Free Distortion Control (A Makayla Rose Mystery Book 3) by Audrey Claire

get Spencer back, who knew what I would find. I had visions of love letters left over from the days when they dated or little gifts Spencer might have given her, which held a special place among her items. I knew I was being ridiculous, but dismissing such thoughts seemed impossible.
    Ash, on the other hand, appeared not to have the slightest hesitation about the intrusion. When we strode into the inn and Pattie greeted us in her nervous, quiet way, he paused and scanned the interior of the inn, his gaze skittering over her as if she were a piece of the furniture.
    Pattie’s inn looked more like a bed and breakfast or a personal home than an actual inn. She had decorated it with vintage furniture with a French style, and on the walls painted in soft pastel colors hung landscapes of peaceful scenes. Rather they would have seemed peaceful if the forestry depicted didn’t remind me of my previous ordeal.
    “Hello, Ash,” Pattie said in a throaty tone. “It’s good to see you again. Oh, and Makayla, you’re looking well.”
    I wondered how she considered I was looking well when her gaze didn’t stray from Ash. Pattie’s straight blond hair hung in a sheet over one eye, and she peered up at Ash from behind the curtain. On her own, she was quite pretty. In the presence of her two best friends, Susan Aston and Louisa Strombeck, the poor thing faded almost from view. The way she worked to capture Ash’s attention, I thought she had it in her to stand out in her own way.
    At last, Ash turned his silver eyes onto Pattie, and she bloomed. He smiled, and pink erupted in her cheeks. “Which one?” he asked, gesturing toward the stairs.
    I was surprised he didn’t turn on the charm and then noticed something in the tightness of his jaw. He was more agitated than I had thought. Pattie, disappointed, led us up the steps to the second floor, and we were soon inside Penelope’s room. A strong whiff of expensive perfume choked me, and I coughed.
    “Let me know if you need anything,” Pattie said, and she closed the door slowly as if she waited for Ash to recall her existence. He scanned the room, eyes narrowed, and I wondered if he even remembered I was there.
    With Penelope’s scent so strong in the air, it seemed as if she had just left room. Feeling that way creeped me out a little, and I shivered before selecting the bureau to search first. “Spencer told me she never did anything for herself,” I said. “Maybe there’s correspondence here about someone else.”
    I waited for Ash to respond, but he said nothing. He dropped to his knees and checked beneath the bed then stood. Next, he moved over to the wardrobe. I shrugged and turned to my task. More scent rose when I opened the first drawer to find undergarments. Goodness, did the woman bathe in the stuff? Maybe the perfume did smell good but not poured on.
    With a tentative finger or two, I shifted her undies around to see if anything lay beneath. Now that I was here, I wished I had brought along a pair of gloves. If I were a professional, I would have. Glancing over at Ash, I found that he sorted through the dresses hanging in the wardrobe. So like his brother, the hand touching the garments was covered in latex.
    “Should I wear one of those?” I asked.
    He started and looked around at me. The man had forgotten me.
    I pointed. “The glove?”
    He frowned and glanced down at his hand. “No, force of habit. The police have probably searched and found what they needed here.”
    A tad disappointed, I went back to my task, but several moments later when I had gone through the entire dresser, I found nothing of interest. No papers at all, no love letters—not that I wanted to find those—were anywhere in the bureau. I began to think Penelope had kept her personal papers, if she had brought any with her to Briney Creek, somewhere else.
    I turned to inform Ash of my lack of progress and found him this time bent over a small case at the base of the wardrobe. A sheet of