I held the photo up to Lainey, who immediately looked away to stare at the bed-and-breakfast parking lot. She didn't have to answer. I already knew the truth.

It was her.

Standing next to Tyler Hill. Her stalker. He had his arm around her and they were both smiling.

Smiling!

"What the hell, Lainey?"

I bought eight cartons of eggs and she's taking pictures with the man?

She lifted her head, and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. "I can explain."

"That's what I'm waiting for you to do."

She tugged on her black shirt and leaned against the wall, leaving invisible fingerprints. "Tyler and I were more than teacher and son's father."

I waved the photo in front of me. "Yeah, I figured that out from the picture."

"We dated."

It took her forever to get to the good part of this story. "For how long?"

"A little less than two months. I thought he was the perfect guy, but then I found out he only went out with me to get his son a better grade. When I still failed him, Tyler went berserk. Everything else I told you is the full truth."

"Why leave out the dating part?"

She sighed heavily and twisted her fingers. "I don't know. Who wants to admit they were played? Or dated a jerk?"

"Hey, I've dated a jerk. We all have." I was currently considering redating my jerk but didn't admit it. Maybe she didn't deserve too much of my judgment for the violent and stalkery omission.

The two of them dating-even if only for a short period-did a lot more to explain his reaction to her leaving the school and their relationship. The jilted lover motivation was a tale as old as time.

Lainey looked like she didn't want to hear it, so I didn't mention that I suspected Tyler liked her more than just for his kid's grade. He wouldn't go to these extremes for someone he was simply using.

"Do you want to throw more of his shit out the window?" I asked when her gaze turned into a faraway expression.

Lainey gave me a pained laugh. "No. I'm not sure why we threw out the ones we did."

I tossed the photo back into the trash. "We can't let someone see us rolling out a piece of luggage from a room. That's stealing 101. We'll gather up the clothes before getting in the car and toss them in the dumpster behind the bakery, and no one will be the wiser."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "That's actually... kind of smart."

"I know. I said I had a splendid plan." Everyone underestimated my plans.

"I don't remember the word splendid being used," Lainey said, and then a caw from somewhere in the bed-and-breakfast cut off her next sentence.

Shit. That was Katy giving us a warning.

I hadn't had nearly enough time to snoop through shit yet, but at least I saw nothing too ominous. Like a gun or a how to kill Lainey McLeod list. It would have to be enough.

There wasn't a second caw, and as I crossed my fingers Katy sent out a false alarm. My heart beat picked up, and I ran to the eggs, sliding around the end of the bed.

"Are we going to smash them in his room?" Lainey asked as she met me next to the nightstand.

"No!" I stood between her and her stack of egg cartons. She reached for one and I slapped her hand. "Katy will kill me. These quilts are handmade."

She'd ordered them from a local artisan and fought with her boyfriend and official bed-and-breakfast owner Pierce for over a month about the cost. He'd finally given in when Katy agreed to move in with him.

And then she let me sublease her place. So really, it worked out well for me. I couldn't destroy the comforters. It was my gift to her.

Another caw broke up my thought process.

I handed Lainey a carton of eggs. "Put one in each shoe and smash them."

That would stop them from getting Katy's room dirty and ruining our friendship. I gently sat a carton on the middle of the bed and then cracked open another carton and dumped them in the bathtub and sink. A few eggs broke, but the yokes slithered down the drain.

Lainey piled the eggs in the shoes until they were falling out the top and I left a line of eggs across the top of the dresser in front of the disgusting fake gum. The room resembled Easter morning where the bunny spent the previous night on a drinking binge.

A caw and then a cough as if someone was choking on air came from the first floor of the bed-and-breakfast.

I opened the room door and waved at Lainey. "Time to go."

Lainey was two steps behind me as I carefully closed the room door to not make a sound, and we tiptoed down the main hallway toward the staircase we used originally.

"Mr. Hill, a gas leak is a very serious thing. We can't have you mysteriously dying in your sleep. Think of the lawsuits," Katy said as she huffed after a man up the grand staircase.

Lainey and I stopped walking. I searched side to side looking for a place to hide, but there weren't any cutaways in this part of the house. Plastic rustled as Lainey stepped back and bumped into the yellow caution tape. I tried the door handle on the murder room and it didn't budge.

