I forced myself to keep my eyes open. I'd almost drifted off to sleep.
"We’re done," he said.
"Already?"
"How was it for you?"
I rolled my shoulders. All the tension I'd felt was gone. "That was incredible."
"It's a great start," he said. "You're very receptive to energy sources and to alternative ways of thinking."
"I'm coming around to them," I had to admit.
"Shall we make another appointment?" he asked. "Same time next week?"
"That’d be great," I said.
Cosmo went into his stroller without being asked.
"I just need to quickly freshen up," I said.
"By all means."
He handed me a handwritten appointment card.
I dashed towards the bathroom. "I'm sorry, not that one," he said. "It's currently out of order. I forgot to put up a sign."
"Oh."
"You can use mine upstairs, if you don't mind."
"Not at all. Thank you." I picked up the stroller, so Cosmo could sniff around upstairs too, although I’d already decided that Brad was not up to something shady. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let a stranger into his own private apartment.
Soft footsteps startled me. He’d followed me. "Let me show you." He pointed towards a door, unfazed by me carrying up my emotional support cat for a trip to the bathroom.
It was spacious and well-equipped, as soothing as his reception area with calming shades of silver and jade green, and a jacuzzi.
It was also used to having female visitors. I recognized a candle, or rather, its scent, on a shelf. The last time I’d smelled it had been on myself, after Linda had clasped my hands. I remembered what Ange had said, about Linda copying Mimi. There might be more who’d follow in their footsteps and invest in a luxury scented candle. I sniffed it.
It triggered an olfactory memory. If I was right, the scent was the same that had clung to the small perfume bottle Jake had kept in his box. While a candle might be affordable for several people, a perfume that had a four figure price tag was limited to two ladies I knew. If my aunt had come up here, she might have stumbled upon a secret affair. What did Linda say? “He strays, he pays.”
The perfume bottle had been found in the cabin. Was that why Jake had to die, and then Brad and his lover had remembered my aunt’s visit to this very bathroom?
I had come up here having crossed Brad of my list of suspects.
Now, I changed my mind. He was involved in this, up to his handsome head.
Chapter thirty-four
Acrash outside the bathroom door made me flinch. I rushed out to see Brad hovering over Cosmo’s stroller.
"I must have put it down wrong, otherwise it wouldn't have toppled over,” I worried. "Are you okay?" I asked the poor cat, hoping he wasn't too startled.
He gave a weak meow. His head started to shake.
It took me a moment to realize that he was trying to point me toward something. I glanced around under my eyelashes. All I saw was a pair of rugged hiking boots. A bit of mud clung to them.
There was nothing peculiar about owning them. After all, we had a lot of woods around. And Brad was a nature lover. At least, that's the impression I got.
