If We Never Met (Whisper Lake #5) - Barbara Freethy Page 0,58
"You've never made some poor intern try to find you a steak sandwich at six in the morning?"
"I am not an early riser. Did you really have to do that?"
"Yes, and this designer had to have the steak from a particular restaurant. I had to wake up the chef to get him to make it."
"Why would the chef agree?"
"The designer had a lot of parties in his restaurant."
"So, the designer got what they wanted, and the chef got something in return. What did you get?"
"A stress headache."
He smiled. "But you were willing to do whatever it took to get to where you wanted to go."
"I was. The longer I was there, the more opportunities I had. I was seeing a brighter light at the end of the tunnel. Then my mom got in the accident, and I dropped everything and came home. In the beginning, I thought it would just be for a few weeks or months, but it became clear very quickly that it would be a year or more. So, I quit my job and sold what I'd left behind. I never went back."
"Do you want to go back?"
"I don't know. That's a question for another day, too."
As they exchanged a long look, both very aware of the precariousness of their futures, the doorbell rang once more. "That must be the stove."
"I'll get out of the way."
"You can go back to the inn if you want," she said, as she got to her feet.
"No way. We still have to research Mandy and Langley. I'll go to the living room. I can get started while you deal with the stove."
"Okay." She grabbed her computer off the counter and handed it to him. "You can use this if you want. I bookmarked the article about the fire, too, if you're interested." She related her password as they headed toward the front door. She was happy Dante was staying. It didn't even matter if they found out anything; she just didn't want to say goodbye to him yet.
Chapter Sixteen
While Keira watched over the installation of the stove in the kitchen, Dante went on her computer and read the news article she'd saved. Then he moved on to Amanda Yates, or Mandy Yates, as she might be known. Her face popped up on a social media profile, and his heart skipped a beat. It was her—the woman with the dark-red hair who he'd seen in the parking garage with Langley. Keira had been right. Mandy was Amanda, Gretchen's sister.
He spent several minutes reading through Amanda's profiles on several sites. She had apparently been a teacher in Los Angeles at some point. But that ended several years ago. Her status was single, but there was mention of a divorce in some of her posts. He didn't see any children. Her birthdate wasn't public, but from the very few photos she had posted, she appeared to be in her late forties, early fifties.
She wasn't a particularly active poster. Months passed in between her posts, but as he read through the feed, it felt like she had an incredibly morbid fascination with her dead sister. There were mentions of Gretchen on her birthday, the anniversary of her death, in relation to a dog they'd once had. Mandy also posted photos of herself and her sister, saying that a piece of her heart had died with her. She said she'd gotten a divorce because her husband just couldn't stand how sad she was. There were hints of darkness in additional cryptic quotes about justice and revenge. She wrote in one post how unfair life was, how guilty people went free, while innocent people died.
Was she referring to Langley? Was it possible that Mark had something to do with that fire?
Frowning, he turned away from Mandy to search for additional information on the fire. Finally, he found one article that had slightly different information than the one that Keira had discovered. It said that the origin of the fire was believed to be a cigarette that had fallen between the cushions of the sofa. The only person who had been in the house at that time was the nanny, Gretchen Yates, who had perished. The assumption was that she'd been smoking and had dropped the cigarette. The Langley family had been vacationing in Malibu that weekend and were devastated by the news. There was a statement from Mark Langley: "We are beyond sad at the loss of Gretchen Yates, a trusted and loved member of the family."