She heard water splashing, heard him grunt out an answer. He didn’t sound good, and she wondered what the hell was going on.
As Mystery raced back to her aunt’s side, foreboding gonged through her belly. Everyone around her today seemed afflicted by some ailment. Had someone concocted a ploy to get her alone? But who could have tampered with Axel’s bladder, as well as Heath’s and Aunt Gail’s equilibrium? She would have suspected the attorney, but he hadn’t been at the café. She’d love to blame Patrice, but shouldn’t any drug the skanky waitress put in their food have taken effect within thirty minutes?
Thankfully, Mystery guided her aunt down the stairs, and she seemed to recover a bit with the exertion. Outside, the brisk wind in her face revived her a bit, too.
She helped Aunt Gail around to the passenger’s door and opened it for her. “There you go. Get settled, and I’ll be back with Heath in a moment.”
“I don’t think so.” The older woman reached into her purse with a tight smile. When she withdrew her hand, she pointed a small gun right a Mystery’s heart. “Give me the keys and get in. Where you’re going, Heath will only be in my way.”
Chapter Eighteen
WHEN the taxi rolled up to the attorney’s building, Axel didn’t see Heath’s car parked along the street or in the adjoining lot. He cursed. He’d waited nearly twenty minutes for the shuffling old driver to show up in the first place. Thanks to the delay, he had no idea where to find Mystery, Heath, or her aunt now.
He pulled out his phone again and tried to dial the bodyguard. Nothing.
“Can you wait here? I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Axel didn’t even hang around for the taxi driver to acknowledge him. In less than an instant, he slammed the door and ran into the building, pausing to look at the directory to find the attorney before he darted up the stairs, taking two at a time until he reached the lawyer’s office.
At his approach, the receptionist sighed as she lowered her magazine, then blinked, gave him a once-over, and smiled sweet as pie. Axel didn’t have time for her games.
“Mystery Mullins and her party, how long ago did they leave?”
The fortyish woman with her teased highlights gaped at him. “Just a few minutes.”
“Did they say where they were headed?
She shook her head. “Not to me. Wait one second.” She picked up the office phone and presumably called Mystery’s mother’s attorney. A moment later, she hung up. “Ms. Mullins didn’t say anything to Mr. Osborne, either. The man with her asked me for the loo. That’s British for the restroom.” She acted as if the knowledge made her superior. “I directed him across the hall, and they left.”
Another freaking dead end, damn it. But Axel could stand to hit the head again, so he jogged in the direction the receptionist had gestured. As he walked in, he spotted Heath coming out of a stall, looking paler than a sheet.
“You’re here. Thank God. What the hell happened to you?” Axel asked.
“I think I was drugged. It was the coffee in the lawyer’s office.” He grimaced. “I nearly passed out, then realized what had happened. I made myself vomit. It’s still in my system, but I don’t think I absorbed all of the sedative.”
Maybe not, but he still looked damn weak. With a grudging sigh, Axel tugged down his zipper and used the urinal. “Where’s Mystery?”
“Why do you care?” Heath shot back. “You all but shagged that waitress at the café. Did you finish that, get bored, and decide to follow Mystery again?”
“No. Fuck off. The waitress admitted that she’s an actress and was paid to come on to me.”
Surprise rolled across Heath’s face, then suspicion took over again. “Why should I believe you? Why should Mystery?”
“If I have to lie to a woman to keep her, then I don’t deserve her. Seriously, someone staged the whole scene with Patrice at the café to separate me from Mystery. I’d suspect good ol’ Aunt Gail, but she has no money.”
Heath frowned. “If she intended to sell her sister’s secrets, she may have borrowed the funds against her forthcoming payday. Or perhaps she’s blackmailed someone into murdering Mystery.”
Axel hadn’t considered that previously—and didn’t want to now. “Where are Mystery and Gail?”
“They should be waiting in the car.”
“Where is it parked?” He hoped like hell he simply hadn’t seen where Heath had parked it.
“Out front.”
As he raised his zipper, foreboding rolled through his gut. “Not anymore. It’s gone.”
Heath’s eyes flared wide as he soaped his hands in the sink. “I can’t think of a single reason they’d move the car elsewhere. We weren’t in a no-parking zone.”
Quickly, Axel washed up, too. “Then she’s in danger. I’m beginning to suspect that her aunt sold her out.”
After a considering pause, Heath nodded. “She made coffee for everyone while we were at the bank. She was the only one who could have doctored the brew.”
“I’m convinced she gave me something that’s made me need to pee every ten damn minutes, probably in that lemonade I drank as we left the farm.”
“It’s possible she’s been waiting all these years for Mystery to claim her mother’s articles so she could gain control of whatever bloody secrets Mrs. Mullins held.”
“Or she may be guiltier than that. Maybe she’s looking to cover up her own crimes,” Axel grated out.
Together, they pushed out of the bathroom, Heath wearing a frown. They hit the stairs and began running down. So many possibilities. So little time to save the woman he loved.
“We have to find them. Any idea where to start?”
Heath still looked weak, like he wanted to puke again, but he sucked in a breath and grinned. “She’s got my key fob.” He reached for his phone. “I’m forever losing my keys, so I made sure I can track them.”
* * *
WITH her free hand, Aunt Gail snatched Heath’s keys from Mystery and shoved them in her purse. The woman was all business as she fished out a pair of handcuffs and, with an awkward one-handed maneuver, used them to restrain her niece to the car door.
Mystery would have fought back, but the barrel of the firearm hovered barely a foot away from her face.
Her aunt wore a ladylike little smile as she clicked the cuffs into place. “You couldn’t have been polite and simply drank your coffee. It contained a little something to keep you compliant. After so many years as a nurse, I know my controlled substances. I had a lovely Schedule Four waiting in your coffee, but you had to be difficult.” She heaved a sigh of annoyance. “Stay put.”
When her aunt would have shut the door, Mystery worked her way past the shock and stuck her foot out to block her. “No. Stop! What are you doing?”
Her aunt thrust the gun closer to her face, then glanced at her watch. “Shut up. I’ll explain on the drive. We’re running late.”
“For what?”
Aunt Gail just kicked her leg out of the way, her practical shoes surprisingly mean, then shut the door and bustled behind the car. The older woman climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot sedately, as if refusing to attract attention. “I had a car like this once, a nice big sedan. My father gave it to me as an engagement present.”
Engagement? Mystery thought her aunt had never been married—not that it mattered right now. Figuring out what the heck was going on and escaping did.
“Where are we going?” she demanded. “You can’t shoot me. I’m your niece. You’re—”
“Prepared to do what I must,” she snapped. “You’ve asked questions, and I’m trying to explain, so pay attention.
“When my engagement fell apart, I decided to move to Hollywood and try my hand at acting. I’d been in a few school plays. I could sing and dance reasonably well. I’d been told I was pretty. So I saved some money and packed my bags. Julia had graduated from high school the year before and didn’t want to live on the farm any more than I did.” Aunt Gail gave a long-suffering sigh. “Why I let her wheedle her way into driving to California with me, I’ll never know.”