Page 40 of Crosshairs

She was right, and he donned the body armor as she grabbed two pairs of latex gloves from her pickup’s console.

The awkwardness that had been between them this morning was gone. They’d settled into comfortable, and maybe that was all he’d ever get from Ainsley. But he hoped not.

“Do you have a key?” he asked as they approached the antebellum house.

Her blue eyes widened. “I should’ve gotten one from Gran.”

“No worry. There’s one inside the frog in the backyard.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I tried to tell Cora she didn’t need to leave a key where someone could find it, but she was afraid of getting locked out.”

“I wonder how many other people know it’s there.”

“She has assured me only Rose and her housekeeper know the key is there ... and I hope that’s true.”

“It probably is. Cora is very discriminating about what she shares with others.”

They walked around the side of the house to the back, and he found the key inside the frog. “Would you like me to get a piece of glass cut and replace the broken one for the basement door?”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course. I’m very fond of your aunt.”

“And she seems fond of you as well. And she trusts you, not something she does with many people.”

“I guess when you’ve lived as long as she has, you’ve seen enough to be skeptical.”

He followed her down the hall to the library, remembering Cora’s admonition to him.“Don’t let him have them.”Who could she have been referring to? She’d been very upset about the diary she thought she’d misplaced. Now he wondered if she’d misplaced it or if someone had stolen it.

“Did you ever see the first diary Cora found?” he asked as Ainsley knelt beside the desk.

“No. Yesterday we were discussing how she’d found it in an old desk in the attic, and as far as I know, it was the only one she’d found.” Ainsley sat back on her feet. “I wish we’d had time last night to look closer.” Then she stood and pulled out a desk drawer. “Today made at least twice she’s mentioned the diaries, as in plural. Do you think she may have found more?”

“That’s what I’m wondering. Could they be in her bedroom?”

“Only one way to find out.”

He followed Ainsley as she led the way to Cora’s bedroom, where the scents of lavender and menthol met them at the door. Two things he associated with the older woman. The bedcovers were thrown back, like she’d gotten out of bed quickly.

He glanced around, noting papers on the floor around her nightstand.

Ainsley knelt and used a pencil to move the papers. “Cora would not have left these papers like this,” she said.

“Maybe she knocked them off when she climbed out of bed?”

“I know my aunt, and the only way she would have left them lying on the floor would be if she were hurrying to investigate a noise.”

“You think someone else was in the house?” he asked.

“It’s the only explanation I can come up with,” she replied grimly.

22

Maddox drove the streets in the residential area, searching for Beaumont’s red pickup. He was still kicking himself for losing the pickup when it turned into the neighborhood with its maze of streets. A kid on a skateboard zoomed toward him, and Maddox pulled over.

The boy hopped off the skateboard and held it in front of him. “Looking for something, mister?” he asked, stepping to the back edge of the sidewalk.

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