“Are you sure the person is living in Natalie’s cottage?” Brooke asked.
Mabel nodded. “He’s come into the store a couple of times but doesn't say much.”
A massive headache started to build behind Natalie’s eyes. “I’ll pay for my groceries, then go and see him. Someone’s made a mistake.”
Brooke took a business card out of her pocket. “Take this. If you get stuck, give me a call. I have a spare bedroom you can use.”
She didn't think she'd need it, but Natalie took the card anyway. “Thanks. I'm sure it will be okay.”
“Don’t forget your apple cider,” Brooke said quickly.
Natalie added two half-gallon containers of cider to her cart. She might not need to use Brooke’s spare bedroom, but she would definitely need the cider.
* * *
Gabe’s fingerspaused over the keyboard. He glanced at his story outline, then back at the page he'd spent the last hour rewriting. It wasn't working. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a convincing way to make a dead body appear in Zac Connelly's orchard.
His dog, Sherlock, looked up and sighed.
Gabe smiled. “You’re right. It’s time for a break. Let’s go for a walk.” Before he could push back his chair, Sherlock was sitting in front of the French doors, waiting to escape.
As soon as the doors opened, his black German Shepherd bolted down the path that led to Flathead Lake.
Gabe limped after him, wincing as a sharp pain shot down his right leg. He knew not to sit in one position for too long, but time had a way of disappearing when he was writing. In the next couple of hours he wanted to finish the second chapter of his book. But that depended on the dead body floating in the Hudson River.
Sherlock had disappeared, but he wasn't worried. The German Shepherd rarely went more than a hundred yards from him. He'd be in the forest, sniffing out a skunk, chasing a red squirrel, or terrorizing the neighbor's cat.
He took a deep breath, enjoying the sweet scent of the pine trees surrounding the property. After spending most of his life in New York City, Sapphire Bay was like living in a parallel universe. He'd only been here for three months, but he couldn't imagine going back to the concrete jungle he'd called home.
His cell phone rang. Gabe sighed. Sometimes, the rest of the world found you whether you wanted it to or not. He looked at the caller display before answering. “Hi, Caleb.”
“Where are you?”
Gabe stopped walking. The urgency in his friend’s voice worried him. “Walking toward the lake. Why?”
“A woman is coming to see you. She’s the granddaughter of the original owners of the cottage. She doesn’t know you’ve rented the property.”
“Why does that matter?”
“She was going to stay there.”
Gabe rubbed his leg. “She can’t. I’m here.”
“That’s up to you to work through. I just wanted to let you know that she’s on her way. Her name is Natalie.”
Of all the things he needed right now, an unexpected visitor wasn’t one of them. “Where did you see her?”
“She was buying groceries at the general store. I overheard her talking to Mabel.”
Anyone who spent more than a day in Sapphire Bay ended up in the general store. “Thanks for warning me.”
“No problem. How’s the book coming along?”
“Slowly. You don't know how to get a dead body from the Hudson River to Delaware, do you?”
“Refrigerated truck?”
“Too risky.”
