The next two days were filled with so many Hair Ball preparations that Amber only had time to worry about Chloe in the evenings, and even then, she was often hard at work on the remainder of her tiny plastic cats. By the time she flopped into bed, she was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The Here and Meow Committee, even with Francine Robins on board, was made up of five people trying to do the job of ten. They were in charge of everything from making sure they had everything the Best of Edgehill participants needed—while also keeping them on schedule—answering emails from gala attendees, ordering all the decorations, finding enough help to set up the day of, coordinating with all the volunteers—many of whom were high school students—to making sure they knew what to do on the day of the gala, and planning the rehearsal gala for Friday night so they could perfect everything before the actual gala on Saturday.
Amber, Kim, and Francine had to make a road trip into Salem on Wednesday to pick up the new tablecloths—eggshell white this time—which saved them a small fortune in delivery costs. After they stuffed the back of Francine’s SUV with the correct cloths, they went out for dinner. Kim and Francine got quite toasted on appletinis and were such a goofy, giggly mess, Amber suggested they walk it off a bit before getting back into the car.
Kim and Francine had an arm linked on either side of Amber now, the two women chatting about their failed love lives.
“I have a confession!” Kim said. “I’ve been in love with Nathan since high school.”
Amber was so shocked by the news that she came up short, causing Kim to whirl around a few inches. Kim laughed.
“Wait. Our Nathan?” Amber asked. “Married to Jolene, Nathan?”
Kim tossed her head back, staring at the dark sky. “Yes. Ugh, that Jolene! She’s so cool and perfect for Nathan and a total sweetheart. I want to hate her, but I can’t.” Kim tugged on Amber’s arm to get the three of them moving down the sidewalk again. “Did you know that the night they met, Nathan was supposed to go out with me?”
“No!” Francine said with a level of indignation only possible after four appletinis.
“Yes!” said Kim, leaning forward a bit so she could look at Francine. “I had the hugest, hugest crush on him in high school. We were also best friends for most of junior and senior year. Like hang-out-most-nights kind of best friends. I was sure we were both just too scared to ruin our friendship with romance, so we were holding back. But, ladies? I pined for him so hard. Wrote poetry and everything. Ugh. So much poetry. Thankfully he’s never seen any of it.
“Anyhoo! I finally got up the nerve one day to ask him out. On, you know, a date, date. I couldn’t believe it when he said yes. I mean, I could tell he was a little nervous about it, but I figured that was normal since we were so close and we’d be crossing a major line. I had every intention of sticking my tongue all the way down that throat of his at the end of the night.”
Amber and Francine erupted in laughter.
Kim shot them a goofy smile.
“What happened?” Francine asked.
“The night of, I got … uhh … how do you say … I had a very unpleasant stomach situation happen and I had to call him from the bathroom floor and tell him I couldn’t make it because I was pretty sure all my organs were trying to leave my body at once.”
“Oh no!” Amber said, laughing.
“I know. Mortifying,” Kim said. “We were supposed to go to this old-school arcade together, and he ended up going by himself because he was bored. And, that night, he met Jolene and basically fell in love with her instantly.” Kim fake-wailed as she walked. “I think that’s why I told Chloe to just go for it when it came to that guy. You never know what the future holds, you know? If I’d said screw it, I’m going to this stupid arcade even if I’m pale as a ghost and sweating like a pig and need a bathroom every ten seconds, maybe I would be the one married to Nathan right now.”
“Maybe,” said Amber. “But if he was really the one for you, he’d have come to your house to take care of you while your organs were trying to make their exit. Nathan is totally the kind of guy to hold your hair while you heave. Jolene told me as much.”
Kim sighed. “And I know that. If Nathan and I really had a shot, it would have already happened. But even if I know it logically, my heart can’t seem to let him go.”
“Unrequited love is the literal worst,” Francine said. “And I had two cases of it in a matter of a year! But … I don’t know … I think you were right to tell Chloe to go for it. If you don’t at least try at love, you’ll never find it.”
“True,” Kim said.
“Sometimes when you try, you get burned anyway, though,” Amber said.
“Also true!” said Kim. “But that’s why I have you two. Who needs silly men anyway?”
“Amen!” they chorused in unison.
