“It feels off.” Royal studied Main Street around them. It was a quiet day. “I have a theory. I can’t confirm yet, but someone started a fire with Franny’s books in Sunrise this morning. Apparently, yesterday a woman no one knew got a library card at the Sunrise library and checked out all Franny’s books.”
“A woman… You think it’s the same woman.”
“It’s not the male kidnapper. So… It’s a theory. Copeland is running the woman’s name, but it’ll be fake.”
“I guess you could try to get an APB out, or something through Bent County, but…”
Royal could read Simmons’s reluctance. “It’s delicate. I feel like… This is a case where we don’t want to tip anyone off. We need to keep things close to the vest.”
Simmons nodded. “Agreed, Deputy.”
Which brought him back to the thought he’d been ruminating over all morning. He’d figured if he went through with it, he wouldn’t tell anyone, but maybe… Maybe Simmons was the guyto tell. “I—I know someone who might be able to figure out who she is. Under the table. Not exactly…within the law. But they’d be able to do it without anyone knowing. I can’t go through the sheriff for this one.”
“Does this person know what they’re doing?”
“Probably better than you or me.”
Simmons was clearly dubious, but he didn’t mount any objections. “How much you think they’ll charge?”
Royal shook his head. “It’d be a favor. I just… It’s the right course of action, don’t you think? Find out who this woman is kind of under the radar? If you weren’t worried there was some kind of FBI leak, you’d have them do it, wouldn’t you?”
Simmons nodded. “I would.”
“All right.” Royal couldn’t help but be a little concerned that by not taking this to the sheriff he was stepping out of his lane, risking his job.
But he couldn’t go against his gut instincts that this was right, and the best option to keep Franny safe.
He was distracted momentarily by some grunting and groaning sounds. He looked into the stroller again. The boy was waking up, wriggling and noise making enough to earn his sister’s wide-eyed attention.
“Keep me in the loop, Campbell,” Simmons said, pushing the stroller forward. “If I have to fall on the grenade, let me know. Sheriff can’t fire me.”
Royal laughed in spite of himself. “I’ll hold you to that.”
More roaring from the little boy in the stroller.
“I better get him something from the bakery before he turns into a pint-sized monster.”
The boy squealed. “I’m a T-Rex! Not amonster.”
“Oh boy, here we go,” Simmons muttered under his breath. “Let me know, Campbell.”
Royal nodded, watched Simmons go for a few seconds, trying to reconcile having that conversation over two cute kids. He shook his head. Well, life was weird.
And about to get weirder, because now he had to figure out how to ask Zeke for a favor.
Chapter Fifteen
Franny didn’t leave her apartment. She didn’t even leave her bedroom except to eat. The writing wasn’t goingquiteas well as it had the other day. As much as she wanted to think about fictional worlds, lose herself there, her brain kept wandering back to book burning.
Herbooks.
So when the writing couldn’t distract her from the creepy, crawlytargetedfeeling, she let herself be distracted by the internet. About the only thing that took her mind off her anxiety was watching videos of a concert she’d never attend. Then she called Audra back—because of course Copeland had run his mouth and told her about Royal being there this morning.
“He just spent the night on the couch because he fell asleep, and I didn’t want to wake him up, because he’s running himself ragged watching out for me.”
“Hmm,” was all Audra had said.
“Trust me, Audra. He’s like…” She thought about everything he’d told her about the Sons. About foster homes. She was so…pampered and privileged in comparison. There was just no way he saw anything interesting in her. “He’s not into me.”
