Page 24 of Is Anyone Listening?
"What are you doing out here by yourself? Where's your friend?"
"I'm just getting the car. She's at the pub."
"You two should stick together."
"How do you know about my friend?" I asked suddenly.
"I saw you two walking around town earlier."
Maybe he was telling the truth, or maybe he wasn't. "I heard you're an architect looking to build on a piece of property near the inn. Is that true?"
"I'm looking to rebuild a house near the inn," he corrected. "So, you've been talking about me?"
"Not exactly," I said quickly, not wanting to mention Sophie. "I'm just curious as to why what might have happened at the inn would be of concern to you."
"Because the value of the property will go down if it turns out something criminally bad is happening down the street."
It felt like he was telling part of the truth, but not all of it. "If you have any concern, why don't you just move on?"
"It's a good piece of property with an excellent price."
I gave him a long look. "I don't think you're telling me the truth, at least not all of it. Why are you really here?"
"Why are you?" he returned, meeting my gaze. "I heard you've been asking a lot of questions, too, for some book you're writing."
"That's true. It's a book about historic inns. And the Stonecross Inn has a lot of history." I paused. "Who told you we were writing a book?"
"I heard it when I got a coffee this afternoon. The woman who works at the library was telling her friends all about you."
I wasn't surprised. Margaret had been eager to share gossip with us. No doubt, she did that all the time, all over town. I was happy now that we hadn't asked her too many pointed questions. She would have realized we were more interested in what happened to Natalie than the history of the inn.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out. "I have to go."
It was the second time in one day that our conversation had been interrupted by the phone.
That was fine. I didn't need to talk to him anymore. I hurried down the block, relieved to get into the car and lock the door. Then I started the engine and drove back to the pub.
As I stopped at a light, I caught sight of two people sitting at a window table in a café, and to my surprise, it was Tyler and a woman—Becca Thorne. She was smiling at him, and he was smiling at her, changing my impression of his dark, cold, dangerous exterior into something else entirely. And now I had more questions…
A car behind me hit the horn when I failed to immediately hit the gas on the green light, and I quickly turned my attention back to the road. A few moments later, I pulled into the parking lot next to the pub and texted Tessa. She came through the door and hopped into the car with a pleased smile.
"Well?" I asked.
"Finn and I have a date for lunch tomorrow. He's going to take me to a café in the next town over. I think getting him out of Stonecross will help me open him up."
"I guess lunch is a better idea than dinner. It will be safer in the daylight."
"I'll be fine with Finn," Tessa said, buckling her seat belt. "You're not that worried, are you?"
"I'm worried about everything. I ran into Tyler Pierce while I was getting the car. He said he'd seen us walking around town, and he heard Margaret tell her friends in the coffee shop that we were writing a book. I don't know if he's been watching us or it's just a small town and we're tripping over each other, but he makes me uncomfortable."
"Why? Did he say something else?"
"Not really. I said I heard he was an architect. He confirmed it was true, and that he was concerned about property values if the inn turned out to be a crime scene. But it just didn't seem like the whole story."
"Maybe he's also here looking for information on Natalie or Jessica and that's his cover story. He could be a private investigator."
"He could be. We should check him out."
