by Mara Webb
In the t-shirt he was wearing, I was able to see the definition of every muscle of both arms, the breadth of his shoulders and the outline of his abs. Looking that good, especially when I clearly needed to get control of my thoughts, should be illegal. He was in such great shape from rock climbing. I needed to stop thinking about his body. That probably meant I should stop looking at it.
We walked along the path that had been carved into the grass by heavy foot traffic. It had been worn into the earth, a track laid out for us by those that had travelled before, and it seemed everyone in the area had been keen to get these sandwiches too. Within ten minutes we were standing outside a small café that was teaming with people.
“It’s not directly competing with yours, don’t worry,” Ryder teased. I hadn’t even thought about that. It was much smaller than mine and wasn’t situated in a place that gave the patrons sea-views. Hills rose up either side, I turned round in a full circle and saw only grass and trees. The nearest house was a dot in the distance.
“It’s so far from everything,” I muttered.
“Part of the charm,” Ryder smiled. “Ladies first,” he said, holding open the door and gesturing for me to walk inside.
When I’d first entered The Sand Witch, my café on the opposite side of the island, everyone had stopped and stared. Here? No one even looked up as the bell rang above our heads. I loved it instantly.
“Take a seat, I’ll be right with you.” A man that must have been in his sixties called out to us from behind the cash register and pointed at an empty table in the corner. The menus were already there, printed and laminated some years ago and bleached by sunshine. Specials on a chalk board above his head highlighted soup, a pastrami sandwich and coffee cake.
“This might be the cutest place I’ve ever seen,” I said as we sat down.
“It’s pretty good, right? A lot of climbers and hikers stop here, the people that run it are trail angels,” Ryder smiled, passing a menu across the table to me. I gasped, leaning across the table and holding up a menu to block our conversation from nearby listeners.
“Trail angels? What does that mean? Are they dangerous? Is that something to do with people that died when they were out hiking?” I whispered.
Ryder broke out in a broad smile, his eyes sparkling as he processed what I’d just said.
“N— no, Sadie,” he grinned. “Trail angels aren’t actual angels, they’re not some weird paranormal thing. Being a trail angel means that you are a person that makes life easier for people out hiking. If you wanted to walk around this entire island, exploring every hill, every bit of woodland, rock and whatever, you could be out in the wilderness for weeks.
“Trail angels provide water, snacks, maybe let you camp in their backyard or rustle up a barbecue dinner. I guess you could call them good Samaritans. The folks that run this place have free drinks for hikers, they have a campground in the heart of the island, and I think they run a zip-line between two of the peaks.”
“Wow,” I said, my eyebrows perched high on my forehead as I looked around the café in appreciation. There was a framed photo on the wall by our table of two people at the top of a mountain, one of which looked oddly familiar. A small metal plaque beneath it read ‘Jerry and Kat, Everest, 2018.’
“You only get about five minutes up there.” The old man that had spoken to us moments ago was now stood beside our table. It was his face in that photograph.
“You climbed Everest?” I said, adding more astonishment to my voice than I intended and sounding as if I was accusing him of lying.
“I sure did, just long enough for the photo and then you’ve got to hurry down,” he smiled. “Don’t let my old body fool you, I’m young at heart! Now, would either of you two love birds like some coffee?”
“Oh, we’re not… he’s not my… we aren’t…” I struggled.
“This is Sadie Alden, she’s the peacekeeper,” Ryder offered. “I’m her guardian, and yes we would like some coffee.”
“I heard there were two now… but hey, drama for another time. I’ll get coffee while you pick something to eat,” Jerry grinned, winking at me as he twirled away from the table. Oh, this old man was trying to fan some sparks today, I could feel it. I couldn’t help but smirk back though. I just needed to remember that I had a boyfriend, a hot, sexy, sheriff boyfriend who was off solving murders while I flirted with a guy he didn’t like all that much. Oh, I’m a bad person.
“The BLT here is good,” Ryder said.
“I was going to get the soup of the day,” I replied.
