Left to Vanish (An Adele Sharp Mystery—Book Eight) by Blake Pierce (books to read for 13 year olds .txt) 📗

window of the taxi, blinking andtrying to make sense of it. The house didn’t resemble the first one at all.

“Is this what you wanted?” Agent Paige grumbled, staringthrough the windshield as well.

Adele took her phone from her pocket, quickly scrolling tothe real estate listing as she pushed out of the back of the car. She stepped towardthe summer home, facing the windows glinting in the late afternoon sun.

Nothing about it resembled the first house. This home wassmaller, but closer to the ocean. Now, Adele could detect the salty, watersideair. Instead of sand, this house had stone slabs amidst grass, and a tastefularrangement around the small Jacuzzi within the metal fence. She even spotted amini fridge next to a garage, covered by an aluminum roof.

She approached the house, frowning as she did and takingthe carved steps up to the patio. As she fiddled with her phone, she pulled upthe website that had sold the home. Not listed. Below the warning, shespotted an estimate of the price and whistled. Even if she saved every pennyshe had for the next ten years, she wouldn’t be able to afford it.

She scroll down, toward the title year built.

Only fifteen years ago. She frowned, scratching at her headand muttering to herself. What had she expected? What was the connection?

She strolled along the patio, the wood creaking beneath herfootsteps as she moved toward the nearest window and peered into the house.Again, everything modern, everything as she might expect from a home built inthe last couple of decades. No sign of old architecture or stone archways. Nosign of stained glass.

She shook her head in rising frustration.

“Well?” Agent Paige called out from where she remained bythe taxi.

Adele held up a finger, not daring to speak. She circledaround the house, moving past the windows and the lower window wells. All threeof the victims had homes in this area. The property managers were different,though. The owners were different. The real estate agents behind the sales alsodifferent. She’d double-checked that part.

The homes were all within a twenty-minute drive of eachother. What was the connection, then?

She puffed a breath, closing her eyes as if against asudden, surging headache.

What was she missing? Something obvious, no doubt. Butwhat?

She wanted to yell at the sky, to shake her fist. She feltso close, but she had stumbled onto something. Like she had finally seized backsome of her instincts. But again, it felt like she was butting against animmovable object with her skull.

Maybe Paige was right. Maybe the houses were just acoincidence.

“Come on,” she murmured to herself. “Think. Think, dammit.”

She strolled around the back of the house, noting no lightswere on inside. Some of the windows were dusty, suggesting no one had lived init for a while. She trailed her hand along the white siding, pausing for amoment to peer through a window into a bedroom. One of the curtains had beenpulled completely shut, but the other left a gap for her to peer into a small,blue bedroom with a rocket ship bed frame.

Adele sighed. She’d missed it.

“Have we wasted enough time?” Paige called out behind her.Adele turned, frowning to acknowledge the glowering agent waiting impatientlyby the gate, her arms crossed. Behind her, the taxi driver seemed relieved tohave the car to himself again. His fingers rolled nervously on the steeringwheel, waiting.

“I-I thought,” Adele stammered, “I felt certain that…” shetried, trailing off.

“You tried and you missed,” Agent Paige said with a sniff.She stared at Adele for a moment, and briefly, for an instant, it almost seemedlike her eyes flashed with something akin to sympathy. She shook her headhesitantly and said, “It’s been a rough month, I understand. But you’re notgoing to help anyone this way. It’s a dead end. We need to go back to the sceneof the first crime and ask better questions.”

“What questions? No one knows anything. The killer’s beenjumping from country to country, targeting wealthy women. There’s no rhyme orreason. Two of them were irreligious, one of them a devout believer. Two ofthem were single, one of them married.”

“All of them wealthy. All of them killed the same way.”

“And,” Adele said, insistently, more for her own benefitthan Agent Paige’s, “three of them owned homes in Aquitaine.”

Sophie snorted, waving a hand toward the house. “All right,look, a summer home in France. We’re here—so what? What’s this doing for us?You read the same things I did. Different real estate agents. Differentproperty owners. Different property managers. Different gardening services.Different housecleaning services. No common guests. No common family.” AgentPaige listed off the information with a bite to her tone, her frown deepeningwith each second. As she spoke, Adele felt her stomach churn. Paige had alwaysbeen the sort to catalog information quickly and meticulously. And now, as sherevealed what she’d paid attention to, it felt like she was slapping Adele witheach subsequent word.

“There are no connections. Houses don’t murder people. Isthat what you’re thinking? Some sort of ghost? Some sort of evil house, huntingthem down in other countries? I’m not sure how one of these structures wouldhave gotten onto a plane. But then again,” she waved a hand toward the ocean. “Maybeit swam.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Obviously. There has to besomething else. Something we’re missing.”

“You’re impossible. You don’t see sense. Just listen for achange. You’ve missed this one. There’s no shame in it, and I don’t blame you.”

Adele blinked. From Agent Paige, these words were nearlyakin to encouragement.

The older, silver-haired women crossed her arms, breathingslowly. “My oldest daughter, she’s only a few years younger than you, you know?”

Adele winced. She knew that Agent Paige’s daughter was asore subject. After the incident ten years ago, when Adele had reported missingevidence, Agent Paige’s daughter had given her mother the cold shoulder. Adelehadn’t found out until Paige had told her the previous year, but it had causedno small amount of pain for the Paige family. Still, it didn’t seem like Sophiewas trying to press this point again. Instead, she said, “So I know howimportant it is to stick to what you believe. We live in a world where a youngwoman’s opinion might