The NSIB wouldn’t move me from Gossip unless they had a good reason too, and this was just about as good a reason as any.
“My laptop,” I croaked, switching off my phone and throwing it into the top drawer of my bedside table. I fetched my laptop bag from under my bed and opened it, bringing out the cool plastic device. “They’re sending us information about the spy.”
“Good.” Gamma came over and joined me.
The email from Grant was already sitting in my inbox. I downloaded the attachment then deleted the email, headed to the trash folder and deleted it there too. I opened the document that had been sent through and lost my breath.
Nicole Jackson’s picture stared back at me. Except she had black hair, and her eyes were a steely gray. Her nose was smaller too. She wore red lipstick and her mouth tugged down at the corners.
The Black Rose.
Real name: Anna Turgenav
She had been Smulder’s secret admirer. Was the horrible rose-scented perfume her calling card? Or was that unconnected.
Gamma and I scanned the rest of the document, but it didn’t give us much information other than that she was working for the Ukrainian group and wanted to get to me because of Kyle. She wanted inside information on the workings of the NSIB. That information would give her agency the opportunity to move against the United States, against the NSIB, against what it stood for: freedom.
My heart went crazy, and I rubbed my chest.
Gamma reached over me and deleted the document from my hard drive. “We’ll have to do a full reset if we want to ensure it’s wiped completely.”
“Later,” I said. “We have to—”
A screech sounded from the hallway.
Gamma and I left the laptop on the bed and ran toward the noise.
30
The shout had come from the floor above. I sprinted up the stairs and skidded into the hall, coming to a halt in front of Trinity’s room. She was outside of it, holding her daughter’s hand and scolding her thoroughly.
“—can’t just run off again.”
“But the kitty! I want to play with the kitty!”
“You can’t play with any kittens this late at night. You need to be in bed, Chrissy,” Trinity said, firmly. She wasn’t being mean, but Chrissy’s bottom lip quivered, regardless.
“Daddy says I can keep him! Why can’t I have him now?”
Gamma strode up to us and stopped, her fists on her hips. “Is there a reason for this disturbance?” she asked.
Trinity’s attention snapped from her daughter to my grandmother, and her pleading expression turned sour as curdled milk. “Excuse me?”
“It’s past 9 pm,” Gamma said. “What seems to be the problem here?” She was short and irritable and I understood why. Trinity had been a nightmare guest since she’d first arrived. From her attitude to the noise she made to her treatment of others at the inn—she’d caused trouble, and Gamma was already annoyed about the issue with the ‘Black Rose.’
Nicole Jackson, no, Anna Turgenav, had hidden in plain sight for a month before she’d made her move. She’d watched the inn, she’s positioned herself at the vet’s to properly access us.
“—the most disrespectful woman I’ve ever met,” Trinity howled.
A door opened down the hall and another guest came out. “What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “I was sleeping.”
“This is exactly what I mean,” Gamma said, pointing to him. “You’re waking up the other guests. What is the meaning of this?”
“I want to play with the kitty!” Chrissy stamped her foot.
Trinity gritted her teeth. “It’s not my fault that you can’t control those stupid cats downstairs. That kitten came up here again.”
“That kitten was up here?” I asked, but no one paid me any attention.
“Don’t you insult those cats.” Gamma turned her finger on Trinity instead. She was never this mad, but she’d been pushed to the edge tonight. I understood that. Trinity wouldn’t. “You have no right causing noise like this in my inn. You’d better button up and shut up or I’m going to…”
Gamma’s furious diatribe faded into the background.
Sherlock was out again. He’d been up here.
I looked around, searching under the end tables, lit by the hall lights, but Sherlock wasn’t hidden in the shadows. He’d probably run downstairs and gone to his favorite spot in the library.
His favorite spot in the library.
The revelation hit me so hard, I almost went cross-eyed. I turned away from the ensuing cat-fight between Gamma and Trinity—verbal not physical, thankfully—and darted back downstairs, all the way to the ground floor. The door to the kitten center was ajar.
A spy.
A spy like the Black Rose wouldn’t have any trouble with locked doors. She’d pick them without any need for a key. And Marietta… when I’d gone to visit her late at night to ask if she’d seen anyone suspicious, she’d said no. But of course, she’d been watching videos on her phone at the time, and there was a bed in the incubator room for the helpers to sleep on between feeding the newborn kittens.
Anyone with two arms and legs could sneak past someone sleeping, and a spy… forget about it.
My head swiveled, my palms growing damp.
The library door was ajar.
What had Chrissy said? That Sherlock was the one who had led her to the library’s secret spot. That he had scratched at the edge of the bookcase. Sherlock had known before Chrissy because Sherlock had been in the secret attic before.
I allowed myself two seconds to slow my breathing then started off down the hall.
Where’s the perfect place to take hide someone? Where in Gossip?
There was no perfect place. Any movement in a small-town would be seen. But the inn had plenty of secret passageways. And hiding a target in plain sight would be easy for Nicole, especially with her specific set of skills.
