Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Owen

Lex was at the airport and checking in periodically. There wasn’t much to report considering the plane had yet to land, but it didn’t stop me from tapping my foot impatiently under the desk. The wait was killing me. The fact that there was a possible threat to Annalee was killing me. I wanted to snatch her up and hide her away but she refused to allow me to do it.

Instead, I had to watch through the one-way glass as she answered the phone and typed away at her computer. Kati stopped in after dropping Lucien off at school and hung out for a few minutes. I forced myself to give them privacy and turned down the volume even farther on the speaker hooked up to the reception area. I needed to have a conversation with Mav about that. It was all fine and great to have the system before we had a receptionist, but I could see how Annalee would find it an invasion of privacy. She deserved to feel comfortable in her place of employment even if she didn’t plan to stay for a long period of time.

I was trying to focus on the search I was doing on my computer when movement from the front caught my attention. My body went on high alert until I realized walking through the door was just another innocent female stopping by to see Annalee. If one could call Maisie innocent with her chunky black boots, chained cargo pants, and oversized t-shirt. I couldn’t get a good look at what today’s shirt said but something told me it would be just as hilarious as the ones she wore every other day of her life.

Maisie wasn’t the quintessential baker most people pictured. There was nothing girly or cute about the woman whose nose was pierced and earrings lined the outer shell of her ears. You couldn’t tell today, but I knew for a fact that tattoos covered parts of her body. Her everyday outfits hid them well, but on the rare occasion she wore shorts or even smaller shirts, they could be seen. I couldn’t understand why she would hide such beautiful artwork but it wasn’t for me to judge what another person did. Besides, Maisie wasn’t the kind of person who allowed people to get close to her. Not from the little I’ve seen since coming to Willow Creek. It was a shock that she stepped outside the bakery during working hours to bring Annalee some food. From what I knew, she was normally there from open to close.

“Wait, is that Maisie?” Hendrix crowded up behind me and asked before coming around the desk to drop a hip on the edge. “I thought she never left the bakery during light hours. I was starting to think she was a vampire.”

I snickered at the thought and just how right my friend was. “Looks like she has a soft spot for our new receptionist.”

“She’s not the only one.”

I gave Hendrix, and his wiggling eyebrows, the middle finger.

“There’s nothing soft about me when it comes to Annalee.”

I wanted to kick myself for letting my friend get into my head and admit what was going on between Annalee and me. It wasn’t a secret but I doubted Annalee wanted the entire office to know what was happening between us. And they would because Hendrix had the biggest mouth. He took blabbering to a whole new level.

“I knew it.” Hendrix smirked. “You can’t keep your eyes off her.”

I rolled those same eyes but didn’t bother answering. I wasn’t giving my friend any more ammunition than he already had. Before Hendrix could say anything else, my phone beeped with an incoming message.

I snagged it off the desk, eager to see if Lex had any updates.

It would appear he did.

“Dennis has landed and he’s not alone.”

I handed the phone to Hendrix so he could get a good look at the two men exiting the private jet. “Any ideas who the other guy is?”

“Nope, but I think we know someone who might.”

We both looked through the glass at where Annalee sat at her desk and Maisie with one hip on the edge similar to how Hendrix was sitting on mine. The two of them were laughing and it sucked that I was about to ruin the good time she was having.

I was on the move before I could talk myself into letting her have just a little more of her carefree time before I burst the bubble. There was a sinking feeling in my gut that whoever was in the picture, would upset Annalee.

Both women stopped talking as soon as Hendrix and I stepped through the door.

“Uh, I better get back to the shop.” Maisie hopped off the desk and was on the move without a single glance back. “I’m glad you enjoyed the snack I brought you. Come see me later and I’ll have more for you.”

That was weird. Maisie never ran away when I walked into her bakery. I looked over at Hendrix to see if he had any idea what caused Maisie to split so fast. The intense look on his face did nothing to squelch the curiosity. My friend was never this hyper-focused on anything other than work. He was the jokester of the group but I didn’t have time to figure out what was going on with those two. I needed to ask Annalee about the picture.

“What did you do to Maisie?” Annalee was honed in on Hendrix just like I had been seconds before.

