10. Sinclair

We put the cats in the RV, then headed over to Matt's. He wouldn't be home for another few hours, so it couldn't hurt to check on Slim again while we looked for chocolate. Jayne seemed down. And not just because we didn't have the sweets she wanted. I could tell she'd thought the visit to Charlie's would uncover something big and it hadn't.

Now, she was bummed. A feeling no doubt made worse by the hormones raging inside her. Chocolate was my number one priority.

We went in, turned off the alarm, and greeted Slim, who'd come running toward us.

"Aw," Jayne said. "I bet he thought we were Matt. I'm sorry, little dude. Your dad will be home soon." She picked him up. "You want some treats? Come on, a few will be all right."

While she got him the promised treats, I started looking around the kitchen for chocolate. Whatever I found, I'd reimburse Matt for. His pantry was pretty utilitarian. Pasta, cereal, rice, canned goods. Probably because he traveled so much. I'd been hoping for a package of chocolate chip cookies or something.

I went to the freezer next, thinking I'd find the ice cream he'd bought for Jayne. She was making Slim work for the treats by tossing them across the floor. He ran after them, seemingly happy with the game.

The freezer had the ice cream he'd bought for her along with a pint of mango sorbet and another pint of pistachio gelato. That was not going to cut it.

I opened the fridge, feeling like I was about to be searching for the nearest convenience store. My gaze landed on something that looked promising. "Hey, how about these?" I took the box out and held it up.

Jayne straightened, smiling, but as soon as she saw the box in my hands, her smile vanished. She shook her head. "That's a very strange coincidence."

I frowned. "What is?"

"Charlie had that same box of chocolates in her refrigerator."

That was a strange coincidence. "Maybe … Matt got them for her as a thank-you and bought a box for himself, too?"

"Maybe." But I could tell Jayne was unconvinced. She tossed the last treat to Slim and walked over. "I don't know what to think."

"You're sure they're the same?"

"Luminere Chocolates." She took out her phone, tapped the screen a few times, then turned it around to show me. It was definitely the same box. "Hard to miss that gold and purple box."

"Yeah, that's the same all right." I stared at the box. "Doesn't mean Matt's involved."

"No, it doesn't. But…"

I nodded. "Yeah." The sensation in my gut wasn't a pleasant one. I didn't know what to make of the chocolates. Matt couldn't be involved. There had to be a simple explanation. I put the box back in the fridge. "How about we borrow Matt's car again and go in search of a convenience store? I'm sure we can find enough chocolate at one of those to take care of your craving."

"I have a better idea." Phone still in hand, she tapped away. She stared at the screen a moment, then smiled and looked at me. "My mom and Aunt Klara are both sending me some chocolate through the Santa's bag."

"Even better."

We said goodbye to Slim and went back to the RV.

At the door, Jayne turned to me. "Are you going to wait up for Matt to get home? So you can talk to him?"

"I was thinking about it. Why?" I opened the door for her. "Do you think I shouldn't?"

She went inside, so I followed. She grabbed a Dr Pepper out of the fridge. "I'm sure he'd appreciate it. He'd probably love someone to talk to. Or maybe he wouldn't. You know him better than I do. But if you do talk to him, I don't think you should tell him we're looking into things."

"No, I don't think I should tell him that, either. Not yet anyway." I glanced out the windows at his house. "I'll text him and tell him if he wants to talk when he gets in, to text me back. Otherwise, we'll see him in the morning."

"All right." She opened the cabinet where we kept the Santa's Bag. It was basically a delivery portal to and from the North Pole. "Score!"

I chuckled. "What did they send you?"

She pulled out two containers, opening the red tin first. "Looks like chocolate marshmallow fudge. That'll work." She closed that and opened the blue one. "Oooh … an assortment of chocolates, including peppermint cream drops, chocolate-covered Oreos, and one I don't recognize."

She took a bite out of one of the new chocolates and let out a gasp. She held the other half of it out to me. "Here. Taste this. I think I know what it is, but I want confirmation."

I ate the bite she'd given me. As the dark chocolate shell cracked under my teeth, the flavor of the filling was unmistakable. "If that's not some kind of Dr Pepper cream filling, I don't know what it is."

She grinned. "That's what I thought, too." She looked in the Santa's Bag again. "Hang on. There's a note." She unfolded the paper and read it. "Hope these do the trick. We can send more if you want. The blue tin has some of your favorites but also a new chocolate the royal chocolatier is working on. He'd love your feedback."

I narrowed my eyes. "There's a royal chocolatier?"

She nodded. "They hired him about a month ago. He's part of the team in charge of refreshments for the celebration of Jack Jr.'s birth."

"I see. That might be the most winter elf thing ever."

She smiled. "The entire kingdom is very excited about his impending arrival."

"Not as excited as we are."

"No," she said softly, her smile radiant. "We've got them beat on that."

"Are those tins enough?"

"Yeah, these will do. In fact, I'm going to put on my nightgown, get into bed, and read and eat until I fall asleep. Which probably won't take long. It's been a busy day."

"It has," I agreed. "I'm going to look through those reports Birdie sent."

