“Already?” Cressida asked.
“They came from Forestview and will take her to the hospital.”
A man and woman entered with a gurney, and Cressida stepped out of the way.
“I’ll ride with her, if that’s okay,” she said.
“It’s fine with us if it’s okay with her. Mrs. Monroe?”
Evelyn shook her head. Her intense gray eyes held urgency. “You stay here in this house until I get home. I won’t be long, I promise.”
“I mean ... they’ll probably keep you overnight.”I can’t stay here that long.
“Stay. I have documents you’ll want to see. I give you permission to search for them.”
“The place is huge.”
She coughed and chuckled and grimaced as if in pain. “Start in this room, then move to the library.”
They secured Evelyn on the gurney and took her out of the room. Cressida wanted to argue with the woman, but now wasn’t the time. The paramedics carried her on the gurney down the stairwell. Cressida rubbed her arms and stared out the window that Braden had warned to stay awayfrom. But law enforcement and an ambulance had arrived. The danger was gone. But where was Braden?
How could she stay in this house for even an hour alone?
How could she stay here overnight? She wouldn’t.
She headed down the steps to follow the EMTs out the front door and walked next to Evelyn. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be fine.”
“I know, dear. I know.” Then she grabbed Cressida’s hand and squeezed again, with more strength than she should have had. “Do as I ask. Research. Read. Find answers. Then if you still have questions, I’ll answer all your questions for which I have answers when I return.”
“I can’t. I don’t feel comfortable—”
“Nonsense.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know you, Cressida Valentine Dane, daughter of Octavia and Alaric Dane.”
Cressida couldn’t help the confused look she gave the woman.
How safe could it be in this house where the man who attacked her had been talking to the former assistant? Where someone had broken in even today?
Evelyn must have sensed Cressida’s continued resistance. “You keep that nice detective with you, and you’ll be fine.”
The paramedics shoved the gurney into the back of the ambulance and closed the door. Cressida watched it drive away.
Where is that nice detective?
26
Rain-soaked, Braden stared out into the haze of fog hovering over the ocean.
By the time he’d made it to the spot where the watcher had been peering through the rifle scope, the man had fled. Braden had continued his search through the woods, then finally ended up at the edge of the cliff and spotted the man scrambling down rudimentary steps of the cliff face to the rocky shore. Braden followed, but again, by the time he made it to shore, the man was already in a small boat making his way toward the fog. To a bigger, waiting vessel?
He’d taken pictures of the man from a distance on his cell, along with images of the boat he could barely see in the fog. His cell phone couldn’t zoom out far enough, so the images were blurry at best. He’d find someone who could figure out the name of that boat, but if he wasn’t mistaken, it looked a lot like Captain Malloy’s old trawler, theMariner’s Gambit, which had brought both Cressida and her father here on separate occasions. Braden had easily found images of Malloy’s vessel when he looked into his background.
Malloy had warned Cressida when he brought her here.Warned her against ... himself? That made no sense. What was going on? What was the connection? Braden hiked back up the slippery steps and got a radio message from Trent—Evelyn was on her way to the hospital.
“Stay with Cressida and protect her,” he told Trent, and he made his way through the dense forest that edged Driftwood Manor.
