“ThenAntwanhugged her, and he sniffed her hair. I swear, he closed his eyes and sniffed her hair. It was creepy.” She blew out her breath and kept pacing. “It was all so strange that I thought I must’ve actually imagined it. I’m an author, so I often create stories in my head that aren’t true. Hazard of the job. But then when I got home, I started thinking about last night.”
“What about last night?” Lock asked through gritted teeth.
Aspen stopped pacing and looked at him. “Jesse and I were playing pool while Antwan was talking to this girl. He went to a corner table with her and the bar got busy. We didn’t see him for, maybe an hour? When wedidsee him again, he was wearing a jacket. He didn’t have one before and he was acting… I don’t know. Different. Weird. I thought maybe things didn’t go well with the girl, but now…”
“Antwan wouldn’t do this,” Lock said, as if still trying to convince himself. “I know him, and there’s no actual proof.”
Eastern turned to him. “Hamish and Sadie both said Antwan and Jesse were in Sugar and Spice the day he was drugged. Antwan could have easily walked past Hamish and slipped it in. He was also present at both altercations with the Tate brothers. And the car last night was stolen from Thida Thai, which is only a street away from Meridian.”
“This person has been here, in Misty Peak, since before Antwan even got to town,” Lock pushed, desperate now. “There was a fucking note left at her house by hand.”
“Did you actually get confirmation of when Antwan’s flight got in?” Eastern asked.
“He got in the same day as Jesse.”
“Who got in first?” Eastern asked.
Lock’s jaw tensed. “Antwan. He waited for Jesse at the airport.”
“So he could have gotten in a while ago and not told anyone. Gotten to the airport just before Jesse’s flight to make it look like he’d just arrived.” Eastern lifted his desk phone and pressed a button. “Paxley, I need you to look into a flight for me from Georgia to Misty Peak.” Eastern glanced up at Lock. “When did they arrive?”
Lock closed his eyes, trying to recall. “July eighth.”
Eastern relayed the information to Paxley.
The air started to feel too thick, the band around his chest tightening, suffocating him.
He grabbed his brother’s cell from the desk and called Callie’s number.
Come on, honey. Answer the phone for me. Let me hear your voice.
The call rang, then it rang some more. On the fifth ring, he knew she wasn’t answering. He tried Antwan. The same damn thing.
Fear clawed at his insides. If what Aspen suspected was true, he’d just left Callie in a house with her goddamn stalker.
Fuck.
He quickly left his brother’s office, ignoring Eastern’s loud curse from behind.
Eastern caught up with him outside, just as Lock reached his brother’s car. Eastern slid behind the wheel while he jumped into the passenger seat. As his brother drove, Lock called Jesse, who answered on the first ring.
“Lock—”
“Are you home?”
“No. I’m picking up coffee. Why?”
Shit. “Did Antwan disappear for an hour at the bar last night?”
“Possibly. I was playing pool with Aspen, and he was talking to a woman. I didn’t have eyes on him the entire time, but I doubt he would have left.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
“No, I don’t. What’s going on, Lock?”
Eastern took a hard right as Lock said the words he still couldn’t believe were coming out of his mouth. “It might be him.”
There was a small pause, and when Jesse spoke again, his words were slow and careful. “Whatmight be him?”
