Page 43 of Road To Runes

"Nothing too extraordinary," Shawn said, rising up and down on the balls of his feet. "A robbery, that's all."

Either last night hadn't been as spectacular as I remembered it or the Franklins had really downplayed what had happened for this guy.

"What do you think we'd know about that?" I asked.

"I'm covering all my bases," Shawn said. "You ladies wouldn't know if anyone here bears a grudge against Troy Franklin? Perhaps you noticed an altercation between him and a classmate?"

"Not that I've noticed.” Penny shrugged.

Shawn turned to me and I grasped my coffee cup to hide my face behind.Ididn't have the best poker face, either.

"And yourself?" he asked.

"I don't go here," I said, taking a sip of cold coffee. "I'm just meeting Penny for lunch."

"Oh." Shawn turned immediately back to Penny. Rude, but I was glad to have his attention off me. "So, you're sure? Nothing of note that you can remember?"

Penny chewed her lip and looked across the table at me. "Bea, wasn't there that girl...?"

She trailed off, but Shawn leaned forward, his tie dangling a little too long around his belt.

"A girl?" he asked.

Damn it all to Hec. She just had to bring that up.

"Just a rumour we heard," I said with a shrug. "Someone said he cut off a girl's hand with his power or something. I don't know."

I took another sip of coffee like it didn't bother me one way or another, but Shawn tilted his head in my direction.

"Cut off herhand?" he asked. "Can you elaborate?"

"Not really," I said. "Like I said, it's just a rumour we heard. Couldn't even tell you if it really happened."

"And the name of the girl?" Shawn tapped away on his phone, looking from it to me in rapid bursts.

I shrugged yet again. I was going to give myself a neck ache at this rate. "No idea."

Penny shot me a quizzical look across the table but thankfully, Shawn was too preoccupied with his phone to notice. I pulled a face at her, hoping it was enough to keep her silent.

"You wouldn't happen to know if this girl had a cat, do you?" Shawn asked, still not looking up from his phone. "A big fluffy type?"

My heart skipped so many beats I wondered if I had suffered a cardiac arrest. Well, anything to get me out of this situation.

Penny's eyes widened, her face reddening to the colour of an overripe tomato. Busted. I pulled a pleading expression, glancing over at the private investigator every so often to make sure he didn't catch our awkward exchange. Penny inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, which she often did during her meditative breathing exercises. But something told me that this was less about spiritual alignment and more about lowering her blood pressure.

"Right, well, thank you ladies." Shawn eventually tucked his phone away and nodded at us both. "You've been very helpful. Good day to you both."

With that, Shawn turned on his heel and marched away with a greater sense of purpose than I would have liked to see.

The moment he was out of earshot, Penny leaned so far across the table, a thick strand of her hair dipped into her mug. "Spill it," she hissed.

I reached over and extracted her hair from the lukewarm liquid, shaking it off for her. "Not here. At home."

Penny wanted to skip her afternoon classes, but I reminded her that with the private investigator snooping around, we couldn't afford to do anything differently from the plan. Plus, Edward planned to pick us up at a certain time.

When her classes finally finished and we made our way out to the car park, Penny didn't say a word but glared at me the entire walk out. I had to steer her out of the path of several people, but she still didn't relinquish her stare.

"Don't say anything to Edward," I said, as I caught sight of his car entering the car park several rows down. "He doesn't know and I want it to stay that way."

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