Will misread her expression. “I’m sorry to come in and mention this stuff while you’re worrying over Shadow.”
“No, I think it helps to take my mind off that,” she told him.
16
Sunny went through the motions, gobbling a quick sandwich she’d brought from home and then putting up posters in the hopes of finding Shadow. Store owners offered space in their windows or by their cash registers. Some people she knew and many she didn’t stopped to read the notices and offer their good wishes. A few seemed to know about Shadow’s disappearance already. Sunny looked at the picture on her poster.
Unfortunately, none of these folks had any information to offer. They promised to keep an eye open, though.
Through all that time, Sunny’s brain kept spinning its wheels on the question of where Martin Rigsdale had hidden his ill-gotten gains. Stealing from the Ukrainians in the first place suggested that Martin had intended to get out of Dodge. She was sure that Dani—not to mention Olek—would take a dim view of him making off with the money, especially since it wasn’t even really theirs.
Equally obviously, something had gone wrong. Dani mentioned finding out about the bank withdrawal before Martin had expected him to. He also mentioned a very foolish bank officer—another victim of Martin’s charm. Apparently, though, Dani didn’t consider the banker to be a coconspirator of Martin’s, which suggested that she had been squeezed dry of information already. Sunny could only hope she hadn’t been squeezed in other ways. She remembered Dani’s graphic demonstration of what Olek could do if he had to.
Knowing Martin’s preference for feminine companionship, Sunny was pretty sure that he’d planned to run away with someone. But if Dani and Olek had pretty well dismissed the bank officer, it had to be someone else.
Dawn Featherstone seemed the strong contender—young, impressionable, and looking at her from Martin’s viewpoint, easy to control. Of course, Martin might have been wrong about her. She could be the one who’d killed him. But whether or not she was his girl of choice or his murderer, she should have her hands on more than a hundred grand. She could go someplace far from Maine and open her dream fitness club. Why was she hanging around?
On the other hand, maybe she didn’t have her hands on the money and was looking for it. In that case, the only way that Sunny would know that Dawn had succeeded was if she suddenly disappeared. That might help Jane with the suspicion of murder thing, but it wouldn’t help her with the Ukrainians.
Wait a minute. There was another woman in Martin’s life, the dark-haired classy one. Unfortunately, Sunny had no idea whatsoever who that might be.
Sunny returned to the MAX office feeling tired and drained. And she still hadn’t started any of the day’s business. Stifling yawns, she went to work answering e-mails. The phone rang, and she snatched it up eagerly. Thankfully, she remembered to answer it, “Maine Adventure X-perience,” and not “Any news?” because the voice on the other end was Ollie the Barnacle’s. “Anything exciting turn up today?”
Sunny decided he didn’t need to hear about Shadow running away. “Nothing that requires an executive decision,” she told him.
“Okay, it looks as if I’ll be getting back in sometime late tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll probably be in on Wednesday.”
Sunny was surprised. Ollie usually didn’t give her advance notice on when he was stopping by the office.
“Okay,” she said. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.” At least he hadn’t called while she was out putting up posters. At least she didn’t think so. Sunny paused for a second. “Do you know anything about loan sharks?”
“What?” Ollie’s voice got a bit belligerent. “Is somebody saying I’m a loan shark—or that I need one?”
