Page 53 of Cause and Effect

“No problem, my friend. I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”

“Who were you talking to?” Laurel walked in and set her bag down.

“Detective Simon Kind. He’s going to stop by tomorrow and take a look around.”

“We’re ready!” Stella shouted from the living room.

“Let’s go.” I smiled, reaching down and picking up Laurel’s bag.

When we reached my house, I grabbed two of the four bags, and Laurel grabbed the other two. Taking them into the house, the girls followed me up the stairs.

“Stella, you’ll stay in this room. The bathroom with a nice large tub is right there.” I pointed. “Sara, this is your room tonight. Follow me, Sophie.”

“But Sara and I always share a room. We’re twins, remember?” Her little brow arched.

“Okay. Not a problem. You can stay with Sara, but use this bathroom right here to take a bath.” I walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. “Deal?”

“Deal.” She smiled.

“Good.” I patted her head.

I walked downstairs, opened the cabinet, and selected a bottle of aged scotch. Grabbing two glasses, I poured the amber liquid into them and made my way through the sliding door to the patio. Laurel stood there—her gaze fixed on the ocean as the waves crashed against the shore.

“I thought you might need this.” I handed her the glass.

“Thanks. The girls and I could have stayed with my parents.”

“You could have. But, you strike me as the type of woman who doesn’t like or want people to worry, so you keep things to yourself.”

She glanced at me, her beautiful eyes staring into mine.

“Maybe.” She smirked.

I chuckled. “I knew it.”

Her phone rang, and as she pulled it from her pocket, she noticed the display read: Unknown Number. It was far too late on a Saturday evening for it to be telemarketers.

“Give me that.” I grabbed her phone from her hand and answered it. “Hello?”Click.“Have you been getting a lot of these calls?”

“Just about every day,” she said. “I talked to Morgan about it earlier, and she said if I wanted her to, she’d try to find out where the calls were coming from.”

“And that’s exactly what we’re having her do first thing Monday morning,” I said.

We both turned and stared at the three little girls standing on the patio when we heard the sliding door open.

“Can we have a snack before we go to bed?” Stella asked.

“Yeah. Sure. Let me see what I have,” I said.

The three girls sat on the island’s stools while I opened the refrigerator.

“How about some strawberries and whipped cream?”

“Yeah!” All three of them exclaimed.

“And why doyouhave a can of whipped cream in your refrigerator?” Laurel’s brow raised.

The corners of my mouth lifted as I winked at her.

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