I wanted to snatch it from her, frame it, and display it. Ahanti and I had never agreed on that. She’d always insisted she’d rather create art that lived with people rather than art they barely noticed in the rush of their lives. This piece had clearly been designed to be admired.
Handing it to Eddie, Ahanti looked the most at peace I’d seen her since I got back.
“Eddie let me choose the design this time,” she said. “But it was really a joint project. He’s given plenty of feedback along the way, and this hopefully will be the final sign-off before we start work.”
Eddie handed the book back. “Whenever you can schedule me in.”
They scheduled his first session, and he was gone with only a hand wave in goodbye.
Terrance watched him leave, a frown on his face. He rubbed his hand over his short, curly hair vigorously enough to give anyone who touched him a shock. “Did you drive here today, A? If Cary’s hassling you again, you shouldn’t be walking alone.”
Ahanti’s bottom lip dipped between her teeth again. If she chewed it much more, it’d start to bleed. “I drove.”
“I’ll park at your place and walk to and from with you a couple days a week if you want.”
Ahanti squeezed his shoulder on her way past to the back room.
A shiver trickled over my upper arms, and I rubbed at the goosebumps. Terrance used to complain about the Virginia heat. He and Ahanti were in a constant battle over the air conditioner settings in the studio.
He’d worked with Ahanti for longer than I’d known her, but I hadn’t realized they were friends as well. Of course, you probably didn’t stay working with someone that long unless you could also be friends. Or you were being paid a lot more than Ahanti made from Skin Canvas.
My phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but it was Virginia-based. The only person here who had my new Michigan cell number and would be calling from someplace I didn’t recognize was the private investigator my dad asked to look into Cary and watch Ahanti’s place. I hadn’t noticed him when we left this morning, which meant he was good. If it was the PI with news on Cary, I didn’t want Ahanti to overhear. Her day was already off to a rough enough start.
I motioned to Terrance that I was going to take the call outside and stepped out the door. My skin instantly went tacky even though it wasn’t yet nine o’clock.
“Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes.”
“My name’s Lucas, Miss Fitzhenry-Dawes. I’m with Rockwood Investigations.” The man’s voice had a slight Hispanic accent. “I was told you were my contact when I had any information on the Ahanti Tenali case.”
I’d been right to step outside.
A girl who looked to be around eighteen approached the door for Skin Canvas. I stepped out of her way and waited until the door closed behind her.
“That’s right.”
“There was a man lingering around her apartment building last night. I can’t confirm his reason for being there yet. He made no contact. I got a picture of his license plate and face.”
The air suddenly seemed too thick to breath. As much as we didn’t want Cary anywhere near Ahanti if he turned out to be her stalker, this was the kind of thing we could take to the police to show he was.
“Was it the man in the photo we provided?”
“That’s why I’m calling, ma’am. He wasn’t. I kept a watch on him until he left this morning, but I wasn’t sure if he was worth following or not.”
That depended on whether or not Ahanti recognized him. We thought Cary was the best bet for her stalker, but we had no hard evidence. We couldn’t cross off the possibility that it was someone else entirely.
“Could you text me the pictures?”
He confirmed that he would, and we ended the call. As soon as the pictures came in, I’d show them to Ahanti. If she knew him, we might want to change our focus.
My phone dinged, alerting me to a new text.
I tapped the message, and it opened on my screen.
My fingers suddenly felt unwieldy, like they’d swelled to twice their normal size. I didn’t need to ask Ahanti if she recognized him. I recognized him.
It was Geoff.
7
I smoothed my hair and clothes even though the heat here made the action useless. At least it helped me pull my mind together.
I couldn’t suggest to Ahanti that Geoff might be involved in this. Not until I talked to him at least. Surely he had a perfectly good explanation for lurking around Ahanti’s apartment. Showing her this picture would only make her start fearing the person she should be able to trust the most.
I needed to talk to Geoff right away. The problem was I’d driven here with Ahanti, intending to spend at least the morning. Whether or not I could get away depended on how Mark was faring with golf. I had to admit, I wasn’t sure how long a round of golf should take, but they’d been out there close to three or four hours now.
I called Mark’s cell.
He answered almost immediately. “Hey, sweetheart. How’s your morning going?”
There was something weird in his voice, almost like he was trying to prompt an answer from me without giving away which one he wanted.
That made me think he wanted an out. From what he’d told me last night, he’d never played golf before and felt the only purpose for watching it on TV was if you were having trouble sleeping. The one time my dad had taken me, I was thirteen. I got bored, wandered off to look at a turtle, and fell into a water trap. He’d never invited me again.
Hopefully Mark hadn’t ended up in the water trap, too.
“Do you need a knight in shining armor?” I asked.
“That’s okay. We’re almost done, so if you need me, I can come.”
