“If you wait until the afternoon, I could go with you too,” Az said, sounding like it would be a huge inconvenience. But he wouldn’t have offered if he didn’t want to go, right? Oh, and he had that thing about opening locks without needing a key. That’d probably come in handy if the brewery was locked up.
Elwood shook his head. “I’d like to get out there earlier than that. Gideon and I will be fine on our own, I think. But thank you, Azar.”
“Excellent. We’ll have the culprit in no time.” Sandy rubbed his hands together, and Eugene’s shadow quivered in excitement by the murder board.
I didn’t know what the shadow imp would get up to tomorrow. But if our last investigation was anything to go by, I suspected our murder board would soon have pictures from the police report and notes about Roy’s autopsy. So it was probably better if we didn’t ask too many questions about Eugene’s plans.
“And then I can drag them to the bottom of my pond and show them how my pond is superior to a vat of beer,” Tulip said.
Chapter Sixteen
The Problem With Silent Partners
Gideon
“So what properties will you be looking at today?” I asked Declan over breakfast the next morning.
“I don’t know for sure. She said she had a few she could show me.”
He didn’t sound excited about his plans, and that worried me. I loved that doing that meant he was committing to stay here with me, but not if he didn’t really want to do it.
“You know, if you aren’t sure you want a bakery, you could run a ghost kitchen out of the pub.”
He pushed up his glasses and looked at me with wrinkled brows. “Do you not think I should do it?”
“Declan, I think you make the best baked goods in all of Ravenstone, and if you want to open a bakery, it’ll be a huge success. I just don’t want you to feel pressured to take that step until you’re ready.”
“What makes you think I’m not ready?”
“It’s not that I think you aren’t ready. You just don’t seem like you’re overly enthusiastic about going to look at properties with Janis.”
He let out a sigh. “You’re going to think I’m being silly.”
I reached over and took his hand. “Baby, I promise you, if something’s bothering you, I won’t think it’s silly.”
“Elwood said it would be amazing if I rented the building next to his and turned it into my bakery. He sounded really excited about the idea that I would be right next door.”
“Okay, that would be a good location, so I can see why he might think that.”
“Gideon,” he said, like I was missing the point. “There were two dead bodies in that building. And two is two too many. I can’t possibly put my bakery there, but I don’t want to disappoint Elwood.”
“Elwood is thrilled that you’re here in Ravenstone, and all he wants is for you to be happy. But here’s the thing I want you to remember. This is your bakery. You said it’s what you’ve always dreamed of, so what matters is that you’re happy with its location. Not me, not Elwood, not Janis, you.”
“I think Elwood had rather I wait and focus on my magic.”
“Probably so. Because magic is his life, just like baking is yours, and he knows that. Speaking of Elwood, I need to get going. I’m supposed to meet him next door to go out to the Black Feather Brewery.”
I stood up and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll see you later.”
Elwood was ready and waiting on me beside his microbus.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yep, let’s go.”
I climbed into the passenger’s seat and buckled my seatbelt, then I checked it just to be safe. Then I grabbed the handle above the door—purely precautionary, of course, but I’d ridden with Elwood before.
A few minutes later, Elwood said, “So Declan’s decided to open a bakery.”
