Zachary seemed to take her presence in stride. “So where’s Aidan?” he asked cheerfully.
“He’s upstairs,” she said.
He nodded. “Mmm. I smell coffee.”
“In the kitchen,” she said.
Aidan made his appearance just then; she heard his footsteps on the stairway and felt him come up behind her. “Hey, Zach.”
“I’ll just run up and shower and get ready. Saturday is one of our busy days,” she said. No point in pretending she’d just dropped by. Given her current apparel, it was more than obvious that she had slept here….
“Excuse me,” she mumbled, and fled.
When she came back down a little while later, she found the brothers in the kitchen, talking.
“It’s a ridiculous threat,” Aidan was saying.
“What’s a ridiculous threat?” she asked, going for a second cup of coffee.
“Jeremy got a caller last night who knew we were thinking of having another benefit out here, which is kind of strange because we haven’t really talked about it. Not that it was a secret. I mean, we’ve all mentioned it to someone. But the guy had a really creepy voice and said we were all going to die if we brought people out here for a party.”
“Maybe it was our guy with the voodoo-doll fetish,” Zach said.
“Maybe,” Aidan agreed.
“Wouldn’t that make him…kind of a nutcase?” Kendall asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Aidan agreed. “And it just means we’ll work all the harder to have this place ready for Halloween.”
“So you’re into the idea now, too?” Zach asked.
Aidan grinned. “Nothing like telling me I can’t do something to make me want to do it.” He took a long swallow and finished his coffee. “Listen, Zach. I’ll be back in a few hours. I just have to take Kendall in and meet someone for coffee. While I’m out, will you ask the contractor to talk to the electrician about getting some wiring into that far back shack?” He paused. “And if our tenant is still out there, would you let him know? I told him yesterday that he could stay, that we’d work something out.”
“I’ll take a walk back there, see if I find him,” Zach assured him.
“And if you have a chance, go through the rest of those files you pulled off the computer. See who you can call to get any information about the other women who’ve disappeared. See if they actually made it here to New Orleans.”
“Will do,” Zach said.
As they left, the drive was beginning to fill up with the various subcontractors’ vehicles.
Kendall looked back at the house as they drove away. It was gleaming white and beautiful in the sun. And it was just a house.
A house where she had seen a mysterious man in the kitchen.
“Are you all right?” Aidan asked, looking at her.
“Fine,” she told him quickly.
They were both silent for a moment.
“Are you all right?” she asked him then.
“Fine,” he said.
“You never told me about your nightmare.”
He shrugged. “I swear, I’ve never sleepwalked before. And the dream was…bizarre. I guess I’ve been getting obsessed with this case. I dreamed that Amelia was telling me that I had to help…someone.”
“Really?” Kendall asked. Just like Miss Ady.
But neither of them had dreamed of a sad man with skin the color of café au lait.
The same man who went to the bar. If he was a ghost…
She almost asked Aidan if he had ever noticed the man, but she bit her lip and kept silent. This was getting crazy, though. He was having dreams, and she was seeing ghosts.
Matty Burningham was already at the coffeehouse when he arrived. She told him she’d waited to order, and he decided to go ahead and have an omelet with her.
She was nervous, talking about the dress she’d bought for the gala, asking him about the house. At last he set his hand over hers and stopped her. “Matty, what’s up with you? Why did you want to see me?”
For a moment he thought she was going to cry, and he really hoped she wouldn’t, because he wasn’t much good with tears.
“It’s Jonas, of course.”
“Matty, I wouldn’t worry about anything. He loves you.”
“You think?” she asked a little bitterly. She looked at him squarely. “Aidan, is he cheating on me?”
“Matty, I haven’t seen an awful lot of Jonas lately, you know.”
“But you know him. You did work together once.”
“Matty, I’m sure he loves you,” Aidan said.
“I did everything for him,” she said. “Boobs, face—and it wasn’t as if I were wrinkled like a prune or anything.”
“Matty, you’re beautiful now, and you were beautiful before. It’s all a matter of how you feel about yourself.”
“That’s just it. I didn’t care. I did it for him, and it doesn’t seem as if…He doesn’t seem interested in me anymore. It’s as if…I don’t know. It’s as if he’s bored.”
“Matty, I’m sure things will work out. Have you tried talking to him?”
“Yeah, he acts as if there’s nothing wrong.”
“Maybe there isn’t.”
“Oh, Aidan. You’re just being sweet.”