Daisy looked at the open door behind them. Then she looked at Kori.
“I was going to call.” Daisy’s voice sounded steady but thin at the edges. “I just . . . I just got spooked.”
“So you decided to leave town?” Kori asked.
“I . . .” She paused and pressed her lips together. “Yes, I did. I was afraid of what might happen if I didn’t.”
Kori took the chair across from the couch and let Wyatt lead.
Daisy reluctantly sat on the couch and rubbed Thunder’s head. Thunder ate up the attention. Occasionally, Daisy glanced at the door as if she feared someone else might burst inside.
She really was spooked.
“You’re free to leave tonight—I won’t stop you,” Wyatt started. “But I’d like to hear what happened first. Does this have to do with Mackenzie?”
She frowned before nodding. “I think so . . .”
“You were friends with her?” Wyatt continued.
“Yes.” Daisy pulled her sleeves down over her hands and frowned. “The two of us were close for a couple of years after she moved here. We had a lot in common. We were both curious, interested in new things, and we weren’t from around here, so that bonded us. We liked going to festivals at other towns here in the mountains—there’s one that centers around sauerkraut. Did you know that? Anyway, she was fun.”
Kori kept her expression even. That was the Mackenzie she’d grown up with—the person her sister had been before their parents’ death. Before grief had changed her.
“A few months ago she started pulling away.” Daisy’s mouth tightened. “She stopped talking to me. Started going on hikes alone. Never seemed to have time to hang out.”
“Did you ever ask her about it?” Wyatt asked.
“I did. She just told me she had some stuff on her mind and that she needed answers or she’d go crazy.”
“What kind of answers?” Kori asked.
“She never told me.” She stopped and pressed her lips together as if fighting strong emotions. “I should have pushed harder.”
Kori thought about how many people had said some version of that sentence since she’d arrived in Blue Ridge Hollow.I should have pushed harder. I should have said something. I should have?—
“What happened today?” Wyatt asked.
Daisy’s hands tightened inside her sleeves, and she glanced at Kori. “After you came in this afternoon, I was rattled. I kept thinking about Mackenzie, and I couldn’t shake the bad feeling I had.” She swallowed. “After you left, probably around four o’clock, someone came in and ordered a coffee. When he left, he didn’t throw his cup away. He left it on the table.”
“Okay . . . ?” Wyatt waited for her to finish.
“He’d drawn something on it. On the side of the cup facing me. A circle. With a tree inside it. Burning.”
Kori went still.
“And the man who left it?” Wyatt asked. “Did he just leave or did anything else happen?”
“Ithoughthe left. But an hour later, I saw him. He was standing across the street from The Grind House. He wasn’t doing anything. He was just . . . standing there.” She looked atthe duffel bag beside her. “I was so spooked that I came straight home and started packing.”
Kori leaned forward. “Daisy, is there anything else you can tell us about these people? Anything Mackenzie said, anything you saw—anything at all that might help us identify them?”
Daisy drew in a deep breath before answering. “She mentioned once that life hadn’t turned out the way she wanted. That was right about when we started drifting apart. She said she was tired of working. That her life needed more meaning. I never asked any more questions. I wish I had.”
Kori looked at Wyatt and silently sent him a message: She wished Daisy had asked more questions also. She really did. But even more than that, Kori wished she hadn’t cut off contact with her sister.
If she hadn’t maybe none of this would have happened.
Maybe Mackenzie would be safe right now.
