I feel her back go rigid.
“Just the cable?What about my laptop?”
“I was wondering about that too,” Rick mentions.“I’d hoped perhaps you’d brought it with you.”
She shakes her head.“It rarely leaves the office.Are you saying it’s gone?What would anyone want with my laptop?It’s an older model, it’s not like it’s worth anything.I keep my recipes on there, run a bookkeeping program and do payroll, but that’s an encrypted software and I have two step verification through my phone.Other than that, I check emails, place orders, and maybe run the occasional internet search, but I do most of that on my phone.Same with banking.”
“The suspect clearly believes there is something important on there, or he wouldn’t have taken it and left the money in the cash register,” Althof points out.“Do you have any idea what he might’ve been looking for?”
“No.Nothing,” Bess responds, but I can hear the slight hitch in her voice.
Rick does too and narrows his eyes on her.“No documents, photos, letters, emails, contacts that might be of interest to someone?”he probes.
I clench my jaw at his tone.I understand better than most he’s doing his job, but I don’t like him pushing Bess, who is starting to tremble under my touch.
I have questions of my own I’d like to be asking her—I’ve had plenty of time to think about the fire last night and this morning—but I’m not about to badger her.Not after watching her tap out last night, traumatized.Fuck, I had to listen to my bed creak upstairs as she rolled around restlessly most of the night.I was on the couch in the living room, wide awake too.
“No,” she repeats in a shaking voice.“I can’t think of anything.”
It’s Savvy who steps in to smooth over the sudden tension in the room, leaning forward to pat Bess’s wringing hands in her lap.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.Do you think you might be up to doing a walk-through of the coffee shop and your apartment to see if maybe anything else is missing?”
“Yeah.Okay.”
Despite her affirmative answer, I get the sense she’d rather crawl back into that cocoon she turned my bedsheets into and hide.
“Why don’t you guys go ahead and give us a few minutes, okay?”I suggest, directing my focus on Savvy.
She nods, understanding I want to give Bess a moment to process.Getting up, she addresses Rick.
“Let’s go, Althof.”
The moment the door closes behind them I swing Bess around and fold her in my arms, resting my cheek on the top of her head.She’s stiff as a board.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper against her hair.“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
It’s like a spring releases as she suddenly slumps against me, her fingers digging into my back.We stand like that for a while, silently, even though a lot is being conveyed in body language.I’m glad she’s at a point where she feels she can lean on me, quite literally at the moment.Maybe the next step will be opening up to me.I hope so; I’d really like to find out more about that brother of hers.
“I hate to be a bother.”
I take a step back and catch her eyes.They’re dry, but haunted.
“You couldn’t be a bother if you tried,” I assure her before adding jokingly, “but we should get going before they send out a search party.”
That seems to snap her into action and she darts for the stairs.
“I’m just going to splash some water on my face,” she clarifies as she heads up.
While waiting, I collect the coffee mugs and load them in the dishwasher.Then I remember Bess hasn’t had anything to eat yet, and quickly slap a peanut butter and jelly sandwich together.I’m sure it’s not up to her standards, but it’s a kick of protein and something in her stomach.
Since she’s still not back down when I’m done, I yell up the stairs.
“Hey!Let’s go, Twinkie!”
Two seconds later she appears at the top of the stairs.I can see she put a little makeup on, a little mask of protection, I imagine.
“Twinkie?”she returns as she comes down the steps, her eyes twinkling.
