Page 14 of The Familiar Stranger

Maybe a little too aggressive, Sloane.

I dialed back on the intensity.

“Look, we consider you both our friends,” I said. “I have no pull here with the police. What’s going on? Please. It’s nothing about us wanting to know all the sordid details out of some twisted curiosity. Trust me when I say we have a lot of experience in this area. We’re good at what we do.”

Almond shot Maddie daggers for a few seconds, and I braced myself, thinking we were about to be kicked out the proverbial door.

Then she surprised me.

“Come on, then,” she said. “We’ll go to my office for some privacy. Follow me.”

And we did.

Along the way we passed a myriad of machines and mats and ropes and trainers working their clients into a lather. A powerful beat emanated from unseen speakers, ratcheting up the energy. It was small but impressive, and I felt a pang of guilt that I hadn’t been more committed to my own exercise routine.

Almond’s office space was a stark contrast to the hard angles in the gym area. Low, plush seating in neutral tones, décor that focused on positivity of mindset and manifesting the power of self-care, and calming music—none of the rhythmic beat could be heard from the outside. It was like a happy cocoon. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was Harmony’s office and not Almond’s.

Maddie had been holding herself tight, and it showed in her face and shoulders. She was doing everything she could to refrain from further comment—at least for now, which was good. When we walked into the room, she appeared to relax a bit, some of the tension draining. Maybe because, in this space, Almond seemed more … human? And not so robotic like she came off at times.

Almond slid onto a brown velvet loveseat and gestured for us to sit in the matching chairs opposite her. She lifted a teapot from a tray in the center of a low circular table. “Want some chamomile? Or anything else? I’ve got plenty of other options.”

“Chamomile would be fantastic,” I said, and Maddie agreed.

She filled a couple of mugs and handed them to us, the silence lingering for a moment as the tea cooled down enough for us to drink.

I was about to speak when she said, “Sorry … you know, about everything.”

“I’m sorry too,” Maddie said.

“I can only imagine the tension you’re feeling right now, Almond,” I said. “We’re not trying to add to it. We mean it when we say we want to help.”

I wanted to keep the door open, to get her talking. If there was any indication that she might have written the note, that she might have been the perpetrator of injury and threats to Harmony, I needed to focus on her words and mannerisms. If she was guilty, maybe she’d slip up.

“Okay, first things first.” She massaged her temples and looked at Maddie. “To be honest, I have some—” she tilted her head this way and that “—some jealousy issues, maybe? I get aggravated when men and women come up to Harmony and flirt with her. Sometimes I get mad at her too, but it’s uncalled for, and she never starts it. She loves me, and I know it. But my nerves just fire off. I was feeling a little bit of that with you, Maddie, at the vineyard. And I mean it when I say I’m sorry.”

Maddie’s tenseness subsided, and she stood up, walked over to Almond, and gave her a big hug. The gesture seemed to surprise Almond, but she didn’t reject it.

“Harmony’s an amazing person,” Maddie said. “But even if she was single, that’s not my jam. We were just having fun, like friends do. And if you don’t mind me saying so, if that’s how you treat every person who tries to be friends with her … well, I’ll be honest—you need to chill out.”

I held my breath.

After such a perfect moment, the reprimand was not something I was expecting.

Almond went silent, then she burst into a fit of laughter, saying, “Girl, you are so right.”

I breathed a long sign of relief.

“I know I’m right,” Maddie said. “You have your gym here, your life with Harmony. It’s so easy to live on edge, to distrust everyone, to exist in a chaotic vacuum. I’ve done it a few times myself, but … yeah, it’s just not me anymore. And I’ll bet it’s not you either. As your many motivational messages in here point out, it’s no way to live.”

Maddie took a seat and reached for her tea. She pointed at a large print on the wall and read it aloud: “Release your worries, trust your path, and let the universe guide your every step.”

“Message received,” Almond said, folding her legs up underneath her as she got more comfortable. “Now, back to the note. I didn’t know about it at first. I just rushed her to the hospital to get her checked out after the assault. It was there that I found it in her coat pocket. Scared the hell out of me, someone leaving her a message like that.”

“Which was …?” I prompted.

“See for yourself.” She took out her phone and showed us a photograph of the note. The message was smeared but readable:

Continue this path & death is nigh;

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