Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(83)

Pushing back her growing trepidation and trying not to think of the starving newborn kitten, she leads the police officer up another flight to the third-floor room Helen and Karl Adabner share. There’s no answer to their knock on the door.

After a lengthy wait, just in case, Lieutenant Grange inserts the key into the lock.

It doesn’t turn.

Bella exhales, again relieved.

“I can’t think of any other guest who fits your description,” she says.

“But the key is all I have to go on. It must fit one of the doors in this guesthouse. Let’s find out which one,” the police officer decides.

They work their way from the third floor back to the second, knocking on every door. The afternoon sessions are under way. No one is here. The house feels empty.

Lieutenant Grange inserts the key into one lock after another, but it won’t turn.

Bella is now certain she knows which door it opens—and it isn’t any of the three they have yet to try on the second floor.

The Teacup Room. The Train Room. The Rose Room.

As Lieutenant Grange inserts his key into the first of the final three locks, Bella wants to tell him not to bother. She has to take him back downstairs. And when that key opens the lock to Leona’s study, it might also open the door to more trouble than she can possibly handle.

“Lieutenant Grange . . .”

She breaks off.

The key turns in the lock.

The door opens.

The pink-and-white-wallpapered room is hushed and empty. And the first thing she sees, beside the bone china cup collection on the white bureau, is a Styrofoam wig form.

It had entirely slipped her mind amid the exhaustion and confusion.

Bonnie Barrington, she realizes, might have short, dark hair after all. And Kelly Tookler had been worried about her this morning.

As she tells Lieutenant Grange about that, she finds herself wondering whether the blond wig was some kind of disguise. She doesn’t mention that, though. She just volunteers to see if Bonnie left any photo ID behind in the room.

Finding her driver’s license in her purse, Bella sees that the photo is indeed of a brunette—but with long hair, not cropped, as the officer described.

Still, the moment he glances at the photo, he offers a grim nod. “That’s her. I’ll need to take this with me. The wallet, too.”

Is he supposed to have some kind of search warrant? Or are they lax about such things around here?

As she hands it over, she realizes that she never even looked closely at his badge when he flashed it. Walking him back downstairs to the door, she wonders if she should ask to see it again.

Then she notices Max and Jiffy hovering in the archway.

“Is that a real gun?” Jiffy asks, pointing at the officer’s holster.

He doesn’t answer the question, just thanks Bella and tells her that he’ll be in touch shortly.

“Thank you. And tell Bonnie . . . tell her we’ll all be thinking good thoughts for her.”

“I will,” he says, but something in his expression tells her that he doesn’t expect to be having a conversation with Bonnie Barrington anytime soon.

As he steps out onto the porch, she notices that the sun has slid behind a cloud and the air feels cooler.

He gives a wave and is gone, leaving her to deal with two curious little boys.

“Why was the policeman here?” Max asks worriedly.

Jiffy answers before Bella can come up with a reasonable explanation. “Because he’s looking for the bad guy.”

That gives her pause. “Which bad guy?”

“The bad guy. You know.”

“I’m not sure who you mean.” She holds her breath, waiting for him to say it.

When he merely shrugs, she hears herself ask, “Do you mean the pirate? Was there a pirate?”

“I guess. By the way, can we have more cookies?”

“You forgot to say please,” Max hisses into his ear. “Remember? I said she doesn’t give things to people unless they say please.”

“Can we please have more cookies?” Jiffy amends.

“Guests need extra treats sometimes,” Max tells her.

She can’t help but smile at their little cookie conspiracy as she tells them that unfortunately, there aren’t any left.

“Odelia has a lot more. We can go get some.”

“No!” Bella says, a little too sharply.

“But—”

“Max, no means no,” she tells him.

“I can go.” Jiffy takes a step toward the door.

Her first thought is that she can’t very well stop him. Her next is that she has to. It isn’t a good idea to let him wander, given what’s going on down by the water . . .

Or overall.

“I’ll tell you what, boys. We’ll borrow Odelia’s car and go to the store and buy lots of treats.”

“Can Jiffy come?”

“If his mom lets him.”

“She’ll let me.”

“We’ll have to check.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“First, I have to feed the kitten.”

“You already did that,” Max says.

No, she didn’t. She was about to, but she was delayed trying to communicate with her dead husband after he sent her the bluebell. Then she found Pandora Feeney’s hair scrunchy in her pocket. Then the cop showed up.