Page 61 of Is Anyone Listening?
"She has a lot of part-time jobs, same as me. We were working for the same media company when they decided to lay off half the workforce. We found ourselves unemployed with very little notice, along with the third person in our podcast trio." I paused, popping a piece of pepperjack cheese into my mouth. I swallowed, then said, "The podcast started out as a lark, an offshoot from a book club we were in. We loved true crime and no one else did, so we decided to have our own club, and then we turned it into a podcast. It started out slow, but eventually we got a following."
"And that's when you decided to become detectives, not just podcasters."
"Yes. And I'm starting to see the downside of that decision. I'm really out of my depth, Tyler. I always thought of myself as a good investigator, a great researcher, someone who could find small details and piece together clues to solve a mystery. I love to read. I love to write. I always wanted to be a journalist, and this seemed like a good way to test the waters. I never thought we'd end up targets."
"You didn't? You just said you're trying to solve a cold case. Don't you think that if someone killed Natalie and Jessica, and God knows who else, they'd want to protect that secret?"
"I guess I never thought we'd get close enough to the answer to make anyone nervous." I paused. "And I don't think we are that close. So why are they nervous? Why do they need to get rid of us?"
"Because you know more than you think," he said simply.
"I know very little." I took a bite of my sandwich, thinking about what I did know, and it didn't amount to much.
"Maybe it was Nathan who ran you off the road," Tyler suggested. "He drugged Tessa, so she'd forget what he'd told her. And after talking to you, maybe he thought you were a threat, too."
"But I wasn't alone when I saw Nathan; I was with you. Why wouldn't you be a target, too?"
As I finished my statement, we both stared at each other, and the house felt suddenly cold again and very isolated.
"I shouldn't have come here," I said. "You could be a target, too, and now we're together."
"Hang on," he said as I put my plate on the table, ready to get the hell out of there. "It might not have been Nathan at all."
"But he was the one who was nervous earlier."
"It could have been Finn," Tyler suggested. "He was with Nathan yesterday. He brought Tessa home in a bad condition. And he just happened to be very close behind you on that road."
I frowned at the reminder. "I thought that, too, when he first showed up. I had this terrible fear he hadn't come to save me but to finish me off. But that's not what happened. He risked his life to get me out of the car. He wouldn't have done that if he was the one who sent me down there in the first place. He would have just left me there. I probably couldn't have gotten out of the car or up that hill without him. And by the time you arrived, it would have been too late. I don't think it was Finn."
"Okay, but there's still Ellen and Ray. Maybe they never wanted you to make it back to the inn, and this was a way to get rid of you without tying your accident to the inn."
"That's true, but I need answers, not more theories," I said wearily. "I don't know what to do or who to trust."
"You can trust me, Cassidy. We're on the same side."
That seemed right, but my head was spinning, and I felt like I should be by myself, because the only person I could really trust was me. "I want to go back to the inn now."
"That's not a good idea. At least, wait until morning. You can sleep on the couch. You can get your bearings."
"Isn't this where you sleep? On that sleeping bag." I tipped my head to the bag next to the fireplace.
"I can sleep on the floor. It's not a big deal. I'd like to keep an eye on you."
"I appreciate that. I do. But I need to update my podcast. I need to clean up, and I need to sleep tonight so I can figure out what to do tomorrow. Will you take me back?"
His slight hesitation sent a moment of panic through me, but then he nodded and gave me a reassuring smile and said, "Of course. Why don't you finish eating first? Then we'll go."
I picked up my sandwich again and as I ate, I said, "Did you find out anything from the building department about the inn?"
"No, it was closed when I got there. I'll have to try tomorrow."
"Maybe I can look around the inn tomorrow morning, see if I can find any doors leading down to a basement."
"You should wait on that. I'd prefer you to stay above the basement level, preferably in the main area of the inn where there are lots of people around. You can't trust Ellen or Ray, and everyone who works there is loyal to Ellen."
"I think the sheriff is loyal to her, too. I bet he already told her about my accident."
"I wouldn’t doubt it."