I entered the library at a slow creep and left the light off. Using the moonlight sweeping through the windows as my guide, I navigated the tables and armchairs and made for the book case. I inserted my fingers into the gap between it and the wall and pulled, gently. It clicked and swung toward me, silently.
There.
The curling staircase appeared and flickering light—a candle?—highlighted the shadows of the rickety balustrade.
A whispered voice traveled from the attic. I couldn’t make out the words. I eased myself onto the stairs, keeping silent, my body tense. Going back now was unthinkable, even though it would’ve helped to suit up before doing this.
I placed my hand on the wall and started up the stairs, walking as far away from the center to avoid unnecessary squeaks and creaks. I dropped low at the top and crept behind a grouping of boxes. I peeked around the side and a hot flush ran through my center.
Smulder was tied to a chair nearby. The windows in the attic, on either side of the room and in the cupola, had been covered with sheets so that the light from the candle wouldn’t be seen. The Black Rose stood in front of him, her back to me. She wore a pair of white tennis shoes and her uniform from the vet’s office, but she’d removed a blonde wig—it lay on the floor beside her—revealing her pitch black hair in a pixie cut.
Her hands fisted her hips. “You’re sure you want to do that?” she asked. “You know, this would have been so much easier if you would just cooperate.” The fake American accent she’d put on was gone now. She pronounced her ‘would’ as ‘vood.’
“I won’t negotiate with you,” said Smulder.
He wasn’t hurt, it seemed. No bruises in sight.
“Then you will die,” she replied, coldly, removing a phone from her pocket. She didn’t have a gun in her hand, but I didn’t doubt for a second she had one on her person. “You will call your Special Agent in Charge and you will request high level information about the NSIB’s contacts and interests in the Ukraine or you will suffer the consequences.”
Smulder ground his teeth.
Was he actually considering this?
“You understand that if you do not do what I ask, I will be forced to reveal the location of Charlotte Mission to interested parties online?”
My heart went cold.
“I understand that, yes,” he said.
Don’t do it, Brian. Don’t give in to her.
“Then? Shall I call them?” She held the phone aloft. “This is your last chance, Agent Smulder.”
“Untie my hands and I’ll do it.”
“Ha. I will make the call myself and hold it to your ear.”
Obviously, this couldn’t happen. The NSIB didn’t trade secrets with terrorist groups or enemy spy agencies. What was Smulder thinking? That he could save me from leaving Gossip? That was insane.
Anna—Nicole, whatever her name was—tapped on her phone’s screen and shifting her attention away from Smulder.
Now was my chance.
I slipped out from behind the boxes and took two silent steps toward her. Smulder spotted me and went stiff. It was enough of a change in movement to draw Anna’s attention. Her head lifted just as my arm came out to wrap around her throat.
Anna deflected the chokehold, ducked and drove her arms backward, aiming for my gut.
I dodged sideways, bent low and swept my leg into the backs of her knees.
She side-stepped the move and tossed her phone aside and came at me. A flurry of blows proceeded, her punching, me blocking and vice versa, all while Smulder looked on. Anna evaded another stranglehold and reached into the pocket of her uniform sweater.
Gun!
I lunged at the enemy spy again, my arms outstretched, using that tiny blip of time where she wasn’t completely on her guard to my advantage. We crashed into the attic floor with a thunderous bang and rolled across it.
The gun was in Anna’s hands, and I fixed my fingers around it the cold metal, forcing it away from my face and in the direction of the ceiling beams above. I grunted and shoved, but she did the same, our efforts forcing the gun upward and downward again.
“You’re outmatched,” she said, a snarl of a smile appearing on her lips.
Footsteps clattered across the wooden boards. A pair of prim pink kitten heels appeared next to our heads.
“I believe, dear, that you’ll find it’s you who’s outmatched,” Gamma said, leveling the barrel of her trusty shotgun at Anna’s head.
The spy’s eyes widened.
“Drop the weapon. Let’s not make this more difficult than it has to be.”
Anna dropped the gun. I tossed it away to the corner of the attic and got up. Smulder cleared his throat. “I could use a hand over here,” he said, shooting me a sheepish grin.
And just like that, it was over.
31
The following day…
Of all the places I’d have chosen to conduct our clandestine call to Special Agent in Charge Grant, the greenhouse wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list. Heavens, it wasn’t near the bottom of the list. OK, so there wasn’t actually a list, but still…
It had been Smulder’s choice, and I’d went with it because he’d been through enough over the past few days.
We stood in between the runner beans and the tomatoes, him holding the phone and both of us wearing our Bluetooth headphones—two new sets had been delivered, along with two new phones this morning.
“How much longer?” I asked, keenly aware of how close we were standing to one another. It had to be this way so that no one would overhear from outside the greenhouse. I wasn’t nervous or anything, not about Smulder’s manly cologne or the way his gaze kept landing on my face and darting away. No, I was stressed because Grant was about to deliver his verdict.
