ChapterTwelve
Harper read back the order to the two women sitting at one of the café’s tables. “Okay, so two lattes, two plum flans, eat in, and one Baileys cupcake to go.”
The woman ordering the cupcake grinned. “Thank God we’re here on a Thursday.” At Harper’s inquisitive look, she laughed. “My husband’s on this get fit craze and only allows himself one treat a week on Thursdays. I saw the cupcake in the case and knew he’d want one.”
Harper smiled. “Hey, every day is Thursday at Seven Dishes.”
“You got that right,” the other woman laughed.
“Be back soon.” Harper headed to the counter as another couple sat at the next table. She glanced at her watch. Eleven-thirty. Today’s lunchtime crowd was early.
She handed the order to Carol, and turned in time to see Seth, followed by Heath and Adam, enter the café.
Something about the closed off expression on Seth’s face made her pause. “Hey, you.” She walked around the counter and lifted her face, expecting a kiss.
Instead, Seth looked over at Nitro. “We’ll be upstairs for a while.”
She stared at Seth, vaguely aware of Nitro answering in the affirmative. “Is everything okay?” She rested her hand on his arm, noticing the way his bicep stiffened under her touch. The nerves in her belly clenched. Whatever was wrong?
Seth nodded, his mouth straightening in an uncommitted line, as if a smile was asking too much. “Let’s go.” He propelled her forward with a hand at the small of her back.
Both Adam and Heath’s faces remained blank as she passed. No hello, no kiss on the forehead from Heath.
Something was definitely wrong.
By the time she reached her front door, she was biting her lip at the stifling silence.
Once inside her apartment, she entered the living room and turned. The three brothers formed one line facing her. Adam placed his laptop on her dining table and clicked some keys.
“Last night, Adam drove me to the location from where the last two posts were sent.” Seth’s clear gaze held her on the spot. He didn’t blink, didn’t move.
She fidgeted under his scrutiny. “That’s good, right?” Shouldn’t they be excited, or at least happy at the development?
“Turned out to be more than I expected.” Seth glanced at Adam, who nodded. “Watch the screen.”
Adam tapped a key on his laptop and a video started. She stood, watching a car, her car, drive into a parking lot.
“But—”
“Hang on, there’s more to see,” Seth said.
She stared at the screen, watching as a woman wearing dark glasses, jeans, and a hoodie walked from her car into a café. Over the next couple of minutes, she watched the stranger sit with her back to the camera, order a meal and type into a laptop. But Harper was still back at the part where someone was driving her car. “I don’t understand. Someone stole my car?” She made a scoffing sound in her throat. “And returned it to my parking space?” Her brain kicked in. “The cameras on my building. You can check who took my car.”
Yes! They’d find the proof there.
Adam shook his head. “This happened on Thursday evening. The cameras were installed at two in the morning on Friday.”
Seth’s smile was faint, almost cold in its lack of warmth. “Let’s get back to the video. There are forty minutes of tape remaining of her that evening, but we’ll skip forward to last Wednesday afternoon.”
Again, Adam clicked some keys and another video, this one taken during the day, showed the same woman walking into the café and again sitting with her back to the camera at a far table. This time, no hoodie. “Wow, she really looks a lot like me.” But there was something more, besides the hair and body shape. She leaned forward. “That looks like…” Her mouth dropped. “That woman’s wearing my love-knot necklace, and my damn top.” Harper stared back at Seth. “What the hell’s going on here?”
“Got to say, Harper. You have the shocked innocence act down pat.” Adam’s tone sounded bored, but his gaze was lethally cold.
She stepped back. “What do you mean?” Adam ignored her. Turning to face Seth, she felt a kick to the guts. He didn’t move toward her, didn’t say a word. Just stood there, watching, evaluating like she was some specimen in an experiment, and he was drawing his conclusions.
“Speed it up to the waitress part.” Heath’s hard voice, so different from the gentle tone he’d used with her the night of her break-in, left her stunned.
Adam cued the scene and hit play. A waitress approached the table with a plate of food, she couldn’t tell what from the distance of the camera. Harper watched as the stranger and the waitress chatted, even sharing some laughter before the server departed.