They had just made it back to the car, Kim and Francine a little more sober now, when Amber’s phone rang. The other two women clambered into the car, still laughing and chatting, while Amber stayed outside and answered.
“Hey, Alan.”
When Kim and Francine offered wolf whistles in reply to Amber saying a man’s name, she rolled her eyes and walked farther away.
“Sorry,” she said. “How’s it going?”
“Does your cop buddy know Sean Merrill has an alibi for the night Chloe was kidnapped?” he asked.
Amber didn’t know if the chief knew that. What she did know was that someone other than Sean had snatched Chloe that night—a man paid to grab the girl. Alan, however, didn’t know that though and she couldn’t tell him. “I’m not sure. Where was he?”
“Portland,” Alan said. “He left Missoula, Montana, a month ago, and has been in Portland ever since. Working at a gas station, just like he did in Montana. He’s been coming into work every day since he started three weeks ago. He usually works five to six days a week. It’s at least a three-hour drive from Edgehill. The night Chloe was taken, Sean was working from five to midnight, and the next day he was back in by six and worked until noon.”
It was a solid alibi, one that very likely could get the guy off the suspect list—or at least shove him further down. The one thing about this hired hand that had never sat well with Amber, though, was that he had to know Edgehill well enough to find Blue Point Lane. That street was notorious for not showing up on GPS.
If it was true that the hastily planned search for Chloe on Saturday morning had been part of Sean’s plan to get Chloe out of town undetected, that would also require knowledge of the area. Which Sean didn’t have. Was the hired hand a local?
“Is he in a house or an apartment?” Amber asked Alan now.
“Apartment,” Alan said. “Tiny place on the second floor. If he’s got her there, he’d have to keep her in a closet—assuming a place this small even has a closet.”
“Wait,” she said. “Are you in Portland now?”
“Parked across the street from his place,” Alan said. “I called in some favors to find as much about Sean Merrill as possible after our last talk. Been watching him since I got here this afternoon. All he does is work. Haven’t seen anything strange in his behavior yet.”
Amber slumped. Were they wrong about Sean Merrill being the kidnapper? “Thanks for the call,” she said. “Let me know if anything changes.”
“Same goes for you.” He ended the call.
When Amber got back to the car, Kim and Francine immediately stopped talking. The inside of the car smelled like an appletini.
Kim was in the passenger seat and turned toward Amber. “Everything okay? Was it the chief? Was it about Chloe?”
“So you and the chief really are buddy-buddy?” Francine asked.
“Oh yes!” said Kim, nodding vigorously. “Amber is basically a consultant on the case now because she’s a master detective and she’s even friends with a private investigator!”
Amber cut her gaze to Kim in a manner that she hoped conveyed, “You are terrible at keeping secrets, Kimberly Jones.”
Kim clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oops,” she said, her voice muffled.
Francine laughed. “A master detective and a fairy godmother. Even though I didn’t know her well, Amber somehow found the perfect fit for me with the Here and Meow Committee after I got fired.”
“Yeah!” said Kim. “Amber, she’s, like, a wizard; thank you so much for finding her for us! Thanks to Miss Robins’ fancy math skills, we have a solid financial plan in place to be able to afford John Huntley to perform at the festival this year. We’re going to make bank if his hot country butt comes to play for us.”
Amber snorted, then met Francine’s gaze in the rear-view mirror. “Frank was a dummy to let you go.”
Francine grinned.
Amber was roused from a very deep sleep by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She lurched awake in her dark apartment, then searched for her phone. It wasn’t charging on her nightstand. She saw a faint outline of a blue rectangle under her comforter and groped groggily in the sea of twisted sheets and blankets until she found it.
It was 4:15 a.m.
And the chief was calling her.
Amber’s stomach dropped.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Amber,” the chief said, with what sounded like wind in the background. “I’ve been working with some colleagues in Portland and we’ve got reason to believe Sean is there. They got a call into the station an hour ago from your friend Alan Peterson that Sean left his apartment at three a.m. and went to a house that’s currently for sale. Alan looked the house up and realized it’s been on the market for three months, but there’s no sign out front. Garcia and I are headed there now.”
“Oh my God,” Amber said, sitting bolt upright.
“Just wanted you to know,” he said. “I’ll keep you updated.”
Amber couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.