A gun! Her father had pulled agunon them. Did he even know how to shoot? She wouldn’t have thought so, but then, she’d probably never known her father at all.
She opened her second drawer to look for sticky notes. When there were none in there, she opened the bottom drawer and shuffled a few things around before pulling out a yellow pad. The second she lifted the notes, she stopped.
There was a watch in her drawer. Where had that come from? It certainly wasn’t hers. She didn’t even own a watch.
Lifting it, she studied the beige band and the intricate hands. She turned it, only to frown at the specks of red on the silver.
Wait…was thatblood?
“Sorry to bother you, Tilly, but do you have—”
She looked up to see Jake in her doorway. He stopped, mouth open, eyes on the watch.
“Jake? Are you okay?”
His eyes shot back up to hers, and it took a moment before he answered. “Y-yes. I’m fine. I just…I remembered I’m supposed to be somewhere.”
What? Then why had he come to her office? “Jake—”
But he was already gone before she could finish. What the hell was going on?
She followed Jake to the front room, but he was nowhere to be seen. Pixie sat at her desk, eyes on the screen of her computer.
“Pixie.”
She glanced up, a small smile on her face. Kayden had told her that it was Pixie who’d informed him about the phone call. When Tilly had approached her about it, the other woman had apologized for involving herself in the matter. Tilly had been annoyed. If Pixie had really wanted to protect Kayden, she could have asked Tilly about the circumstances first, to be certain she had her details correct.
But at the end of the day, what was done was done. There was nothing that could change what had happened.
“Do you know if Jake’s okay?” Tilly asked, leaning against the desk.
Pixie glanced up at the doors, then back at Tilly. “He didn’t say anything before he left. Why? Is something wrong?”
“I’m not sure.” She glanced down at the watch still in her hand before holding it out to show Pixie. “Have you seen this before?”
Pixie shook her head. “No. Should I have?”
“I don’t know. It was in my bottom drawer. I guess it could have been Linda’s. She left quite a few items in the office, and I didn’t clear everything out of the drawers. But I wouldhave thought I’d have seen it before now.” She shook her head. “Anyway, it’s not your problem.”
She went back to her office and set the watch onto the desk, making a note to contact Linda about it when she got back from her cruise. But that wouldn’t be anytime soon. The woman would be gone for months and quite often had no signal.
Okay, time to concentrate, Tilly. You have a million things to do today, and you cannot afford to be distracted.
Forcing her eyes to the screen, she made herself work. She got through half a dozen emails, two bookings, and paid some invoices for the skywalk construction before a loud commotion in the other room had her attention drawing toward the door.
What the heck was that? There were a couple of tours this afternoon, but they’d already left.
She rose to her feet as the door to her office was pushed open—and Eastern was there. He wore his sheriff’s uniform, but there was no smile on his face. Jake stood beside him, and a few officers followed.
Tilly’s heart clenched. Had something happened? Did it involve her father? “What’s going on?”
“That’s the watch,” Jake said quietly to Eastern, as he pointed to the watch on Tilly’s desk.
Eastern’s expression turned almost confused before his gaze returned to Tilly. “Tilly, we need to take you into the station for questioning.”
What on earth? “Questioning about what?”
“About why a watch that was previously covered in blood and found by Jake right before he was shot is currently in your possession.”
