“My alarm didn’t go off,” I lied. “Power must’ve gone off for a minute.”
“Uh-huh,” she grinned. She loved to tease me. Never missed an opportunity actually. “Coffee’s hot, but you can get some from Dolly when you see her.”
“Dolly? Somethin’ wrong?”
“Seems like our local thief struck again last night. She’s not shook up at all, just annoyed.” She shrugged, turning back to her paperwork. “She called about a half hour ago. I was gonna phone you if you didn’t show up soon.”
“I’ll just head over there now,” I replied, turning back to the door. “She’s probably got a coffee mug waiting for me already.”
“She always does,” Mrs. Baxter nodded. “Good luck.”
I made my way back out to the truck, my body still pleasantly sore from last night’s activities. The drive to Dolly’s was mercifully short, giving me just enough time to try to get my head on straight. I needed to be professional, focused. Not thinking about the way Xavier had looked spread out beneath me, or the sounds he’d made when?—
Nope.Notgoing there.
I pulled into Dolly’s parking lot and killed the engine, taking a moment to compose myself before heading inside. The diner was relatively empty for mid-morning, just a couple of regulars nursing coffee at the counter. Dolly was behind the bar, her usual beehive hairdo looking slightly more frazzled than normal.
“Sheriff,” she called out when she saw me, already pouring coffee into a mug. “About time you showed up, sugar.”
“Morning, Dolly,” I said, settling onto a stool at the bar. “Mrs. Baxter said you had some trouble last night?”
She set the coffee in front of me with more force than necessary, the liquid sloshing dangerously close to the rim. “Trouble is putting it mildly. Some no-good thief broke into my apartment upstairs and stole my things.”
I pulled out my notebook, clicking my pen. “What was taken?”
“My white Valentino bag,” she said, her voice tight with anger. “The real deal, not some knockoff. Cost me three thousand dollars. And my Louboutin heels—the black ones I wear to church. Those were nearly a thousand.”
I wrote it down, though I had to admit I had no idea what made a purse worth three grand or shoes worth more than a hundred. “Anything else?”
“Not that I’ve noticed so far, but I haven’t gone through everything yet.” She crossed her arms, her jaw set. “I’m tellin’ you, Marcus, this is gettin’ out of hand. First the ranches, now me. Nobody’s safe anymore.”
“When did you notice the items were missing?”
“This morning when I got up to get ready for work. I went into my closet and my bag was just... gone. Same with the shoes. They were right there in my closet last night.”
I took a sip of coffee, my mind already working through the details. “Any signs of forced entry? Broken windows, damaged locks?”
“Not a damn thing,” Dolly said, shaking her head. “That’s the strange part. Everythin’ was locked up tight, same as always. It was locked when I came down for the bachelor party last night, locked when I got back, and locked this mornin’ when I got up.”
“Anyone have keys to your apartment?”
She paused, her expression shifting to something I couldn’t quite read. “Just me and... well, Xavier has the spare set.”
My stomach dropped. “Xavier?”
“Yeah, I gave him a master key yesterday to let the strippers into the spare apartment,” she nodded. “I think he still has ‘em.”
My blood ran cold. Xavier had the keys to Dolly’s apartment. Xavier who’d been at the Turner Ranch when items went missing there. Xavier who’d been around when the Baker Ranch was hit. Xavier who’d mysteriously shown up in my life right when all these thefts started happening.
No. No, that couldn’t be right.
“Marcus?” Dolly’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I forced myself to focus, to think like a sheriff and not like a man who’d just spent the night with someone who might be a criminal. “When did you give him the keys?”
“Yesterday afternoon, around three or so.” She refilled my coffee without asking. “He needed to get the strippers settled before the party. Said he’d return them today.”
I wrote that down, my hand steady even though my insides were churning. “And you’re sure the items were there last night before you left for the party?”
