Miss Frost Solves A Cold Case: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 1) (25 page)

The room on the other side of the hall was a dining room. A coffee and tea service was set up on the buffet. I snuck in and put my hand on the carafe. It was warm like it still had coffee in it. Maybe breakfast had been served, but there wasn’t an aroma of food in the air.

A swinging door adjoined the dining room to another. I put my ear to it and heard nothing. I pushed it open slightly and peeked in. The kitchen. Also empty. A few bowls and side plates sat drying on a dish rack along with a handful of silverware. Not exactly the aftermath of dishes I would have expected for a B&B at full occupancy. I mean, it was called a bed and
breakfast
for a reason, right?

Maybe Cookie skimped on that part. Maybe she just did continental and only put out coffee and pastries and a little cold cereal. But for a place with no vacancy and repeat visitors, you’d think there’d be a big spread.

I went into the kitchen cautiously, governing the door behind me as it closed so as not to make any extra noise. Through the window over the sink, the backyard was visible beyond a screened porch. I could just make out the edge of a large shed. That might be where Will had gone.

There were three more doors in the kitchen. One that went out to the porch, one that seemed positioned to lead into the main part of the house and matched up with the door I’d seen at the end of the hall, and another, smaller door on the side. Could be a pantry. Or the cook’s quarters?

But didn’t the owner cook breakfast? Hmm. Maybe Cookie’s room then. Which meant I really needed to get in there.

My heart didn’t agree as my pulse sped up a notch. I blew out a breath, trying to calm myself. I’d gotten this far.

I tiptoed to the door and listened. Nothing. I tried the knob. Locked.

Now I wanted in more than ever.

I slipped in Saint Nick style.

I patted the wall until I found a light switch, then flipped it on. Even with my spinning head, I could tell the room was tiny, like an old pantry that had been turned into an office. There was a narrow built-in desk with a closed laptop on it and a few stacks of papers and files. Two wire shelves ran from wall to wall, and both held toy prototypes.

Did Toly work over here? That made no sense. Unless this was stuff he was doing outside of the company. That could be. Especially if he was trying to make extra money to help Cookie out.

I poked through the files. One was marked Orders To Be Filled, another said Customers, and a third was simply labeled Underweb. What the heck that was I had zero idea, but other than the Customers file, none of them made much sense. What orders did a B&B have to fill?

But Toly might. If he was selling his own toys. Wasn’t that a conflict of interest? I grabbed a sheet of paper and held it up to the light.

Same watermark. Toly was definitely working here. And whatever he was doing, he didn’t want anyone at the shop to know about it.

With my heart still pounding, I pulled out my phone, flipped through the paperwork, and snapped pics of anything that looked vaguely important. I’d figure out if any of it actually was when I got back to my apartment because all I wanted now was out of here.

The back door creaked open. I flipped the light off and froze. If that was Cookie and she was coming in here, I was trapped. There was no window, and no other way out.

Was this Jacque’s vision of me in a dark room in danger? I held my breath and prayed that he might be wrong just once.

Feet stomped, like someone knocking dirt off their shoes. Then more footsteps, thankfully receding. Maybe Will coming in from the shed. Whoever it was, it didn’t sound like they’d stayed in the kitchen.

Enough was enough. I was getting out while I could. I went back under the door and stumbled out through the screened porch. The rain was back. I pulled my hood up as I passed an old pickup parked in front of the shed. It bore the Gingerbread Inn name and phone number on the side, which was about the only spot not dented.

I kept going, crossing into the adjoining neighbor’s property. If anyone saw me, they’d probably report me for public drunkenness. I knew I was weaving, but there was no time to rest and let the dizziness pass.

As soon as I was on the sidewalk, I slipped my bracelet back on, happy to hide behind Lilibeth’s face again.

It took a good ten minutes for my heartrate and my head to return to normal. I wasn’t ready to go back to the apartment yet, though. The thought of being that close to Toly and whatever he was up to just didn’t sit well with me. What I needed was to think and the thing that helped me think best was sugar.

My nav showed me the shortest route to Delaney’s, where thankfully the rain had diminished the usual crowd. I ordered a fat slice of chocolate cake called Tall, Dark and Delicious and a Dr Pepper.

I collected my cake and my soda and took up residence at a corner table where I could have my back to the wall and still view the door and the street beyond. Sue me, I was feeling a little paranoid.

The first bite of that cake took the edge off. The chocolatey goodness kicked in some positive endorphins and helped mellow me out. I scrolled through the pictures I’d taken, trying to make sense of those files.

I still couldn’t. And my brain was tired of trying. I texted Greyson.

Does underweb mean anything to you?

His response came faster than I’d anticipated.
No. Are you home?

Nope. At Delaney’s having cake.

Stay there.

Like I was going to leave Tall, Dark and Delicious for Tall, Dark and Suddenly Bossy. I was halfway through that cake and debating a second piece when he showed up. Vampire speed was pretty impressive.

He slipped into the other chair in a whirlwind of black leather, burgundy silk and gleaming silver. His brocade scarf would have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but on him it was rakish and sexy. More vampire magic, no doubt. He studied me. “How do you know about the underweb?”

