“It’s about time you showed up, Gwen,” Wesley said. “I need to talk to you. “It’s important. I’ve come up with a dy***ite concept for Dead. It will take the series in a new direction.”
“Okay, give me a minute,” she said.
She opened the rear-seat door and reached inside with both hands to haul the cat carrier out of the vehicle. Max grumbled and flattened his ears.
“It’s your own fault you didn’t get to stay here and enjoy room service while we went out,” Gwen reminded him. “This is what you get for frightening housekeepers.”
Judson came around the front of the SUV, somehow managing to make it appear that he was unaware of Wesley’s presence.
“I’ll take Max,” Judson said.
“Thanks.” Gwen gave him the heavy carrier. “I’ll talk to Wesley in the lobby.”
“I’ll escort Max upstairs,” Judson said. “Don’t leave the inn.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
Judson finally deigned to acknowledge Wesley’s existence with a fractional inclination of his head.
“Lancaster,” Judson said evenly.
Wesley frowned impatiently. “I see you’re still around, Coppersmith.”
Judson ignored him. Instead, he angled his head and gave Gwen a quick, possessive kiss that caught her by surprise. He didn’t bother to wait for a response. Instead, he straightened and gave her a narrow-eyed look.
“Don’t be long,” he said. “Got a lot to do this afternoon.”
He headed for the lobby entrance, gripping the cat carrier in one hand as though it was weightless. Gwen watched him with a mix of irritation and amusement.
Wesley watched Judson, too, his jaw very tight. “Someday you’ll have to tell me what you see in Coppersmith.” He paused deliberately. “Besides the Coppersmith family money, that is.”
“You know, insulting me and the man I’m currently dating is probably not the best way to start this conversation.”
Wesley grimaced. “I know. Sorry about that. It’s just that I really need your help at the moment, and I’m getting the feeling that Coppersmith is doing his best to stand in my way.”
“You and I have a business relationship,” she said. “Judson understands that. The tearoom is empty at this time of day. Why don’t we talk in there? I’m sure the staff won’t mind if we use one of the tables for a private conversation.”
“Fine.”
She led the way through the lobby and into the quiet tearoom. She took a seat at a table near the window. Wesley sat down across from her.
“Where have you been?” he asked. “I waited nearly an hour and a half for you to show up.”
“I had no idea that you were back in Wilby. Why didn’t you call to make an appointment?”
“I tried. Your phone was off.”
Belatedly she remembered she had turned off her phone when they went to Nicole’s shop.
“Sorry, my fault,” she said. “We’ve been busy. She dove into the tote, took out the phone and switched it back on. She glanced at the list of missed calls. “You called six times?”
“I was starting to get worried, if you want to know the truth.”
She dropped the phone back into the bag. “About what?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, two women were recently found dead in this very small town within the past forty-eight hours. This morning you went missing.”
“I wasn’t missing.”
“No one here at the inn knew where you were. All anyone could say for sure was that you were last seen in the company of Judson Coppersmith.”
She took a breath and let it out slowly. “Sorry. It never dawned on me that anyone would be worried.”
“I don’t think anyone else except me was concerned,” Wesley said. “But I have to tell you Evelyn’s death shook me. And now the local witch is dead in a house fire. Maybe I’ve done one too many Dead of Night episodes, but the town of Wilby is starting to give me the creeps. When you didn’t answer your phone this morning, I guess I overreacted.”
“Louise,” Gwen said. She spoke quietly but firmly.
“What?”
“The dead woman’s name is Louise Fuller. And for the record, she was not into witchcraft. She was a troubled soul who was plagued with some serious mental health issues.”
Wesley reddened. “Sorry. I seem to be doing a great job of offending you today, and believe me, that’s the last thing I want to do.”
“Tell me why you tried to call me six times today and why you waited an hour and a half for me to show up here.”
Excitement transformed Wesley’s handsome face.
He leaned forward, braced his arms on the table and started talking in low, urgent tones.
“It’s the perfect way to revitalize the series,” he said. “Don’t know why I didn’t think of it right away. It was the shock of hearing that Evelyn was dead, I guess. At first all I could think of was finding her files.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, I should have guessed. You were the one who searched Evelyn’s office after her body was removed, weren’t you?”
“Now, Gwen, it wasn’t like that. I didn’t take anything.”
“How could you do such a thing? Talk about invading the privacy of the dead. Talk about illegal as hell. It’s called breaking and entering, you know. People go to jail for stuff like that.”
Wesley’s eyes darkened with outrage. “You’re accusing me of breaking into Evelyn’s house?”
“It wasn’t an accusation,” Gwen said. “More like a statement of fact.”
“Based on what?”
“Intuition.”
“You can’t go around accusing people of illegal actions based on intuition.”
“It was you. Don’t bother to deny it.”
“All right, I dropped by her house that day, but I swear I didn’t take a damn thing. And I didn’t break in. The back door was unlocked when I got there. All I did was take a look through her files. I was her employer. I have a right to whatever she was working on at the time of her death.”
“That house belongs to me now. Don’t go near it again without my permission.”
“Calm down. I apologize.” Wesley slumped into his chair. “I’ve got no reason to go back there, anyway. And just to be absolutely clear, I repeat, I didn’t take anything.”