“It’s getting hot out there, you might not want to fill your body with a hot meal,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“Sure, a BLT will be perfect,” I caved. “We have just ordered hot coffee, but whatever…”
“You’re in a funny mood today,” Ryder said, lowering his menu and trying to read my expression. “I can’t tell if it’s the cliff situation, or the fact that you aren’t with the guardian you were hoping for. Am I really that bad? Look, it’s just that this is Cindy, okay? The next thing we have to look into together will hopefully not involve an ex-girlfriend and I can actually be useful.”
“It’s not you,” I frowned. “I have a lot that I need to get straight for myself, that’s all. The last week has been crazy. You know I died, right?”
“You told me you wanted us to stop going on about that?”
“Yeah, I don’t want you using my death against me, but I get to use it for sympathy whenever I like!” I grinned.
“Coffee for the soul,” Jerry announced, lowering two mugs onto the table and pulling a notepad out of the top pocket of his shirt. “Ryder, I’m assuming it’s the usual for you, or are you ordering something different to impress your lady friend?”
“I doubt I’d win her over with falafel,” Ryder smirked. “I’ll have a BLT, and er…” he glanced down the menu which made Jerry smile. “How about a bowl of fries for the table? Do you like French fries, Sadie?”
“What kind of question is that?” I laughed. “Who doesn’t? I’ll have a BLT too.” I stared down at the black coffee on the table and Jerry seemed to read my mind.
“Creamer, milk, sugar, sweetener, whatever you like, it’s all on a table over there sweetheart,” he said, pointing across the room.
“Thank you,” I nodded.
“I’ll be back in a few with your lunch.” Jerry walked away, not having written a single thing down in his notebook. Our order wasn’t all that complicated though, there probably was no need to.
“Do you want anything for your coffee?” I asked Ryder.
“It feels like a black coffee day to me,” he shrugged.
“Okay, well I’ll be back in a minute with my pockets stuffed full of sugar packets,” I said.
For a small café in the middle of nowhere, this little table was stacked with all sorts of things that I wouldn’t have expected. There were shakers with powdered chocolate, cinnamon, matcha, vanilla, you name it. I was lifting up each container and reading the label, so didn’t notice that someone else had joined me until they started speaking.
“Are you Sadie Alden?” he asked. I turned and saw a grey faced man with deep set wrinkles around the eyes.
“Yes,” I replied, looking over to see if Ryder had noticed what was happening.
“That body on the beach, it was Cindy, wasn’t it?” he said. It didn’t feel like a question, but he had phrased it as such.
“I—” Should I respond? Should I be keeping that to myself until we have more information?
“I thought you should know that I saw Wyatt and her getting into it two days ago,” he continued. “He was yelling, and she was yelling right back. If I was betting on who pushed her, it would be him.”
Wyatt had told me he hadn’t seen Cindy in over a week. Had he lied to me? And who on earth was this guy?
10
“Drew?” Ryder called over. He must have looked over from the table and seen the alarm on my face, because soon he was
standing beside me. “Long time no see!”
“Ryder, I didn’t know you were dating the peacekeeper!” Drew replied. After Ryder had said his name, I put two and two together and realized that this must be Wyatt’s neighbor, the man that he was warring with over the placement of an old hedgerow.
“Why does everyone think we’re dating?” I mumbled.
“I’m her guardian, it’s not a long story, but a bit of a weird one,” Ryder offered. “What brings you out to the café today? You’re not normally here for lunch.”
“Retirement can send you strange, you young people don’t know how good you’ve got it! I went from a set schedule at work, to no schedule, to a boring schedule, so now I’m mixing it up. Instead of coming here for breakfast twice a week, I’ve come here for lunch. You should have seen Jerry’s face when I walked in here,” Drew laughed. “He couldn’t believe his eyes.”
“You’ve always been an adrenaline junkie,” Ryder joked.