Would I be staying in Gossip with my grandmother? Would Gamma be safe here? What about Lauren and her baby? Her husband?
“Soon,” Smulder said.
The phone buzzed in his hand and he hit the button to answer on the screen.
Special Agent in Charge Grant cleared his throat in my ears. “Good morning,” he said, knowing full well we wouldn’t reply. “The Black Rose has been pruned.” Meaning that Anna had been removed from the inn. “NESPOLITYKA will not be a problem anymore—we’re dealing with them ourselves now that we have the Black Rose as an asset.”
Smulder and I met eyes. They would use the Black Rose to ensure that my cover wasn’t compromised.
“You won’t need to relocate any time soon,” Grant continued. “But we’ll be keeping an eye on the situation. As of now, we have no updates on the wolf and you can maintain your current cover. If that changes, you’ll be the first to know. Take care.” And then he was gone.
I stared at a particularly ripe tomato on the vine. It was fine. Somehow, after everything that had happened, it had worked out. I would stay at the inn, so would Smulder, and Gamma and Lauren were safe.
But that begged the question… what happened when another agency took an interest? If NESPOLITYKA had found us, who else could? What about my ex?
“Hey,” Brian said, and put out his hand for the ear phones. I put them in his palm. “It’s going to be OK. We’re fine.”
I nodded, slowly. “What happened, Brian?” I asked. “How did she get you?”
Brian tucked the ear phones back into a plastic baggie and put them in his pocket with the phone. “I suspected she wasn’t who she said she was, and that’s why I chose to go out and see her. I found out more about her while we were on the ‘date’ but she was onto me. She was sharp. I came back after and tried to talk to you, but you were asleep.”
Except I hadn’t been. I’d ignored him because of my silly feelings.
“She caught me in the middle of the night. Injected me with something that made me fall asleep. Next thing I knew, I was in the attic and gagged.”
I bowed my head, pressing my fingers to my forehead. “This could have been avoided if I’d paid attention.”
“And if I’d told you my reasoning for going on the date. I should’ve trusted you,” he said. “I didn’t. That’s my fault.”
An awkward silence drifted between us.
“To be fair,” I said, after a minute. “The last time you trusted me, you did get shot in the heiney.”
“See? I knew you’d understand.” He chuckled, his liquid brown-eyed gaze settling on my face.
My stomach did pirouettes and gymnastic flips. I brushed a hand over my thick, dark hair—gosh, I still missed my manageable short blonde hair—and avoided Smulder’s eyes.
“I’ve been thinking about our cover too,” Smulder said, and pressed two fingers to the underside of my chin, lifting it so I would look up at him. “And I think that we should continue with it.” He bent and pressed a chaste kiss to my lips.
Warmth started up in my lips and traveled right down into my chest. The kiss lasted moments or hours, but it was lovely. More than I had expected.
He stepped back and my senses returned with a sharp thwack of noise.
The greenhouse door was open and my grandmother stood in it, her cheeks flushed. “If you’ve quite finished, Charlotte, I need your help. Jessie Belle-Blue is here again, and I’m liable to tie her up and dunk her head in the ravine if you don’t get rid of her for me.”
“Of course. Sure!” I hurried away from Brian, trying not to glance back.
I didn’t even want to think about what the kiss meant. The word ‘kiss’ made my cheeks flush hot as a red-butt bee.
Outside, Gamma gestured for me to join her. “Hurry up. I’m positive she’s going to try kidnap a kitten.”
“You mean catnap?”
“Oh, you and your cheekiness.” Gamma’s blue eyes twinkled like sapphires. “Don’t think you’re getting away with it, Charlotte.”
“With what?” I asked.
“Not telling me about what I just witnessed in that greenhouse. You’re taking your cover a little too far, don’t you think?”
I ignored her as a grunting cry came from the back of the inn. “It scratched me!” Jessie’s shrieked
. “That out-of-control kitten scratched me!”
Once again, life was back to normal in Gossip. As normal as it could be, anyway. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips at the prospect of tomorrow morning and the next day, spent with my Gamma at the Gossip Inn, filled with spies, kittens, cupcakes, and… what was it?
Hope.
For the first time since my divorce, hope for a brighter future.
Charlie and Gamma’s adventures continue in the penultimate book in the Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mystery Series, Raspberry Revenge, coming in May 2020!
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Also by Rosie A. Point
The Burger Bar Mystery Series:
The Fiesta Burger Murder
The Double Cheese Burger Murder
The Chicken Burger Murder
The Breakfast Burger Murder
The Salmon Burger Murder
The Cheesy Steak Burger Murder
The Burger Bar Mysteries Box Set
The Bite-sized Bakery Cozy Mystery Series:
Murder By Chocolate
Marzipan and Murder
Creepy Cake Murder
Murder and Meringue Cake
Murder Under the Mistletoe
The Bite-sized Bakery Cozy Mystery Box Set: Books 1-5
Murder Glazed Donuts
Cocoa Conviction (A Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mystery Book 3) Page 13