"I highly doubt there's a gas problem in just my room, Miss," Tyler Hill said, sounding like a perfect gentleman. "But thank you for the concern. I'll make sure and leave it in my Yelp review."

We were running out of time! There wasn't a window to jump out of and if we raced for the staircase, we'd draw more attention to ourselves. He couldn't see us here.

"You really must take this seriously," Katy said and then cawed again.

In another ten seconds, they'd both be on us and they'd catch us egg-handed. It would blow Katy's cover of not being involved and my streak of not being arrested.

Tyler paused on the staircase to glance back at my blonde friend. "Why the hell do you keep making that noise?"

Katy coughed and cleared her throat. "Allergies."

In a moment of perfect desperation, I waved the room card from Katy at the murder rooms door lock and the green light flashed. Not concerned with room noise, I jammed on the handle and pulled Lainey under the caution tape into the room.

My foot caught on the bottom piece someone hadn't tapped well and it ripped away. Officer Bradley probably did the shitty tape job so I didn't feel badly about the distraction.

I hovered by the door, not letting it close all the way to allow myself to see into the hallway.

Tyler hit the top of the steps with Katy right behind him.

She glanced to the right and then the left. "Oh, I guess the gas is gone. Have a good night and rest well."

The man gave her one last rude look, but Katy was already halfway down the staircase. With a shake of his head, he unlocked his room door and shut it behind him.

"Can we go?" Lainey whispered.

I shook my head and waited. He'd be back out in a second, and I didn't want to be caught in the hallway. We'd be safer in the murder room. I glanced behind me at the wall where I'd seen the six bullet holes earlier in the week.

Who the hell was my second shooter? I pulled open the door another half an inch and peered across the hall. Trish was in that room, but she didn't see anyone? It didn't seem right. None of the clues seemed right. I sniffed and swore the powder scent from the shots still coated the air.

A loud explicative came from Tyler's room and I froze. The door down the hall opened and Tyler raced out, letting it slam shut behind him.

When his pounding footsteps put him halfway to the first floor, I led Lainey from the room, twisting our bodies between the still-standing caution tape and to the hidden back staircase.

We both grabbed an armful of clothing from the parking lot, leaving a few pieces behind, and tossed them in the backseat of my car. It wasn't until I'd thrown the items into the dumpster behind the bakery-no point in leaving incriminating evidence in my vehicle longer than needed-that Lainey asked her first question.

I knew they were coming, but everyone had a different time threshold.

"How is putting eggs in his shoes going to help?" she asked as we passed the pelican on our way back to her place.

My blinker sounded extra loud in the dark night. "Mind games."

"Do we want to play mind games with Tyler?"

I nodded. We had to stop fearing men and take back our lives. Rally against the patriarchy. Rather than start my "men suck" rant, I stuck to the facts. "We've shown him he can get to you, but we can also get to him. And we know what he's done. Trust me. I know how to piss off a man."

I'd been doing it my entire life.

Lainey hesitated and tapped her fingers on the armrest. "I don't want to piss him off. I just want him to go away."

"In due time. In due time." Once he realized she had friends here and would not take his shit, he'd move on. They always did.

And on the off chance he didn't, I'd take some pictures of his inappropriate behavior and send them to his mother. That one definitely always worked.

I let Lainey out at the entrance to her apartment complex, and we waved goodbye to one another. "I'll call you with phase two soon," I said out the lowered window.

First, I had to figure out phase two.

After making sure Lainey made it into her building, I drove to my old apartment in the converted home to check on the spawn of Satan. I mean... Spencer.

A television with its volume all the way up blasted from Mrs. Mets' apartment as I snuck to the basement level. If she caught me again, she'd definitely demand that tour.

"Spencer," I whispered as I entered the empty place.

His litter box was in the middle of the living room, but there wasn't a single movement in the space.

"Spencer?" I crept in and shut the door behind me. "Where are you?"

I stood on my tiptoes to check the top of the fridge, but no tuxedo kitten waited to jump on me and claw my face off.

Adrenaline flooded my system. Had I lost Frankie's cat?

He'd kill me.