Anessa bit her bottom lip and cast her gaze to the floor. "I don't do well with angry mobs."

"You can't be a scaredy cat and make it in this town," Pearl said, leaning back in her chair. "Can I get that tea now? And one of those cookies Vonnie has in her hand since she already has it out."

Tabitha turned and started work on Pearl's tea, her hand no longer shaking.

Thirty minutes later, I waved goodbye and walked out of the bakery carrying an iced coffee and a cupcake. I finished the cupcake as I crossed the street, headed toward the bed-and-breakfast. Once the mob of people relocated, Tabitha and I made quick work of cleaning off the tables. I told her to call me if they returned, and I'd come back with Katy's megaphone.

I pushed through both double doors of the old Victorian style mansion. "Honey, I'm home."

No one answered.

The lobby was empty and quiet. Weirdly empty and quiet.

"Katy?"

The old school blue carpet looked freshly cleaned. It almost matched with the light blue color on the walls, but the normal woman who stood behind the check-in desk being nosy was nowhere to be found. The bed-and-breakfast restaurant was quiet when I peeked my head in the room. Their lunch rush must have been over already.

"Katy," I said in a much quieter whisper-yell. Were they all kidnapped?

The wooden door to the kitchen opened, and Katy peeked her head out. She had her blonde hair tied up in a high bun and half a cookie sticking out of her mouth. She shoved the rest of it in and chewed quickly when she saw me.

"Katy, are you cheating on Anessa's cookies? For shame." Everyone knew Anessa had the best cookies in town and, as best friends, she wasn't allowed to order inferior goods from anyone else. That was a best friend rule.

She shook her head, and a few crumbs fell out when she tried to answer. "No, I would never," she said with a hand covering her mouth. "She made them."

I shook my head. "So, you're stealing from your boss... wait. That's okay." Her boss was also her boyfriend and town billionaire.

Katy smiled as she walked to her stand where she checked in guests. "He'll survive the financial hit."

"True." I grinned. "Can you do me a favor and see if there's a guest here? I have a picture of him and his name."

Katy tilted her head to the side, her bun moving with her as one solid chunk. "Vonnie, you know guests' information is private."

"He's a suspected cheater." I tapped my index finger on the rim of her stand.

Her eyes narrowed into little slits and she puckered her lips before saying, "Give me his name."

"Carl Woodbury," I said and pulled up the photo Kylee sent me after our phone call.

Katy ducked below her table and pulled out a massively thick book. She called it her old-timey register.

"Ugh. Not this again, Katy. Just use the computer." The bed-and-breakfast had a high-tech registration system, but Katy enjoyed making everyone sign in the "old-fashioned" way. I think she just wanted their signatures on file.

Her lips puckered again. "Fine, but it's not as fun." She clacked around on the keyboard connected to the small screen at her desk. Her eyes lit up, and I already knew before she said, "He's here."

"What room?" I inched forward, leaning over the desk and trying to see on her screen as I sucked on my iced coffee.

Her head popped up. "Actually, this guy just left. I thought his photo looked familiar when you showed me, but so many people are always in and out of here. Plus, I'm getting rusty since Pierce is so anti me solving crimes now."

"Where did he go?" I dropped the empty iced coffee cup in the trash beside her stand.

"He asked for directions to Walmart," she said with a scowl at my snack.

Walmart? Why did he have to go there? "That's at least thirty minutes away."

Was he taking his mistress to Walmart?

Katy shrugged. "I tried to talk him out of it, but he was adamant."

"You get what that means?" I asked with a wink and explained in case she didn't. "It means I can have a little pop upstairs and take a quick peek."

She gave her head a quick shake. "Absolutely not. If Pierce finds out, he'd lose his mind. He's supposed to take me to the Grand Caymans next month. I am not messing up my beach trip."

"Katy, we all want you to stick your toes in the sane and drink a fancy coconut drink for us, but this is a woman's life on the line. She might marry a cheating bastard. We have to stand together as women."

