Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
There was only one way to find out. I followed them as they left the room together.
CHAPTER 23
Beau spotted me as he came around the corner and was about to call out to me and I shook my head. He held his tongue and hurried over to me.
“What’s up?” he whispered and followed alongside me toward the open French doors.
“That guy with Professor Anderson,” I said with a nod toward the man as the two disappeared out the French doors. “I recognize his voice. He was the one in the hospital stairwell talking with Stone.”
“So, we’re following them?” Beau asked with the excitement of a child eager to open an unexpected gift.
“We need to get close enough to hear what they are saying but keep from being spotted.”
“Maybe we should separate,” Beau suggested. “This way if one of us is spotted the other can continue to follow them.”
“Good idea,” I said and quickly devised a plan and then we split.
The backyard was massive with paths that led to various gardens that appeared to extend back to the woods that bordered Waters’ property. Cats lazed among the plants, and one was spread out on a weathered skateboard. I took a path parallel to the one Professor Anderson and the man walked down and figured Beau did the same on the opposite side.
I ducked behind a large, blooming rhododendron bush, it’s purple flowers almost matching my jacket when the pair stopped not far from it.
“You better deliver Anderson, or this isn’t going to work out the way you want it to,” the man warned.
“I’m trying, but the death of that man rattled me.”
“Now that you see the unexpected can happen at any time, I’d advise you to move your ass. Get me that information.”
“It’s not that easy,” Anderson protested.
“No one said it would be, but we have a deal. So, get it done or else.” His threat was followed by the sound of fading footsteps on the crushed stone path.
My dress got snagged on the large rhododendron as I made my way around it and one heel sunk into the mulch.
“Good heavens, Pepper, what are you doing there?” Anderson said and hurried to help free me.
I threw the truth right at him. “I was listening to your conversation with that man. What kind of trouble are you in, Professor?”
He unsnagged my dress and shook his head. “Leave it alone, Pepper. This mystery is far too dangerous for you to get involved with and if you mention this to your dad, I will say you misunderstood the conversation. For your own good, Pepper, let it be.”
He hurried away, leaving me standing alone. I looked to see if Beau lurked about, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I thought maybe he followed the man and decided to see if I could catch up with him. Coming upon several pathways the man could have taken, I decided it was foolish to try and find him. He could be anywhere, and he was.
He was standing behind me.
“You’re too nosy for your own good,” he said and stepped toward me.
With the ultimatum he had given Anderson, I didn’t wait to see what he intended for me. I took off down one of the garden paths, kicking off my heels as I went so that I could pick up speed. I needed to get to where there were people since I had no idea what that man had in mind for me.
Dodging around a towering rose arbor, I spotted a side pathway that led toward the house. Just as I turned onto it, I heard a screech, and my bare feet landed squarely on something with wheels—something that immediately took off beneath me.
The skateboard.
With a yelp, I flailed my arms, trying to regain balance, but the skateboard had other ideas. I shot forward, rocketing down the smooth stone pathway like a misguided missile.
“Out of the way!” I shrieked as I zipped past a stunned elderly couple enjoying a breather from the preview. The husband blinked, the wife clutched his arm, and I barely missed flattening a spitting water fish statue before my ride took an unexpected detour—straight through the open kitchen sliding glass doors.
A blur of motion, I sailed inside, barely processing the wide-eyed stares of Ian, Amy, and Beau, and the horrified expression on Ms. Dickens’ face as they stood near an assortment of desserts. The table was covered in cakes, pies, and an artfully arranged pyramid of cream puffs that now stood directly in my trajectory.
I hit the table with all the grace of a flying squirrel in a wind tunnel. Plates clattered, whipped cream exploded, and I landed sprawled atop a chocolate mousse cake, its rich filling squelching beneath me like an overripe melon. The pyramid of cream puffs? It went airborne, raining down upon me like sugary hail.