Francine went into lockjaw mode. Her mouth went tight, her shoulders squared, her gaze moved to the wall.
“Francine?” he asked.
Without looking at him, she shrugged.
“Lucy,” John continued without skipping a beat, “I also need you to figure out what to do about Annie’s booth at the Fair, okay?”
For a second, Annie was startled. She’d forgotten about the Fair. The same way, she supposed, that she’d repressed the need to talk to John about Trish’s “blockbuster” deal. Those things now seemed—no, those things nowwere—inconsequential.
“I already called Winnie, Dad,” Lucy said. “They set the soap out this afternoon; Winnie’s daughter-in-law, Barbara, and Barbara’s son, Lucas, will take turns manning the booth. Winnie and I figured that even if we find Bella soon, Annie and I will be too tired to work it.”
Annie closed her eyes. She was grateful, so grateful, for Lucy. And Winnie. And Winnie’s entire clan.
“Ms. Lucy, you are your father’s daughter,” Earl added with a tender smile. “Always on top of things.”
“Okay, that’s good,” John said. “So maybe you can make some cookies. And work on getting extra hats and gloves and maybe some socks, too.” There was no need for him to repeat the possibility that they might be searching for a few days.
“I’ll start at the homeless shelter. And the thrift store,” Lucy said, and John nodded in agreement.
“What about me?” Francine suddenly asked. “Don’t you have a job for me?”
“I do,” John said. “I know that Lucy and the OB officers have looked for her upstairs, but I need you to go through your room inch by inch to see if anything is out of place—or missing. You’re the only one who can tell if something’s different. And please write even the smallest detail down. It’s hard to know what might turn out to be significant.”
“But we haven’t been staying here.”
“They’ve mostly been with us,” Claire said.
“Then go there, too,” John said to Francine. “Go anywhere Bella has been. Except Annie’s cottage. Stay away from there.”
Silence hung over the room. Until Earl broke it.
“What’s wrong with the cottage?”
John hesitated a heartbeat. Maybe two. “Just a precaution.”
“I already looked,” Francine said. “Bella’s not there.”
“Right,” John said. “And I’ll have Annie check it again once she’s done with the other thing I need her to do.”
“Which is what?” Annie asked, her pencil poised over the notepad on the table in front of her.
“Make a list of anyone who’s been acting strangely. Or anyone else who’s missing that you usually see around here. A delivery person. One of your tenants’ visitors. A cleaning person. Anyone. Take your time and really think about it. I know you’ll be good at it.”
He had no way of knowing that she’d already considered a few suspects. Including Abigail.
“When you’re done with that, come to me. I’ll let you know when it’s okay to go back into the cottage.”
“I have a question,” Earl piped up. “If the cottage is off limits, why not the Inn as well? Bella was here when she . . . disappeared. Not there.”
John nodded, and Annie recognized it as a ploy for him to buy a few seconds of time to try and come up with an answer. “A lot of people come and go from here on a daily basis. It would take weeks for us to sort through fingerprints, if we could even find clean ones. The back door alone would be nearly impossible to test.”
Annie didn’t know if Earl was buying the explanation, but at least he didn’t ask if they were lifting prints from Annie’s cottage and, if so, why, when that’s not where Bella was when she went missing. Maybe he knew when to be quiet and let his son do his job.
“A couple of other things,” John said. “Donottalk to anyone from the media. Some of them must be here by now. In fact, do not talk toanyoneabout what might have happened to Bella or say anything about her. Don’t even talk about her to one of the volunteers. Okay, that’s enough for now. Does everyone understand what to do?”
Heads nodded, voices murmured around the room.
“Okay,” he added. “If she hasn’t turned up yet, we’ll meet back here tomorrow morning at ten. In the meantime, if you have any news or any questions, you all have my number. Call me or text me right away.”
