting suspicious undercover.
“Just what dear?”
Dana told her aunt what she’d seen and what she’d suspected.
“Oh, darling. Anything’s possible. But why wouldn’t he send someone to do his dirty work for him?”
“I don’t know, Auntie! I wish I’d known...” Dana stopped and looked at the screen of the TV.
She saw a brief news report from the entertainment world of a supermodel, Kiatra, and her new beau, advertising executive Ramone Ranchioli, marrying off the coast of Italy.
She tried not to get emotional. Her heart exploded in her chest. She was glad she’d found out about his two-timing earlier but it was still heartbreaking.
Aunt Petunia looked up at the screen. She then reached over to shut it off. “You don’t need that garbage, Hun. Good for them. You don’t need him.”
“Thanks, Auntie. I’m actually over him and you know something. The good thing about being here in Berry Cove is that I haven’t spent a single second thinking of his betrayal.”
No, she hadn’t. That was the good thing, of course. But then again, she was busily occupied with trying to clear her name and the café’s reputation from a crazy puzzling murder rap. That would do it to get her mind off her broken heart.