Page 42 of Reclaiming Chaos
Manicured hedges framed the entrance next to a healthy lawn with precision pruned trees. A circular drive led to the three-story home.
Two expensive cars were parked in front. Behind them was the vehicle I’d been following. The man was nowhere in sight.
I parked, grabbed Carlee’s premonition book from the passenger seat, and stuffed it inside my jacket pocket before exiting my car.
Birds chirped nearby, splashing in the fountain. Sprinklers on one side of the lawn were in full motion, while, on the other side of the yard, men dressed in large shady hats and uniforms carried plants from a nearby truck. The scent of freshly cut grass made my nose twitch.
I jogged up the stairs to the landing and was headed for the front door when it opened. A butler stood at the entryway. “Special Agent Bennett. Can I take your coat?”
“No thanks, I won’t be here long.”
“Certainly, sir. If you’ll follow me, Mr. Russell is waiting for you in the dining room.”
Crystal chandeliers hung in the entryway. A maid scurried by going about her routine. Freshly baked bread scented the air as I followed the butler. The hallway opened to a large room with polished-smooth stone banisters that led to a second floor.
The butler gestured with his hand down another corridor. “Right this way.”
I followed him down the wide walkway where paintings hung on both cream-colored walls and where statues and flower arrangements sat on the tables we passed.
As beautiful as the house was, it didn’t look lived in.
It had me missing my own home. One I hadn’t seen in the last three weeks.
The butler stepped under the archway into an enormous dining room. The room had a raised ceiling complete with a crystal chandelier hanging over the table. White inlay marble covered the floor beneath a long dark cherry table that could hold ten people comfortably with room to spare.
Mr. Russell was sitting at the end of the table. A breakfast spread sat in front of him along with a glass of orange juice and a coffee cup.
I’d expected Russell and the man from the car. It was the woman sitting next to Russell that was a complete surprise.