“Ha!” Drew barked. “You’ve got a good one here, Sadie. A real keeper. You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats old folk like me, this one here is solid gold,” he smiled, jabbing Ryder playfully in the chest with a bony finger. “Anyway, I was just saying that I think Wyatt pushed Cindy Saco off a cliff. Did you want the vanilla creamer? I just realized I’m hogging the container.”
“What?” I said, furrowing my brow as I tried to unpick the words. He raised his right hand and wiggled the creamer at me to prove his point. “Oh, I was just here for sugar.”
“I heard sugar ages the skin faster than anything, did you know that?” Drew smirked. “I don’t believe that for a second, I mean, I think I look great for thirty!” He barely got his own joke out before he started laughing and Ryder politely smiled back, though he was clearly eager to hear more details about the murder that Drew was trying to tell us about.
“What were you saying about Cindy?” Ryder pressed.
“Oh, not here,” Drew said, lowering his voice and leaning in conspiratorially. “Finish your food and then head back to my place. I can show you the footage I got on my camera system, and you can see for yourself that Wyatt Adams is a mad man that should be locked up!”
“You have cameras?” I asked.
“Who wouldn’t at this point? That man has been screaming at me about hedges for months and I can’t even remember who started it at this point. I have a gorgeous view of the ocean, but he said if I don’t, and I quote, ‘knock it off’, he will build a ten-foot fence on his side of the hedge and block my view. He’s lucky I haven’t socked him in the teeth!”
“He said you punched him, he had a split lip,” I replied.
“Oh, well that was just a warning shot. He tried to take my hedge clippers out of my hands, and I lashed out. I’m not proud of it… I don’t necessarily regret it either…” he smiled.
Drew was an odd mix of good humor and unpredictable hostility that was somehow endearing. Although the thought of him and Wyatt getting into a fight seemed ridiculous, I could see why that woman from The Bureau was so keen to get us to this side of the island. Maybe we were here to stop Wyatt and Drew killing each other, and we just so happened to find a different crime when we arrived.
“BLTs for two!” Jerry hollered from our table.
“We’ll be at your place in about an hour, is that good with you?” Ryder said, watching Drew as we realized he’d brought his coffee to the sugar cart, drank half of the cup and was now topping it up to the brim with cream. That was a heart attack cocktail if I’d ever seen one.
“That would be perfect! I’ll call my wife and let her know to get the oven on because she likes to serve fresh cake when we have guests, and this will make her week. She’s been dying to try out a new pear cake she saw in a magazine. Beth won’t make a cake if it’s just family at home, she said these things are meant to be shared,” he shrugged.
“I can’t wait,” Ryder smiled, patting Drew on the back and tugging at my arm to get me to follow him back to the table.
“He’s fun,” I said once we were seated. Ryder had already taken an enormous bite of his sandwich so couldn’t reply straight away.
“Yeah, he actually is one of the trail angels too. His house is a great spot for people to camp, and like he said, he’s got great views!” Ryder had a spot of mayonnaise just below his lower lip, I pointed to his mouth and then wiped my own with my finger to let him know. My miming skills clearly weren’t up to scratch.
“You’ve got a little…” I said, wiping at my own lip again.
“Where?” he replied, using his middle finger to try and clean away the sauce on his face, but he kept missing it. “Did I get it?”
“No. It’s right—” I reached over and brushed it off his skin with my thumb, brushing against his lip slightly as I did so. I saw the sparks of magic on my hand start to fire wildly and I quickly balled my hand into a fist and pulled back. “Got it,” I muttered, looking down at my plate and feeling my cheeks burn red.
“Thanks,” he said. I looked up at him through the hair that had fallen over my face and saw that he was blushing too. I didn’t want to have the hots for someone other than Miller, I wasn’t doing it all on purpose, right? It just kept happening and these flirtatious moments were building this tension between us that I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about. Especially now, sitting across the table from him.
I opened up my fists and pulled them back into view, peering under the table to see if the magic on my hands was still fizzling. I couldn’t seem to feel it like I normally could, my whole body felt as though it were tingling, and I knew that it was a reaction to being so close to Ryder. The blue electricity had died down, and I brought my hands back up above the table so that I could start to eat.
