Maddy went into the locker room to changeafter her shift. Grateful to change out of her uniform on the hotday, she changed into ankle length skinny jeans and tucked in herbreezy button up top.
She had agreed to not going anywhere alone.Ian had kindly agreed to escort her to Flotsam Antiques on his wayhome where she’d planned to meet up with Payson. Maybe his offerwas self-serving, but she didn’t care. He was a good sportregardless.
On the way, he filled her in on the info fromthe plates he’d run. Which was nothing. No information. Registeredto a fake name at a fake address. Unlikely they’d use those platesagain after Lang’s arrest.
Payson was assisting a customer, so Maddytook a moment to relax and peruse the shop. She admired a few newpieces that had come in. There was a reclaimed wood side table thatpractically had her name written on it. She sat on the brownleather chair next to it and rested her eyes for a moment. Just afew moments of rest and she’d be good to go. Five minutes, that’sall she needed.
"Boo!" Maddy about jumped out of the chairwhen she discovered Payson had snuck up behind her and booed in herear.
She glared at her friend. "You are a trulyhorrible human being! You scared me to death."
Payson laughed, "Looks like someone needsmore sleep. Stay up too late all weekend?"
Maddy's vision went all soft when she thoughtabout her amazing weekend, suddenly forgiving her friend forscaring her. "Yes, I sure did. Thanks for asking."
"Uh-huh. Can I say I-told-you-so? Natureknows what she’s doing." Payson nudged her friend playfully, thenwalked around the wagon wheel coffee table to sit on the floralsettee across from her.
"In this case, yes, you can." Maddy didn'tmind the occasional told-you-so, especially when it was meantaffectionately.
"Yikes, I think you may be turning into acomplete sap," Payson teased. " I have a date of my own tonight, soI’m ditching you. Chase agreed to keep you company as soon as he’soff work."
"Really? And who is the lucky guy? Meet himthrough another online dating service?" Maddy replied with an eyeroll. Her friend had been on a quest to find Mr. Perfect sincebefore Maddy had met her. She'd had a remarkably terrible string ofblind dates and had resorted to online dating last winter, but shestill refused to give up.
"Hey, I'll have you know this one showspromise. He's a banker. Thirty years old. 5'10", black hair, blueeyes. Enjoys walks on the beach and drinking wine by the fire in asnowy ski lodge." Payson nodded stubbornly and put her hands on herhips defensively.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have been sarcastic. Ireally hope this one isthe one." Maddy felt for her friend.Their love lives had run in completely opposite directions sincemeeting each other. Payson had a regular, but terrible datingrecord. Maddy hadn't dated at all.
"I'm not optimistic, but worth a try. Whoknows?” Payson sighed, resigned. "Let's get you home so we can bothget ready for a hot night,” Payson teased.
Downright sweltering outside, they decidedagainst walking. Payson drove her home. Maddy waved back to Paysonwhen she made it safely inside the house. She turned the alarm tohome-mode and headed into her bedroom.
The bed was a disaster after 48 hours offairly constant inhabitance. She worked up a sweat pulling off thesheets and starting a load of laundry. Old cabin meant no airconditioner. She opened a few windows to catch the breeze off theocean, adjusting the alarm accordingly.
According to Payson, Chase hadn’t hesitatedwhen she had called him requesting that he babysit Maddy tonight soshe could go on her hot date. Although Maddy was not thrilled aboutthe term ‘babysitting,’ she was glad he wanted to come over. Anight apart had been his idea. He’d been trying to give her space,which she hadn’t wanted, but hadn’t argued as she wasn’t ready totell him yet that she didn’t want to give him up.
He would be here in a few hours, and shewanted everything freshened up and ready for a relaxing evening… orhopefully a not so relaxing evening. Maddy calmed her overactivelibido and put crisp white sheets on the bed, tidied the blankets,fluffed the pillows.
She stood in the doorway, hands on her hips,and admired her handiwork. Nothing was quite so inviting as cleanwhite sheets and a plush down comforter, facing out the windowtoward the ocean…
What the…?Something caught her eye onthe far wall. Just above the curtain rod was a circular dark spotshe hadn't noticed before. Huh.
A spider? She wasn’t afraid of spiders, butcertainly she didn’t want one crawling on her while she slept. Orwhile she was awake for that matter.
And, she wasn’t convinced it was a spider.She walked just to the side of it and pulled a chair over to get abetter look. Her heart stopped when she realized what it was.
A camera. Forcing air in and out of herparalyzed lungs, she slowly lowered herself off the chair.Tiptoeing, foolishly trying to avoid detection, she focused onmoving one foot in front of the other as she escaped the taintedroom. Before she fell into a complete panic attack. Breath in 2, 3,4… shit, she sucked at meditation.
Grabbing her phone from the entry table, shecalled Andrea as she lowered herself slowly to the floor before shepassed out. “Andrea, it's Maddy. I... he... there's a… spy-cam… inmy bedroom." She forced herself to breathe in and out.
Maddy could hear Andrea getting up quicklyfrom her desk. "I'm on my way. I'm bringing Mike with me. He's goodwith tech stuff. Stay where you are." Fearing she'd lose it if shespoke out loud, she nodded, knowing Andrea wouldn't wait for heragreement.
She sat frozen on the floor, legs pulled intight, afraid to move while she waited for Andrea and Mike. Now sheknew where the spare keys had gone.
The terrifying revelation crashed over her ina tidal wave. That day in Portland; she'd rushed out the door soquickly she hadn't locked up. It was the next morning that she'dnoticed her spare keys were missing. Had he installed the camerathat day, or come back later?
She hated to think of him coming in multipletimes. She'd have to change out all of her keys. At least she hadthe new alarm system. The security company was top notch; he’d haveto be ridiculously skilled to get past it.
The doorbell startled her, interrupting herfreaked out, overwhelmed brain. Andrea had made good time. Afterconfirming who was at the door with the video monitor, she let herboss and coworker in. Andrea pulled her in for a quick, sympathetichug, then got straight to business. "Where is it?"
