Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“The one who disappeared,” I say.
“Yes. Probably. Uncle Ryan might remember her last name. Ennis and Patty were visiting Snow Creek, were here to see our grandparents, and apparently Patty disappeared.”
“Was she killed?” I ask.
“That’s what we need to find out. We’re going to do some research. Her parents are most likely dead by now. They’d be in their hundreds. But you know who is still alive?”
“Ennis Ainsley?” I ask.
“Yes. Ennis Ainsley is still alive, and he lives in London. He’s eighty-eight years old.”
“That’s way too old to fly him over here.”
“Yes, it is,” Dale agrees. “Which is why we’re going to have to go to him.”
“Drop everything and fly to London?” I say. “With everything else going on?”
“We don’t all have to go. Only one of us.”
“I’ll do it.” My words surprise myself.
But getting the hell out of Colorado? Sounds like freaking paradise to me.
You can’t escape your problems, but when we’re talking about rotting human flesh, my uncle being poisoned, finding out your family really does own the damned town, and still no leads on the whole Brendan Murphy situation… Oh, and the best of all. Finding out Pat Lamone is probably a long-lost cousin…
I just want a fucking break.
Even if the break entails talking to an old man about his one true love who disappeared sixty years ago.
“You sure?” Dale asks.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure. I’ll take Rory with me.”
“Have you told Rory everything?”
“No… But I’d like to. With your permission of course.”
“You’ve got mine,” Donny says. “I let Callie in on everything without even checking with you guys first, so I won’t stand in your way.”
“You’re truly serious about her?” Dale asks.
I regard her as she sits across from me, her beautiful brown eyes heavy-lidded, and her lovely lips in a soft smile.
“Yeah. Totally. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are. Plus, she’s Callie’s sister. The Pikes are good people. She can be trusted.”
Rory lifts her eyebrows at me.
“In fact, she’s sitting right here. At my table.”
“At five in the morning?” Donny says.
“Yeah. I’m not sure why she’s up.”
“I had a dream,” Rory says.
“Apparently she had a dream that woke her,” I tell them.
“All right,” Dale says. “You and Rory go to London. Find out what you can from Ennis Ainsley. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Uncle Ryan about it. He knew Ennis well.”
“All right.” I sigh and run my fingers through my already messed-up hair. “Anything else?”
“You mean other than all the other bullshit we’ve got going on?” Donny says.
“That’s exactly what I mean. After all, just when you think it can’t get any hairier…”
“It does,” Dale says. “It always fucking does.”
“Send me all the documents you got from the guy about bones,” I say. “And anything else you have on this Ennis Ainsley and Patricia Watson.”
“Will do. They’ll be in your email within a few minutes.”
“All right.” I draw in a breath. “I guess I’m going to London.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
RORY
I drop my jaw.
I guess I’m going to London.
Why the heck is Brock going to London?
He ends the call and meets my gaze. “So how much of that did you actually understand?”
“The part where you said you and I were in a relationship.” I smile as the warmth of a sheepskin blanket envelops me. “Other than that… I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Well… You’re going to wish you didn’t after we get on with the conversation. I have my cousins’ permission to tell you everything.”
“You mean everything Callie already knows?”
“That, and whatever else there is.”
I swallow. “Maybe I’d better put some coffee on.”
“Yeah. Coffee, definitely. In the meantime, how’d you like to go to London?”
“You really want me to go with you?”
“Of course I do. Have you ever been there?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re talking to Rory Pike, Brock. I’ve never been anywhere, except a few trips to New York for auditions back in the day.”
“Then I’d love for you to come with me.”
“But I have work. Students.”
“Didn’t you just say you were going to a gig with your brother next weekend or something?”
I open my mouth, and then I close it.
“You didn’t have any problem taking a break from your lessons when that was the issue,” he says.
“I probably can’t go. I did tell him I’d do the gig.”
“But first you told him you wouldn’t do the gig.”
“It’s all a big mess,” I say. “Maybe I’ll go. Maybe I won’t.”
“All right.” He draws in a breath. “Here’s what we’ll do. I have to go to London. And I have to go soon. As soon as I get the information from Dale, I need to get in contact with this old man in London. Ennis Ainsley. I need to tell him that we’re going to come see him, that we have some questions. I need to do that as soon as I can, which means I have to tell my father that I’ll be leaving for several days, and Rory, I really want to do this, and I really want you to go with me.”