Page 80 of Hiss and Make Up
“Serious shoes? Where do you come up with this stuff?”
“Hey, it’s not me.” She pointed down at her hiking boots. “Heels aren’t part of my work wardrobe, but shoe facts are shoe facts. I still know the difference between Chloe shoes and those shoes.”
“We’ll say you’re the expert on this topic.”
“So whose legs belonged to those shoes? Adrien’s mom? She seemed a bit…unhinged.” Her mouth curled up at the mention of the woman.
Marc shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. You saw her at the fire. She was as shocked as we were.”
“Maybe she’s got a side career in community theater.”
“No way.” Marc laughed. “Besides. She’s too busy moving to bother with us even if she did have a reason. Which makes zero sense.”
Sierra sighed. “Fine. Can we just finish up and get out of here already?”
“Get out of here?” Marc smiled, enjoying the fact that Sierra was actually uncomfortable for once. “Where’s your sense of adventure? If I recall, you were the first one here.”
“Yeah, and we’ve been here way too long already. I like adventure, but jail time isn’t on my bucket list. Can we move this along already? Please?”
“Fine. Party pooper.” He looked at the screen. “How can I find what that woman was doing here?”
“I have no idea. Is there a recent something-or-other place?”
Marc opened the file cabinet icon, but the most recent document opened was two days ago. And it looked like code files. He went back to the mail program and opened the sent mail. While he was there, he wanted to confirm that his threatening email was actually sent from Adrien. He still couldn’t believe it, but seeing it here on the guy’s computer was helping it sink in.
The first item had been sent within the last five minutes. Figuring that must have been what their mystery woman came in for, Marc opened it. The subject line was blank, and the message was two short sentences.
I warned you.
And you should have kept that freaky little tramp from snooping around too.
Nothing else.
Sent to Marc’s work address.
“Did I read that right? Is she talking about me?”
“I think so.” Marc pulled out his phone and opened his mail app.
"I'm not freaky. Am I freaky?"
"I can't comment on that yet."
Sierra whacked him on the side of the arm. "I'm serious. How'd I get in this?"
"Haven’t I been trying and failing to keep yououtof this all weekend?”
"Fine. But I’m still not okay with freaky. Or tramp," she said. "Wait, ‘warned you?’ Did that lady just stake her claim on the fire?"
"Looks like it." He held his phone to show her the matching email.
“Sheesh. That’s creepy.”
Marc scrolled a little farther down the list of sent emails on Adrien’s computer and found the older email. It looked like it was sent from another account, not Adrien’s regular email account that he used for work. That explained why Marc didn’t recognize the address. But maybe it wasn’t Adrien who sent it after all. Or this mystery lady was an accomplice.
“Does Adrien have a girlfriend?”
“I have no idea. We aren’t exactly close.”
