Page 10 of The Familiar Stranger

She’d spoken loud enough for many in the spa to turn in our direction.

Maddie faced them, clenching her teeth and offering a weak smile, saying, “Uh, sorry. Sorry, everything’s fine. Don’t mind us.”

As everyone went back to their business, I urged the tech to keep talking, and talk she did. Harmony had found a “threatening” note near the back porch of their small home, and then she was attacked.

“Attacked how?” I asked.

She raised a finger. “I’m getting there. So, yeah … it was raining, and she was huddled under the roof of her porch. She saw the piece of paper, I guess, somewhere out there in the yard, snapped it up, and read it.”

“What did it say?”

“No idea. Sounds to me like it wasn’t good, though. Maybe a threat of some sort. I’m still trying to find out. Whatever it was, Harmony thought the message was meant for both her and Almond at first. But it could have been meant just for Harmony, because she was the one got attacked.”

“Attacked how?” I repeated my earlier question.

“She was hit on the head.”

“Hit on the head with what?”

“I heard it was, like, a heavy object, whatever that means. Guess she blacked out, and Almond took her to the ER.”

The nail technician seemed to have a lot of details about the incident for someone who claimed she wasn’t close friends with Harmony.

“How in the world do you know all this already?” I asked. “It just happened last night.”

She shot me a sarcastic grin. “Iknowpeople.”

“What does that mean?” Maddie asked. “What people?”

She frowned. “I’m sayin’ I know peopleat the hospital, okay? Last I heard, Almond was at Harmony’s side. She’s sleeping there and everything.”

“I’m glad she’s all right.”

“I mean, it’s kinda spooky,” the girl said. “I’m glad she’s all right too, but still … the entire situation is weird.”

Maddie turned toward me, saying, “We need to talk to Almond.”

She may have been right, but I had to remind myself—and my friend—that we were not on a girls’ getaway to solve mysteries. Law enforcement would be involved. For now, we were better off staying in our lane.

I shared my feelings with Maddie.

“As much as I hate not investigating something like this, I’m going to talk you off the ledge this time,” I said. “Let’s swim and go to the sauna like we planned, okay? That’s what we’re here to do, and the local cops will have it covered.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t scheming to find a way to get us into Harmony’s room.”

“Oh, I am, and I’m just as curious as everyone else is, but … no. Not this time.”

It felt weird lying to myself, knowing my mind was weighing all the angles about what little I knew.

Maddie slung an arm around me. “You’re right. We need to continue our vacation and not let other people’s problems get in the way. Besides, after this week, we’ll never see any of these people again.”

CHAPTER8

By the time we’d finished a late buffet breakfast at the Alta Vista, I had worked myself into a silent frenzy to know more about what had happened to Harmony. The first step would be to dig up some background information on the relationship between the masseuse and the gym rat. The fact that Almond had been so on edge the day before when watching Maddie and Harmony having fun together … it lingered in my mind.

It seemed odd that, just hours later, Harmony was injured. A bit too much of a coincidence for my liking. And then there was the note. Was it threatening, like we’d heard, or was everyone just making a bigger deal about it than necessary? It was possible the nail technician could have exaggerated or misrepresented the information she gave us.

I decided to deal with the note later.

---