He spoke in hushed tones, but there was only one other occupied table, and that was on the far side of the store. I frowned at him. This was not the greeting I’d expected. “Good morning to you too.”

He blinked slowly, then smiled. “My apologies. Good morning, Lilibeth. How are you?”

I shrugged. “Better since this cake.” I started to take another bite, then stopped and stared at him. “How are you here?”

“You texted.”

“No, I mean, it’s
day time
. Come to think of it, the sun wasn’t completely set when I saw you on the street Friday. How do you do that? Doesn’t the sun make you go boom?”

He rolled his eyes. “Vampires turn to ash in the sun, they do not explode.”

“Excuse me for not knowing exactly how sunlight kills you.” I shook my head. “You should not be here.”

“It’s fine. I have Roma magic that protects me.”

“You’re sure?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You think I’d be here if I wasn’t?”

“Point taken. Thanks for coming, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” He leaned in. “Now please, how do you know about the underweb?”

“I don’t. That’s why I asked you. And you sound like you know what it is, so why did you text me that you didn’t know?”

He sighed. “It’s not something worth involving yourself with.”

Well, now my interest was really piqued. “I’m not involving myself with it. I just want to know what it is.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

What could I say? I wasn’t about to confess my little B&E at the B&B. “I think it has something to do with the store employees who’ve left.”

He snorted softly. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Except that things like that don’t happen in Nocturne Falls.”

I groaned. His cloak-and-dagger answers weren’t helping. “Can you please stop speaking in such vague terms? What is the underweb?”

“Keep your voice down, please.” He glanced around, but no one, including the woman behind the counter, was paying us any attention. As I took another forkful of cake, he leaned one elbow on the table and put his hand to his forehead for a moment. “The underweb is a shadowy, unsearchable corner of the Internet. It is devoted to the worst deviances of our kind.”

I swallowed. “You mean supernatural things?”

“Yes. And it is best left alone.”

I put my fork down. “What kinds of things are we talking about?”

“Transactions in black magic, pilfered magic, assassinations, slaves, unholy spells, sexual deviations of the supernatural variety, blood trade…any unsavory activity you can imagine can be found there. And those who dabble in the trade of the underweb tend to be criminals and miscreants. The very type this town strives to keep out.”

“Wow.”

He picked up my fork and helped himself to a bite of cake. “Wow indeed. How did you come to find out about it?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

He nodded. “You could.”

“And would you give me an answer?”

He stared at me a moment, then got up. “Excuse me.”

I thought he was leaving, but he only went up to the counter to get some coffee.

He came back with it, sat down and stared at the oily black liquid steaming in his cup. His gaze seemed a million miles away, and disgust bracketed his mouth in harsh lines. “My last lover was a very wealthy woman.”

My brows lifted. Sure, I knew logically I wasn’t the first woman to catch Greyson’s eye, but to hear him call another woman
lover
was sort of…odd. “How nice for you.”

He shook his head and looked out the window. “Life was good. She was very generous, and while I have plenty of money of my own, she rarely let me spend it.” He glanced back at me. “
Let me spend it
sounds wrong. I should say I rarely had the chance. She paid for everything and liked it that way.”

I just nodded and let him go on.

“Europe was our playground. It’s very different over there for vampires.”

“She was one too?”

“Yes. Older. A little more powerful. Well educated. But she didn’t have my street smarts.” A wry smile bent his mouth. “We made a good team.”

“And you loved her?”

He hesitated. “Maybe. At least I thought I did. She was certainly entertaining.”

“So what happened?”

His smile disappeared. “About a year ago, she started supplying us with exotic blood.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

He traced a pattern on the table. “Supernatural blood. Shifters, witches, fae…blood that contained more power than ordinary human blood.”

“And that wasn’t good?” What did I know about vampires and blood and all that business?

He rolled his shoulders like they’d suddenly tensed up. “No. It’s an unwritten rule that drinking from another supernatural without their permission is off-limits. In fact, the vampire council maintains that drinking from anyone against their will is forbidden.”

You learn something new every day.

“Because of that I was curious about her source. She wouldn’t tell me, just insisted it was all on the up and up. That wasn’t enough for me. I did some digging and found out she was getting the blood from a supplier via the underweb. At that point, I didn’t know what it was either.”

I leaned in. “So how did you find out?”

He put his hands around his cup. “A lot of trial and error and subterfuge. But I finally gained access to the underweb, and after about two months of poking around and pretending to be someone I wasn’t in that dark, disgusting corner, I uncovered her supplier. He wasn’t getting the blood voluntarily. I left her immediately.”

“Good for you. Was she angry?” I would think losing a man like Greyson would ruin any woman’s day.

His smile was bitter. “I don’t know. I didn’t stay to find out. Just wrote her a note telling her what I knew and left.”

Just like the store employees. “And now you’re here.”

“And now I’m here. And you know my secret.”

“That was a secret?”

“You’re the first person I’ve told.”

Things suddenly felt very unbalanced. I bit my lip and tried to ignore that feeling. I failed, but I tried. “I appreciate your trust in me.” Something he’d now demonstrated twice. I tapped my fingers on the table. “Can you still access the underweb?”