She waved a hand at him. “Don’t you worry about that at all. That was just Mason Meyers. He wanted to move his hair salon downtown. He thought he was going to swoop in and grab it for a steal because of the shape of the place. Of course, now with it being mid-remodel, I’m sure he won’t be interested.”
“Who was Winston’s attorney?” I asked.
Her eyes flicked to me like she’d forgotten I was even there. “Oh, that would be Roxane Forester.” She scrunched up her nose like she smelled something horrible. “I tried to get him to switch to a different attorney. I didn’t really trust her, but he said lawyers are all the same and you can’t trust any of them, so he didn’t see any reason to switch.”
“I thought he and Roxane were in a relationship at one point. Maybe that’s why he trusted her.” I watched her carefully, waiting for a reaction, and sure enough, I got one.
She clenched her teeth and hissed before she caught herself.Typical. Cat shifters were so predictable. She took a deep breath and pulled herself together. “That’s exactly the reason he shouldn’t have trusted her.”
“Well, when you hear from Roxane, let us know.” Declan gave her a big smile and then grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door.
I still had questions for her, but for some reason, Declan wanted to leave. I wasn’t going to fight him on it. I could always come back later since it was obvious she wasn’t planning to go anywhere.
Declan walked over to a trash can and threw away his empty coffee cup, then turned to look at me. “We need to add her to the list for sure.”
“She was very confident that she’d be the one taking over Winston’s business. I wonder if that’s true.”
“Maybe we should contact the attorney and see if he had a will.”
“I doubt she can tell us. You know—attorney-client confidentiality and all that. Let me make some calls and see what I can find out. But in the meantime, let’s go grab something to eat and figure out what we should do next.”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “Where do you want to go? The Den?”
“No, if I go to The Den, I’ll end up working. I want us to be able to talk.”
“Great. So where should we go?”
“We can go to the Thistle. Rue makes more than just great coffee. Her lunches are good, as well.”
“I noticed her lunch menu looked good when I was getting my coffee, so that sounds good to me.” He looped his arm through mine and headed toward the Twinkling Thistle Café.
I was looking forward to having lunch with him. I didn’t know much about his life before he came here to visit. Elwood talked about his son and daughter-in-law like they’d moved away because they wanted a different life than Ravenstone could support, but that was pretty much all he said about them. He talked about Declan a lot, but it was mostly him speculating about whether his magic was ever going to manifest.
We did have a murder to solve, and naturally, I wanted to know who killed Winston. The safety of my pa—nope, it was bad enough they thought of themselves that way; I wasn’t about to join them—community was important to me, so having a killer walking around free didn’t sit well with me. But for a little while,I wanted to forget about all that and just get to know more about this little witch who’d enamored both me and my wolf.
The Twinkling Thistle Café was basically the opposite of The Den. It was light and airy with a really cozy vibe. Plants hung in the windows, all of them lush and green.
Rue’s face lit up when she saw us walk in. “Back for more coffee?”
“No, we’re here for lunch this time,” Declan said. “Gideon says your sandwiches are delicious.”
That wasn’t what I said. I said her lunch was good, but Rue looked really pleased, so I wasn’t about to correct him. Besides, even if I didn’t say it, her sandwiches were really good.
“Thank you, Gideon,” she said, her face beaming. “But I hear I’m not the only one making delicious things around here. Sandy couldn’t quit raving about your cake.”
Declan blushed. “It’s really just a hobby, but thank you.”
“Well, that’s a shame. I’d love to have a good bakery in town.”
“Really? Wouldn’t that cut into your business?”
She waved her hand at him. “Not at all. I’d buy the muffins and pastries from them to resell, and then I wouldn’t have to make them. Baking is like my least favorite thing to do. What I love is cooking. Now you two have a seat, and I’ll whip you up something special.”
We found a couple of seats at a small round table in the window and sat down. As soon as we were situated, Declan looked at me.
“Shouldn’t she have asked us what we wanted?”
I chuckled. “Nope. Rue isn’t allowed to use her magic in the food, but she can use it in other ways. Trust me, whatever she brings you will be perfect.”
