Page 48 of Kiss Me, Darling

“Let’s get inside and see if we can figure out where this came from.”

Since this was Chris’s house and all, he came with us. “I had that mirror installed when I moved in.”

Volk placed the mirror on the counter and waved for me to do the same with the camera. “Do you have a receipt?”

“Sure do. Hold on.” Chris fiddled with his phone, eventually pulling up a pdf of the receipt. “It’s an island locksmith who does all kinds of home security type stuff too. He installed the mirror and the gate.”

Well wasn’t that a nice coincidence?

“What’s that smell?” Lucy waved her hand in front of her face. “Oh god. It smells like dead fish.”

She was right. The smell just hit me as she was speaking and it wasbad.“What the hell?”

Chris, Lucy, and I followed our noses into the living room...where someone had dumped a bunch of fish guts all over the couch and floor. “Where did this come from?” But I had a bad feeling I knew. While we were all distracted by Charlie the only people in the house were sleeping.

“I’m checking the cameras,” Mariah sighed.

Was it possible they were still here? Inside with us? I somehow doubted it, but I wasn’t going to believe it until we knew for sure. “I’m getting Esther and Joe up.” I already had my phone out and was dialing Joe. “They probably knew we found the camera. They probably watched us that whole time.”

“We’re ending this today,” Volk said.

“Yes. You are.” Then I turned my attention to Joe, explaining what happened. He and Esther swept the house, but when Mariah couldn’t find security footage of anyone leaving, they swept it again.

And this time they found someone.

12

A possum, an armadillo, and a very tired iguana

Lucy

Some things have to be seen to be believed. The events of the Apollo 13 mission would have been a laughable plot if they hadn’t actually happened. The entirety of 2020. The end of game four in the World Series.

And the way the Kaine brothers’ stalker was found and caught by a possum, an armadillo, and a very tired iguana.

No seriously.

When our security team started rechecking the house, the stalker bolted into the yard and hid in the hibiscus bushes. Which is where our friendly armadillo was taking a break. He was not happy about sharing his hideout with a human and started hissing at him.

And that drew the attention of our favorite possum, who on this gloomy, strange day, was easily annoyed. He started hissing at the stalker as well. It was at this point Esther realized something was happening in the yard and mobilized the teams. That’s when the stalker ran for the gate.

But she couldn’t get out of the gate because Charlie was standing guard right in front of the walking gate. Security tried to tackle the woman, who somehow managed to squirm away, ran around the yard for several minutes before Joe, Volk, and Esther all managed to hold her down.

It was a wild sight to behold.

“Who is she?” I took a peek at the photograph Chris held out.

“Her name is Mary Greene. She worked for Key’s Keys, the locksmith we used for the house. She installed the mirror and then came back and installed the camera one day when I was out of town.”

“But why?”

“This property used to be her family’s,” he said quickly. “Olivia knew who she was right away. She was friendly with her until she was forced to sell the property to pay her debts. They lost touch after that. Apparently she’s been living at a friend’s house and working odd jobs around the island.”

“So it was, what? Revenge?” Scott frowned.

“Yes and no. I think it was a lot of anger. Losing your family home and having some developer come in and knock it all down, replacing it with a big house some rich guy ended up buying.”

Olivia nodded. “There’s some animosity about the houses people buy and then don’t even really live in. The vacation houses. This island is our home. Our community. And some people, like Mary, feel personally pushed out. Replaced.”

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