The drive to Scents and Scentsability felt endless. Ezra had let Reese know what was going on before driving me in his truck to the shop. Not driving had left my brain free reign to conjure up a thousand scenarios of what this jerk had planned for me next, each more disturbing than the last. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the person who had been taunting me and putting everyone I cared about in danger had finally taken things a step further.
When we arrived, Ezra parked haphazardly in front of the building. There was another police car out front, and I opened his truck door and was out before he could cut the engine.
Inside the shop, the mingled scents of essential oils and floral perfumes filled the air but brought me no comfort. I heard voices in the back and fast-walked through the door that opened to my workshop. Large pieces of glass were on the concrete floor, and the window next to the alley door had a huge gaping hole. But that’s not what stopped me in my tracks. My workshop...no, my sanctuary, had been violated. There was nothing obvious. No stools had been overturned, my cutting table was clear of debris, and the metal drying racks filled with my patriotic soaps were undisturbed.
Pippa was talking to Jeanna Treece and her partner Levi.
“Hey, Jeanna.” I mirrored her words from yesterday. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
She smiled genially. “I drew the short stick for the holiday weekend,” she said. “‘Fraid you’re stuck with me.”
“I’ll take you any day.” Frankly, I was glad Jeanna and her partner had been scheduled for the holiday weekend. I knew her and Levi well enough to trust them, and my trust was in short supply right now.
A half a minute later, Ezra joined us. “I have Reese and Broyles checking out the alley,” he said as he knelt by the bashed alarm system.
He inspected the damage. “Yep, as I suspected. They smashed it before it could go off.”
Pippa’s face was pale and drawn. “Nora, I’m so sorry. I should’ve checked out different security systems. This wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t super expensive. This is my fault.”
A few years ago, when several businesses were getting burgled, Pippa had the alarm installed. It looked like the only thing keeping someone from breaking in had been the stickers they gave us to put on the doors.
“You didn’t force this jerk to break into the place,” I told her. “He’s the only one at fault.” I tried to give her a reassuring look, but it was hard when all I felt was violated and vulnerable. “It’s okay, Pip. We’ll figure this out.”
Levi moved around us, taking photos and dusting for fingerprints.
I looked at my drying racks again, and something felt...off. There wasn’t any empty space. It was full the way I’d left it, and yet... “Look,” I pointed. “There’s a pure blue soap in there.” The others were red, white, and blue, so I hadn’t noticed it at first. “I didn’t put that there.”
“You sure?” Ezra said.
“I’m one hundred percent positive,” I assured him. “There should be another red, white, and blue soap there. It’s all from the same batches.”
Levi, who was wearing gloves, walked over to the rack to check it out. “It’s a darker blue than your other soaps, too,” he said. “More blueberry blue than Old Glory blue.” He sniffed. “And it smells different.”
“The Red, White, and Blue soaps should smell like strawberries, blueberries, and sweet vanilla cream,” I told him. “What does the other smell like?”
He looked back at me. “It smells like wintergreen mints.”
“Wintergreen?” I didn’t have any methyl salicylate, the chemical used to create wintergreen flavor and scent, so it hadn’t been made in my workshop. “Whoever put that on the rack wanted me to find it.”
“I think we all know who that someone is,” Jeanna said.
“The Scent Stalker,” Levi announced.
“The who?” Ezra asked with alarm.
Levi’s face reddened as he suddenly found his rubber gloves interesting to look at. Finally, he met Ezra’s gaze. “Sorry, Detective Holden. It’s the term a few of us have taken to calling this guy. It sort of stuck.”
“I swear if that name ends up in the newspaper, someone is going to end up on an extended leave,” Ezra threatened.
“Yes, sir,” Levi said quickly. “Heard.” He pointed at the soap. “Should we bag it?”
“Not yet,” I interjected. “I have to smell it.”
“It’s what the guy wants,” Pippa said. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
“I wish it was that easy,” I told her. “But he’s already made a plan, and if I don’t at least try and figure it out, someone might get hurt. I can’t live with that on my conscience.”
“Whatever that man does is his fault, not yours,” she told me, throwing my words back in my face.