Her question pulled my friend out of his stupor and he was plastering his goofy smile back on his face in no time. But only a person who had known him as long as I had could see it was fake.

“Not a clue.” He shrugged it off and I took that moment to change the subject.

“I need you to look at a picture and tell me if you recognize the second person in it.”

Annalee huffed but she didn’t continue her interrogation of Hendrix, so I considered it a win. I handed her the phone and watched her reaction closely. I knew my gut feeling was spot on when she gasped and her hands shook.

“That’s my father’s lifelong friend. Or he was. I got the feeling they had a falling out the weeks before my father’s death but I couldn’t be sure. My father never spoke to me about those kinds of things. Why would he be here in Texas with Dennis?” She looked to me like I would have the answer. Unfortunately, I was just as lost on the why as she was.

“I’m not sure but we’re going to find out. Come in the back with us so we can get the details from you.”

“But I need to watch . . .” Her words cut off as she looked around the receptionist area.

“We can see out here, remember? You can join us in the back for a bit.”

I was able to guide Annalee to the back without further questioning. She looked to be in a daze as I led her to the chair I had vacated when I got the text from Lex.

“Can I get you water or anything?” It was the one rare time I got to see Hendrix being anything other than goofy.

“A water would be great, and maybe the muffin Maisie brought me, if you don’t mind. Please and thank you.”

A little of the color was coming back into her cheeks.

“Coming right up.” Hendrix was out the door in a flash and eager to do her bidding. It seemed she had that effect on everyone.

“You okay to tell me more about the man with Dennis?” I didn’t want to push her. If she needed some time to gather her composure, I would be happy to give it to her. I didn’t like how white she got seeing that picture.

“Yeah.” Annalee shook her head like she was trying to clear away some of the fog. “I’m not sure why that freaked me out so much. What do you want to know?”

“How about we start with his name and how long your father has known him?”

I’ve spent time looking into her father, Seraphina, and Dennis but I had yet to expand to those in their lives. Seraphina and Dennis had enough problems for me to wade through.

“His name is Walter Henderson and I believe my father had known him most of his life. Certainly before he met my mother and they had me. He was just always there when I was growing up.”

“So, like family?” Annalee nodded, and nibbled on her lip. It appeared that she wanted to say something but didn’t know how it would sound. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“Did you ever have that feeling that you didn’t like someone, but you couldn’t put your finger on why?”

I nodded my head because I knew exactly what she was talking about. But in my line of work, it was called a “gut instinct” and we followed that shit hard because if not, it could mean death for us.

“That’s how I’ve felt about Walter my entire life. Even as a kid, he weirded me out. He never did anything to me, but I didn’t like being around him. Before my mother died, he wasn’t around as much. Then after she died, it was like he couldn’t stay away. I never understood how my father was friends with him. They were nothing alike. My father worked hard for everything he had and wanted a good life for his family. Walter was lazy and constantly blamed others for his problems. I always thought he would be better suited for Seraphina than my father ever was.”

I was adding Walter to my list of people to look into.

Actually, based on what Annalee said, he was going right to the top.

“You said you think he had a falling out with your father?”

“I can’t be sure but I remember one of our Sunday dinners being extremely tense after Seraphina mentioned him. My father got this weird look and said they wouldn’t be discussing it now. That wasn’t like him. He never snapped at my stepmother, no matter how many times I thought he should, but I never gave it much thought. Then he showed up to the funeral, so I figured maybe I was just imagining things. Plus, he’s tried checking in since my father died.”

I was suddenly on alert.

“Walter has tried to contact you since you’ve been here?”

Annalee nodded her head yes. “He’s sent me a few emails, just like my father’s lawyer has, but unlike the lawyer, I’ve refused to answer Walter. I haven’t had it in me to talk to him about what’s going on.”

“Do you mind if I see those emails?”

She shrugged and pushed back in the chair before getting up. “I don’t care. You’ll have to come out to my desk though. They come to my private email account, but since I didn’t bring my laptop with me, I’ve been using the computer here.”

I followed her out and it took only a minute of searching to realize how they found her. “Son of a bitch!” I slapped my hand down on her desk.

Annalee wasn’t going to like what I had to say.