Ryder had clearly just watched that whole process, and I wondered how much he understood about why my magic seemed to flare up around him. He smiled to himself as he took another bite of his sandwich, and I ate my lunch with my eyes gazing down at the table. I was beginning to think that Ryder and I shouldn’t be alone together, I mean, we weren’t alone here, we were in a café full of people, but we should have sat at separate tables.
We were on the path back up to the cliff top homes of Drew and Wyatt before either of us spoke again. My phone was buzzing in my pocket and as I was in a daydream, I hadn’t even noticed it vibrating against my leg.
“Sadie?” Ryder said. The sound of his voice snapped me out of my head and back into reality. I pulled my phone out and saw that it was Miller.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey! How’s it going?” he said. I felt a pang of guilt in my chest as I glanced at Ryder, Miller didn’t know about our flirtatious exchanges today and I made a promise to myself to try harder to stop them happening again.
“We are just going to speak to the other neighbors now, Drew has cameras apparently and he said he saw Wyatt and Cindy arguing two days ago,” I explained.
“And he said he hadn’t seen her in over a week… hmmm,” Miller replied.
“Yeah, not looking great for Wyatt. How are things at your end?” I asked.
“Where do I start?” he sighed. “We haven’t found the fiancé yet, all we had was the fact that she was wearing a ring that looked like an engagement ring. We had to ask Brielle to send photographs of the ring so that I could go to the jewelry store and ask if they recognized it. The boss is still away so it’s been a slow one.”
The jewelry store Miller was referring to was Bearbrooks. The original owner, a very wealthy man by all accounts, had signed over the business to his daughter so that she could feel as though she had a career for herself. The paperwork gave it to her in name only, he was still in charge. She had been murdered a few weeks ago, so understandably it would seem her father was still processing the loss.
“You’re still there then?” I asked.
“Yeah, the guy in the store has some big giant book of every piece of jewelry they’ve ever sold and is comparing the photos. He’s new here, so ha
sn’t seen most of these things before. If the actual owner was here, he could probably tell me from memory who he sold this ring to,” Miller sighed. “Oh, and don’t even get me started on Mabel…”
“She hasn’t chilled out as the day’s gone on? You surprise me,” I teased.
“This guy is trying to find out who bought this ring, this could be a vital piece of the investigation because, as you know, statistically speaking, the fiancé killed her, right? Mabel is talking to him about Project Runway because she said he reminds her of Zac Posen. She’s relentless.”
“I’m sorry that your day sucks,” I sympathized.
“At least I get to see you tonight,” he said. I could hear in his voice that he was smiling. “It’s my light at the end of the tunnel to get through this day. I am going to have to speak to The Bureau somehow because Mabel is not really… hey, no don’t do that! Mabel, wait! Sadie, I’ll call you back.” He hung up.
“Wrong number?” Ryder joked.
“No, I think Miller is about to strangle Mabel, but if she dies, then we get another peacekeeper, right? It’s a sort of ‘cut the head off the Hydra’ situation, I think we could end up with twelve of us by the end of the week,” I sighed.
“Greta used to talk about her little sister being super annoying, but I figured it was just the kind of annoying that all siblings exude, you know?” Ryder said.
“Is your brother annoying?” I asked. His jaw tensed and I instantly regretted saying anything. We were approaching the gate to get onto Drew’s property at this point and Ryder stopped walking to turn to me.
“I don’t really want to talk about Jared. I think Effie is making a mistake going on a date with him and I really hope that things don’t work out with them, honestly, because the thought of seeing him hanging around the café to be near her… I don’t want to see him, that’s all,” he explained.
“Okay,” I nodded. I’d hear the full story at some point, right? It was our first day on the job together, we didn’t need to share every single personal detail of our lives on day one. The sun was high above us now, causing our shadows to pool at our feet. The light on Ryder’s hair seemed to bring out some blonde strands that I hadn’t noticed before.