She contemplated my mini speech, and I prepared a follow-up rally if she didn't give in.

"Fine," she whispered so the cameras wouldn't pick it up and opened a small drawer on her desk. "But Pierce can never find out. If he does, I'm telling him you beat me up for it."

"Deal," I whispered back to her.

In an overly loud voice, Katy said, "I just can't do it, Katy. I'm sorry. You'll have to find another way." She placed a plain white keycard on the table and, with her elbow, pushed it to the floor.

"Whatever. I thought we were friends, but I see how it is." I reached over and grabbed the key before quickly shoving it in my back pocket. "Now I'll have to figure out another way to save the women of this world."

"Yes, yes. It's tragic," Katy said, shaking her head and doing a horrible job of pretending to be upset about my tragedy. "On your way out to save the world, can you jump up to the second level and fix the carpet by room 209?"

"Really?" I threw my hands up, doing a much better job at our improv. "I'll do it but only because you're my best friend."

I trudged my way up the stairs, grumbling the entire time. You know, for added effect. We needed to keep the entire exchange believable. At the top of the stairs, I turned right and kept my gaze lower, like I had a genuine interest in the rug.

At room 209, I paused, leaned over, ran my finger along the edge of the rug, and nodded. Looked like I fixed it. When I stood again, I "accidentally" swiped the keycard across the holder. The green light flashed, and the door beeped.

"Oops." I pushed open the door with the toe of my shoe. "I better go inside and make sure everyone is okay."

I didn't even waste time with a backward glance into the hallway. Guilty people doing things they weren't supposed to be doing always glanced backward. Since I was just checking the safety of said room's inhabitants, I didn't need to check my surroundings. Also, Katy had my back. She'd yell if someone came into the lobby.

"Wow." At first glance, the room was empty and clean. The bed had been slept in, but he'd pulled the comforter up over his pillows on one side of the bed. The other side seemed untouched, meaning he'd slept alone.

Carl had his suitcase propped open on the luggage tray the bed-and-breakfast supplied, and I moved in that direction, pawing through his clothing quickly. Three pairs of khakis and four brightly colored polo shirts. His wardrobe looked like he was going to spend the day on the golf course or a sailboat.

I shuffled through all his luggage pockets and came back with nothing but a manual razor. Not a single condom or naughty picture. No handcuffs, lubricant, or other weird freaky things I'd found in the other cheating cases I'd worked.

The bathroom search came next, but once again, I found nothing useful. Only two things seemed out of place in the room-a towel he'd obviously used after a shower that morning, and a toothbrush.

A toilet flushed in a room somewhere close as I backed out of the space. I forgot to set a timer when I entered the room, so I had no idea how much time had passed, making me rush the last two searches. Not a single piece of women's or men's clothing hung in the closet, and I saw nothing in the small room trash can. I dropped to my knees to check under the bed and do my due diligence in searching. Nothing incriminating under there, either.

"Darn it." I wiped my hands on my pant legs and let myself out of Carl's room.

Katy was still standing at her desk when I walked past. "I fixed the carpet, non-best friend."

"Thank you!" she yelled at me as I walked out the front door. "Sorry I couldn't help you, but we are strict followers of the law."

My phone buzzed with a text as I hit the first step off the bed-and-breakfast porch. I cringed. Damn it. If this was Broadrick yelling at me for sneaking around, I'd have to come up with a better excuse than a rug to explain my maneuvering at the bed-and-breakfast. And worse, I'd have to update my map of Ridge's camera system.

KELVIN: Frank is on his dinner break.

Yes. I gave the air a fist bump. My arch nemesis at the morgue took exactly a one-hour lunch every afternoon. That meant I had to hightail it to the morgue to get an update on Emma's autopsy from my morgue spy for his boss clocked back in.

Shit. I stopped on the sidewalk leading toward my car. A cold sweat flushed my forehead even though it was a nice seventy-degree day.

That meant I'd have to see her body again.