"Oh, real quick, let me upload the photos and video I took at Charlie's. Then you can look at those, too."

She got that done, then went off to the bedroom. I settled in at the table to catch up, the laptop screen light making it a little hard to see out the window next to me but not so much that I'd miss Matt's return.

The police reports on the break-ins didn't have anything more to share than what Jayne had already told me. The reports on Charlie were much the same, but reading them and seeing the photos of Charlie in her bed, knowing that there was no life in her … it was a lot.

I took a moment before moving on to the photos and video Jayne had taken. Charlie's apartment was small, but Jayne had been thorough. I watched carefully, looking for anything that stood out to me, but at the end of it, nothing did.

Nothing except the box of chocolates that matched the box in Matt's fridge.

I exhaled. I needed to know more about that. I sent Matt a text, knowing he was still half an hour from landing. If you want to hang out when you get in, I'm up.

It was a long shot. The only thing he'd probably want to do was go straight to bed. If so, fine. I'd talk to him in the morning. But I wanted, no, I needed answers. I could not believe my friend was tied up in this.

My phone vibrated. I checked the incoming message. It was from Matt.

Should be home in 40, maybe sooner. See you then.

I spent another half an hour on the videos and photos, then checked on Jayne. She was sleeping, the cats curled up near her. I put the lids back on the tins of chocolate and put them in the kitchen, then headed over to Matt's, making sure to lock up the RV behind me.

I'd been sitting on the steps maybe ten minutes when headlights appeared at the end of the drive. As he parked and got out, I went down to meet him. "Welcome home."

"Thanks. It's good to be back." He shook his head, sadness in his eyes. "I can't get over Charlie."

"We feel the same way, and we barely knew her."

He hoisted his computer bag strap over his shoulder and pulled a small, rolling bag from the backseat. "How's Jayne?"

I was touched he'd asked. "She's all right. Upset, as you can imagine. We got to meet Charlie last night when she came to take care of Slim. She was so nice."

Matt stared blankly past me, his thoughts no doubt on Charlie. "Yeah, she was." He looked at me again. "You want a beer?"

"Sure."

We went inside, Matt plugging in his code to turn off the alarm. He called out, "Slim? Daddy's home."

Slim's head appeared over the top of the sofa. Matt grinned. "Hey, buddy." Slim climbed down and trotted toward Matt. He nodded at me. "I don't know what I'd have done if you guys hadn't been here to take care of him."

"I'm glad we could do it."

Matt dropped his stuff by the door and picked Slim up, scratching his neck and ruffling his fur. "Come on, let's grab some beers."

I went into the kitchen with him. It was impossible not to look at the box of chocolates when he opened the fridge. Words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Those look like nice chocolates."

"You want one?" Matt asked.

I shook my head. "No, thanks. Just curious. Jayne loves chocolate."

He got the box out and passed them to me. "Give these to her. My thanks for taking care of Slim. Looking at them just reminds me of Charlie."

"Why's that?"

"I picked up two boxes last week when I was in San Diego. The saleswoman told me they were intensely flavored. I thought Charlie might like them." He got that faraway look again. "See, she got kicked in the head by a horse when she was a kid. It resulted in a traumatic brain injury, which, thankfully, she was able to overcome. But it damaged her olfactory nerves and left her with a pretty limited sense of smell and taste."

"That's awful."

"I know. Ironic that she went on to work with animals, but she loved them. Anyway, you saw how thin she is—was—right?"

"Yeah."

"It's because food doesn't—didn't have the appeal to her that it does to most of us. She liked really strong flavors, spicy things, anything a little over the top. I thought the chocolates seemed like something that would appeal to her."

I nodded. "That was nice of you." I had no reason to doubt him.

He handed me a beer, grabbing one for himself. We sat in the living room, him on one couch with Slim, me on another.

"How was your trip?"

"Fine," he said. "Crisis averted, so it was worth going." He tipped his beer back, taking a long pull. "This thing with Charlie, though." He shook his head. "There is no way she killed herself. She loved life. Loved her job. She was a happy person."

His brow wrinkled. "Mostly."

"What do you mean?"

"The last month or two, she seemed … I don't know. A little preoccupied at times. Almost nervous. Or maybe jumpy is a better word."

"Any idea why?"

"No. I asked her if she was okay, and she just laughed it off and said she was fine. I didn't push because I didn't want to upset her and, frankly, it wasn't my business." He sighed. "Now I wish I had tried a little harder to find out what was going on."

I wished he had, too, but I understood. "Did she have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, sort of. Again, we didn't talk about that kind of stuff too much, but I got the sense they were on-again, off-again."

"What made you think that?"

"She got a call once. Looked at the screen, rolled her eyes, then saw me watching and shrugged. She said it was her soon-to-be-ex and that getting back together had been a bad idea."

"How often did you see her?"

"Not that often. Usually, I just talked to her on the phone or by text, but she lived close, so it was no big deal for her to stop by. Sometimes, if I didn't know how long I'd be gone, I'd pay her when I got back. She'd come to the house and pick up a check. The last time I saw her was about a week ago, when I gave her those chocolates." He ran his hand down Slim's back. "I had no idea I'd never see her again."