Everything was fine as long as she didn’tchangeher schedule in the hopes she mightseesomeone.
Still, she didn’t head down in her pajamas and hair that was still a mess of bedhead. She got dressed and brushed her hair. “No makeup. You don’t usually wear makeup. Don’t be that girl.”
Besides, she wouldn’t see him in the bakery. It was highly unlikely she’d run into him on the walkdown her stairs and around the corner. And even if shedid, what did she honestly think was happening here? She was a witness to a kidnapping. A woman who wasstillkidnapped. He was a cop investigating.
So.
She grabbed her purse and headed downstairs. There was only about twenty minutes to close, and there wasn’t anyone inside. Lia was already clearing out the bakery case.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got a cupcake leftover?”
Lia nodded and plated it up. She handed Franny the plate. “I think your boyfriend missed you this morning,” Lia said.
Franny took the plate, trying to figure out what Lia was talking about. “Huh?” Confusion gave way to realization at the teasing glint in Lia’s eye. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”
Lia shrugged. “He asked about you.”
The little flutter she was trying to quelch did the opposite of quelch. “He did?” Before Lia could confirm, Franny waved it away in irritation with herself. “Oh, who cares. It’s not high school.”
“Have a lot of hot cops interested in you in high school, Franny?”
“I didn’t even have ugly criminals interested in me in high school, Lia.” Which made Lia laugh and Franny smile in spite of herself.
“Well, he had some news on the case,” Lia said, busying herself with cleaning out the baked goods case, but Franny could see the nervous energy in it. “I guess they found the kidnapper’s car, but it was abandoned. However, they’re hopeful that there didn’t seem to be any signs of blood or struggle. It was in Idaho, so the Feds will start focusing their attention there.”
“Idaho,” Franny echoed. Albennie had been taken across state lines—which explained federal involvement, she supposed. But hadn’t they been involved before they knew that? Or had they known that before?
“But you know…” Lia stopped what she was doing, looked at Franny over the bakery case. “Deputy Campbell comes in here and tells me the Feds are gone, then a little while later, this lady comes in. Pretends it’s casual, but it felt…purposeful. I’d have pegged her for a cop, but she’s not Bent County. I’m not sure what she is.”
“Did you tell Royal?”
“First-name basis now?” Lia asked, still teasing, but she must have noticed Franny’s discomfort with it. Because here they were talking about Idaho and abandoned cars and still no signs ofAlbennie, and Franny didn’t thinklaughingorrolling her eyesabout Royal was the right thing to do in this moment.
Lia sighed. “Look, I’ve…been through my share of stuff. Danger and worry, growing up. You learn to…accept what is. Shove down all the fear, and if you deal in a little humor to distract yourself then, well, I don’t know if it’s healthy or not, but it works.”
Franny nodded, but she couldn’t quite buy in. Not right now. “I think you should tell him.”
Lia bit her bottom lip. “I was thinking about telling Zach.”
“You…trust Mr. Simmons?”
Lia eyed her in that way that was becoming very common. Like everyone knew what was going on but her. “I do,” Lia said after a while, but she was very serious about it.
“Then maybe you should tell both of them.”
Lia nodded slowly. “Yeah, you’re right. Can’t hurt. What can hurt?”
For a moment, just a flash, Franny saw a kind of fear and desperation in Lia’s expression that Franny had never seen there before. But quickly, Lia blinked it away.
“I’ll tell Deputy Campbell about the lady next time I see him. And Zach. Hell, I’ll tell the sheriff if I see him. Whatever might help. But listen, I get through each day with the knowledge that Albennie’s tough. She’s had to be. She’s going to get through this. I have faith.”
But Franny knew what it sounded like when you were trying to convince yourself of something that wasn’t necessarily true. Still, she wasn’t about to disagree. “Me too.”
ROYAL DIDN’T ALLOWhimself to develop a routine, and this morning at the bakery had been a good reminder he shouldn’t.
He still didn’t know what had possessed him to ask the bakery manager about Franny. Why should it matter if Franny Perkins was there or not? It didn’t. He was just observing.
So after grabbing his coffee, instead of doing a walking route around the town, he got in his cruiser and took a drive around the outskirts of Hope Town. He still hadn’t figured out if the woman who’d been walking around yesterday was a Fed, and he didn’t know what kind of car she was driving, but he kept an eye out.
