Free Breach of Crust: A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery by Ellery Adams Page B

think of something she might have touched before leaving town? Something she felt sentimental about?”
    “I’m not sure if she really liked me, Ella Mae, or if she just manipulated me the way she manipulated dozens of other men. It’s what she does. And no, I have no idea what she might have touched.” Hugh stretched out on the dock and slid his hands under his head. In the moonlight, his face looked like sculpted marble, and Ella Mae touched him to reassure herself that his skin was warm. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to him. For a while, neither of them spoke.
    A loud splash from the middle of the lake caught their attention.
    “Do you miss it? Being a water elemental?” Ella Mae whispered. “Tell me the truth.”
    “The memories fade a bit each day,” he said, sitting up to gaze out at the dark water. “It’s almost as though that life belonged to someone else. When I’m at Canine to Five, or hanging out with the crew at the fire station, I can’t believe I used to be so different.” He turned to her. “What about you?”
    Ella Mae glanced up at the hills. “My one regret is that I can’t enter the grove again. There’s nothing like it in our world, Hugh. It has a lavender sky and velveteen grass. The air is perfumed with jasmine and the trees in the orchard bear gold or silver apples. There’s a rolling meadow dotted with hundreds of wildflowers and a veritable rainbow of butterflies. And it’s always the right temperature. No matter what the season on this side of the barrier, it’s beautiful inside the grove.” She paused. “And I’ll never see it again.”
    Hugh squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry.”
    She shook her head. “Don’t be. You gave up an entire world of mystery too. You could explore the depths of any ocean. Any river or lake. But we have a new adventure to look forward to—the one we’re taking together.”
    “I just wish I could help find Loralyn,” Hugh said. “Memories of my own search are really fragmented. So are those lastdays I spent with Loralyn. They’re fading too—probably because I was under a spell then. What I do remember is her motive for fighting you. She wants to free her father. And because that’s her goal, I believe she’d visit him before setting off on a long journey. I’m not sure if the professor could get a reading from Jarvis Gaynor, but it might be worth a shot.”
    Ella Mae’s eyes widened. “I think you’re on to something! I’ll ask Verena to have Buddy make a few calls. If we can confirm that Loralyn stopped to visit Jarvis, it would be a start. There’s no point in taking Henry to the prison unless Loralyn brought her father an object, and I don’t think prisoners are allowed gifts.”
    Hugh shrugged. “A letter maybe?”
    “Which he’d never show me,” Ella Mae said dismally. “I’m the reason he’s incarcerated in the first place.”
    “Too bad you don’t know the warden. You could have Jarvis’s cell tossed,” Hugh joked. “Seriously, though. Tackle one thing at a time. Find out if Loralyn stopped by. If so, enlist someone else to talk to Jarvis. He’s always had a weakness for pretty blondes.”
    Ella Mae pursed her lips in disapproval. “So he has. And that weakness tore his family apart. Unfortunately, the prettiest blonde I know would like nothing more than to plunge a dagger into Jarvis’s heart.”
    “Jenny?”
    “Yes. Not only did Jarvis reduce her Tennessee grove to ash, but he also killed her best friend. She hates that man more than any person on this earth.”
    Hugh brushed a strand of hair off Ella Mae’s cheek. “But she loves you. If you need her help, she’ll give it to you.”
    As it turned out, Ella Mae never had the chance to ask Jenny. Buddy and the prison warden were college buddies who’d kept in touch through the years. So when Verenaconvinced her husband to make inquiries about Jarvis Gaynor, the warden was happy to oblige. He told them that Jarvis had received only one visitor