She whistled. “How’d you get him to hang around like that?”

“Oh, he wasn’t very busy. This is his slow season.”

“That’s funny.” She blew smoke into the air above her. “Either you’re blind or crazy if you think that. I never met a lawyer who’d give up billable hours to follow a food truck race and run for supplies. That fella is sweet on you, isn’t he?”

I laced my fingers together and pulled them apart again. I’d thought I was through with talking about Miguel. The universe was against me.

“He’s with someone,” I explained.

“Yeah. You. I’m telling you, he wouldn’t have gone through this stupid race with you if he was taken by any other woman. You can believe it or not.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. The garden was beautiful around us. A few of the guests had decided to strip down to their underwear and get in the pool.

“What are you gonna do if you win the race tomorrow?” I asked the question I’d promised myself I wouldn’t ask.

She finished her whiskey and put out her cigarette in the empty glass.

Eww.

“I’m gonna send my daughter to college. She’ll be the first one in our family to ever graduate past high school. How about you?”

“I’m going to remodel my diner into a world-class restaurant that people come to from all over to eat my food.”

“Sounds like we both have big dreams.” She shook my hand and got to her feet. “Good luck tomorrow, Biscuit Bowl.”

I laughed. “You, too, Shut Up and Eat.”

I could hear her smoker’s wheezing laugh for a few minutes as she walked back toward the mansion.

“Hey, Zoe!” Delia called from the pool. “Why don’t you come in, too?”

“I don’t think so. Thanks anyway. I have somewhere I have to be.”

“Going to find Miguel?” she asked.

“You got it.”

“You go, sister.”

I stalked back to the mansion as I called Cole. I went in front to wait by the circle drive. Uncle Saul was out there, still smoking his big cigar. He moved over on the bench where he was sitting so I could join him.

“Leaving so soon?” he asked. “Not inclined to jump in the pool?”

“No. Not now. I’m mad, and I need closure.”

He nodded. “Going to talk to Miguel?”

“Yes. He owes me an explanation. I’m all done crying. I want to know why he led me on.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“If I pushed him into acting like he wanted to be with me when he really didn’t want to, all he had to do was say something. I thought I was very careful since I knew about his dead wife. Maybe I was wrong.”

“I think—”

“What do you think?” I turned to him. “Did I seem too pushy? Maybe he wasn’t ready.”

“Since he’s dating Tina—”

“That’s exactly what I mean. If he wants to be with her, that’s fine. He shouldn’t have acted like he wanted to be with me. At least he could’ve called me and not left me hanging.”

“Yes.”

Cole arrived a moment later. Uncle Saul held the door open for me. “Okay. Don’t do anything too crazy. I don’t want to see you get kicked out of the race.”

I hugged him. “I won’t. I’ll see you in the morning.”

THIRTY-ONE

I gave Cole the address of Miguel’s office. I figured Miguel might still be there trying to get caught up with his work. Or with Tina.

Traffic wasn’t too bad getting across town. It seemed to go even faster when I suddenly got cold feet.

“What am I going to say to him?” I asked Cole after filling him in on what had happened. “If he doesn’t want to be with me, he doesn’t want to be with me.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes you have to hear it from the horse’s mouth, I guess.”

“I feel stupid. I should probably just go home.”

But that didn’t sit well, either. I had a powerful need to see Miguel’s face and look into his eyes as he told me that he loved Tina. I had a sense about these things, or at least I always thought I did. That sense was telling me that Miguel had been genuine with me while we’d been gone.

Or were my emotions clouding my judgment?

We got to Miguel’s legal office, which was located in a run-down building in a bad part of town. The lights were still on inside. I sighed as I looked up at the building.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“You’ll never know if you don’t go in,” he said. “You’ll wonder about this moment the rest of your life. Want me to come with you?”

I smiled at Cole’s words of wisdom, and his offer of help. How could I turn away now? I had to go through with it.

“Thanks. Will you wait for me here?”

“I got nowhere else to be, Zoe. You take your time.”

I thought about the old days when knights and soldiers put on their armor and went off to war. That’s how I felt. I wished there were some magical armor that could protect my poor heart, but it was only me and my silly desire to make Miguel tell me to my face that he didn’t want to be with me.

I went inside. Miguel’s office was on the second floor. I took a deep breath and went up the stairs to give myself time to decide what I’d say to him. Even by the time I got there, I wasn’t sure. I hoped to be inspired when I saw his face.

The office door was open. I walked in, but there was no sign of Miguel. There were only two rooms in the office. He was gone, but his cell phone was on his desk. All the lights were on. The desk phone was off the hook. A weird voice kept telling me what to do if I wanted to make a call.

Nothing looked out of place besides that. Maybe he’d gone home.

I was about to leave when I noticed a small amount of blood on the carpet near the front of the desk. Examining it closely, I could see the blood was fresh. It was still pooling on top of the carpet fibers—still time to clean it without staining.

There was something under the desk, too. I used a pen from Miguel’s desk to pull it out. It was an empty pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

Marsh! Detective Marsh had been there.

Why had he been there?

A terrible thought crossed my mind.

Was it Marsh from the beginning? Was he the one who’d killed McSwain because he’d asked questions about Alex’s partner in crime? Had he been the one who’d killed Alex, too?

I took out my cell phone and used it to speed dial Patti Latoure. I was shaking with fear and hoping nothing horrible had happened to Miguel.

Patti finally answered after a few tries. “Zoe. We were just talking about you.”

“We?” My heart was pounding, hoping Miguel was with her.

“Detective Macey Helms came down from Birmingham. She has some interesting information.”

“Can it wait a few minutes?” I kind of cut her off. “Miguel Alexander may be missing. I think Detective Marsh from Charlotte might be responsible for the things that went on during the food truck race.”

Patti chuckled. “Funny you should say that. Macey was telling me her story about her partner shooting her right after she saw him kissing Tina Gerard.”

“Kissing Tina? She’s involved in this, too?”

“It seems that way. Where are you?”

I skimmed over the reason I’d come to look for Miguel and told her what I’d found at his office. “Could you look up Miguel’s home address and meet me there? Maybe you could put out an APB, or whatever you call it, for his Mercedes. I don’t think it’s here. Tina and Marsh may have hurt Miguel.”

“Take it easy, Zoe. Calm down. I’ll look up Miguel’s home address—although I would’ve thought it was something you already had. It’s possible nothing has happened to him. He might not even know those two are the real culprits.”