Page 43 of Leo

“You betrayed me!”

“No. No, I never betrayed you. I was happy to see you, to see that you were okay. But I have a job I have to do. Please. Just come with me, and we’ll get you a good lawyer.”

“Lenora, please,” said Tillie. Leo caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and gasped, shoving Tillie to the floor.

“Shooter!” he yelled.

All hell broke loose at that point. The shattering of glass, shards flying through the air as bullets laced the sky. All hitting their target.

“Who fired?” yelled Dean into his communications device.

“Not us,” said his team. “We’ve got a team chasing them down.”

Dean stood over the bleeding, dying body of Lenora Palmer as she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

“Th-the ceilings were always so beautiful,” she smiled. “I loved this house. I love this house. M-my house. M-my…”

Her last breaths floated through the air of the old home as Lenora slipped away. Dean reached down, touching her eyelids with his fingertips, closing her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Dean,” said Tillie.

“It’s alright. I really did care for her. It was terrible what happened to her here, and it wasn’t her fault. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to have your whole world ripped from you.”

“What will you do now? I mean, she’s bought the house, paid for it. What will you do with it?” asked Leo.

“If I’m allowed, I’d like to make it a historical site. It qualifies under the guidelines, and the story alone would bring people through the house. I don’t know. We’ll see what the feds want to do with it.”

“If you need help,” said Luke, “call us, and we can have our legal team look into it.”

“I just might do that,” he nodded. “It’s almost time for me to retire anyway. Tour guide for a historic home sounds great to me.”

It turned out that the shooters were the men who’d originally stolen the amber and eggs. The FBI caught up with them in Maine, and they were facing so many federal and international charges they wouldn’t see the light of day ever again.

One thing was certain. Lenora got to go home.

CHAPTER THIRTY

With the heat of the summer forcing everyone inside, Leo and Tillie decided that it would be a perfect time for a wedding. With the usual fanfare of a Belle Fleur wedding, they were married in the gardens early in the morning to avoid the heat and then partied in the tents until late at night.

Victoria sat at the entrance the entire day. Waiting.

“Is Hayes supposed to come home?” asked Angel, looking at Trak. The self-professed protectors of their introverted, reclusive genius, they both worried about her mental state.

“She thought he was. We’ve had no word from him,” said Trak.

“She’s going to make herself sick thinking about him. The only thing that will help is if she actually gets off this property on her own, and I don’t know how to make that happen.”

“Me either,” said Trak.

The two men walked toward their wives, taking their hands and twirling around the dance floor. In the corner of the tent, Ruby, Claudette, Irene, and the ghosts were sitting around a table.

“We have to help them,” said Irene.

“I know we do, but how do we do that when she won’t move from here,” said Ruby.

“I’m at a loss,” said Claudette. “I asked her to go shopping with me the other day, and she refused. What young woman in her early twenties refuses to go shopping? What is she so terrified of?”

“She’s worried that she will be taken again,” said Martha. “It’s a horrible fear, and one that we can all feel when we’re around her.”

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