Page 29 of The Familiar Stranger

“What else can you tell us about him?”

“He was holding a newspaper. There was a headline about Grady, and we talked about how sad it was that he’d been murdered. Then the guy remembered my name. I didn’t even have to tell him. He remembered it from all those years ago when I was abducted. Is that weird? Maybe not. It was a big deal, I get it. Everyone in the city knows who I am. Anyway, the whole chat put me in a real funk, but then he said something about wishing you two were around to help again, and that’s when?—”

I cut in with, “That’s when you decided to call us and tell us about Grady and get us to come down here.”

Maddie added, “And he knew you would, Sloane.”

He sure did.

If he thought his little ruse gave him a leg up, he had another think coming.

Game on.

CHAPTER22

Mike shook his head, his face blanketed with concern.

I was sick about the fact I could be putting his daughter in harm’s way, but I didn’t look away from him. Chin lifted and gaze steady, I wanted him to know I had this under control, even though I didn’t.

My poker face was getting better with age.

I hoped.

My recommendation to Andi and Mike was to sit tight. They both looked at me, baffled by my comment. We were looking at multiple jurisdictions, a lot of assumptions, and an undertow of concern that something just wasn’t right. I wouldn’t call it outright panic, but the feeling was at a low boiling point. Now more than ever, facts were what I needed. Not emotions. But my head was spinning as to where to begin.

“First, we need to find out if there have been any threatening notes left anywhere else,” Maddie said, focusing on the facts when I could not. “Kim, Iggy, Kat … we hadn’t known how important it was to ask them about it until now. So, we will. In fact, Sloane, let’s ask Kat to do a search in the FBI database for other crimes that involved a note like this one.”

I felt the investigator in me de-icing from the shock as I regained some degree of intention.

“Good idea, Maddie,” I said. “What else … Andi, let me have a look at that note again.”

She handed it to me. “Sure thing.”

“You’ll have to take this to the police, if not today, tomorrow,” I said.

“Okay-doke.”

Maddie leaned closer to me, and we read the note out loud. Then we examined the cross at the bottom a second time.

Maddie traced it with her finger. “What’s the meaning of this cross, I wonder? Some religious symbol?”

“Or roads, maybe a map?” Mike threw in.

I stared at it for a moment, and then I gripped Maddie’s arm so tight she squealed. “I’ve seen this before … just like this with the dashes and everything.”

Andi’s raised arm, straight up, as if asking to be called on. “Oh, I have too!”

“You have?” her dad asked.

I’d seen the symbol on Dr. Beetle’s business cards. Long after we’d left Savannah, I had googled it, out of curiosity. The image was a hoodoo symbol for crossroads, where the spiritual and physical realms meet. Put that together with the scent, which reminded me of her little shop on River Street, and I felt certain …

Andi jumped up and grabbed her father’s shoulders. “Dad, it has to be Dr. Beetle!”

“But why would she write a note like that?” Maddie asked. “How did she get to the mountainside of North Carolina to leave the note for Harmony? How?—”

“I have no idea,” I said, heading toward the door. “But we have to make some calls.”

“You can’t just leave us hanging,” Andi whined.

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