Page 55 of Moonlit Colorado

She wasn’t here for me to ask. So I had to make my own call. Ashford was her brother, and I preferred having him in the loop if this involved her safety.

“But we think the break-in at her place yesterday could’ve been tied to the grand-opening masquerade,” I said.

“Why?”

I explained what little we knew. How she believed someone took a red mask from her room, as if they’d gone specifically looking for that item. Then, this security footage “glitch” that had prevented an ID of Ms. Scarlet or the man who’d confronted Grace in the lobby.

“This is a weird situation,” Ashford said. “I don’t get any of it.”

“Neither do I.”

“Does Teller Landry know about this lead? He didn’t mention it to me.”

“Grace didn’t mention any of this to the chief, no.”

“The hell? Why not?”

“Grace was flustered and upset last night. She only told me the red mask was missing later on, after we’d had dinner. Maybe she needed time to process.” There was no way I’d reveal what else she said about her hesitation to tell Landry the truth.

And maybe some small part of me wasn’t eager to admit to Ashford that I’d nearly had a one-night stand with his sister.

Ashford pulled out his phone. “I’m calling Teller. He needs to know about this.”

“I agree, but don’t you think we should pull Grace in as well? She’s the actual witness. We should also handle this in the office, since I guess you don’t want to hash it out where Maisie can hear.”

“Yeah. Good point. I’ll get Grace.”

I put out a hand. “No, I’ll get her. We can talk in my office. Maybe you can call Landry and explain what’s going on?”

I went to the living room, where Maisie had Emma and Grace sitting on the carpet, playing some kind of game. “Sorry to interrupt,” I said. “Can I pull Grace away for a moment?”

She got up, and we walked over to the kitchen. “What is it?”

“Ashford and I both feel you should tell Chief Landry about the red mask being stolen last night.”

Her eyes went round. “What did you tell Ashford?” she whispered.

I made a calming gesture. “Nothing too personal, I promise. Ashford said you’d already mentioned you were at the grand opening. I shared that the break-in could be connected, and Ashford wants to give those details to Chief Landry. Which was also my advice last night. Are you willing to do that? Ashford’s in my office right now. We can call the chief.”

“Fine, I will. Since it’s not a secret anymore that I was at the party. But I don’t appreciate you teaming up with Ashford and springing this on me.”

“Grace—”

She pushed past me, walking toward the office.

Shit. I didn’t like having her unhappy with me. But I stood by my decision to share more details with Ashford.

I followed her into the office and shut the door. Grace stood stiffly by the desk while Ashford put Chief Landry on speaker. “Teller? Grace is here.”

“Hi, Grace,” the chief said calmly, all business. I gave him some credit for that. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

She cleared her throat. “I realized that something was missing from my room. A red mask I wore at the hotel grand opening.”

She shared the same story with Teller that she’d told me. Meeting Ms. Scarlet in the ladies’ room, Dirk Lancaster mistaking Grace for someone else, and then the mystery man with the shaved head bothering her. Only the vaguest details about meeting me.

“I tried to get security footage of the two people we haven’t been able to identify,” I added. “Came up empty-handed.”

“Hmm,” the chief said. “This woman you call Ms. Scarlet. She had bright red hair, Grace?”

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