Conversation died down as Alice took her seat by the window. She clapped her hands together and smiled. "Welcome to the Thrive at Life class. This class is designed to help you work through personal wounds toward goals that will enrich your life. Together, we will help you forge new and healthy pathways to attaining your dreams."
Sounded like group therapy to me, and I wasn't too keen on the idea. I had no desire to rip into my personal wounds, especially in public.
"Let's begin with several deep breaths," Alice said.
Bo and I obediently breathed in and out on command, although I noticed the quarreling couple didn't make any effort to join in, since they were too busy shooting glares at each other. Had a marriage counselor referred them to this class? It seemed the only explanation given their apathetic attitudes.
There was only one other couple in the class, and the rest were singles. Most were older than us. I caught one woman watching my brother, probably wondering if we were an item, although our hair color was similar enough it was a dead giveaway that we were siblings.
"And now, let us close our eyes and contemplate for five minutes," Alice said, playing meditative music through a speaker connected to her phone.
As the bamboo flutes played, I nudged Bo. This would be the perfect time for him to escape. Without a noise, he got up, slipped between our chairs, and crept from the room.
Satisfied my brother had made his getaway, I relaxed into the tuneless music. My mind drifted to my South Carolina life, trudging to work with cliquish people who couldn't care less about me, renting a house I'd never truly liked, working through the fallout of an out-of-nowhere divorce...
Alice clapped and I jumped. "Miss Hatfield, did your brother leave us?"
I glanced at Bo's seat as if I'd just noticed his disappearance. "I guess so. He probably had to go to the bathroom," I said.
She gave me a doubtful look, like she expected me to elaborate.
It was time for a diversion. I scrambled to come up with something. "Uh...I was thinking, you said this class helps you cope with your deepest wounds?"
Alice gave a slow nod.
I sat forward in my seat and spoke clearly, so everyone could hear. "How would you suggest coping with wounds from a divorce?"
And thus I launched my alliance with over half the class. People shot me looks of solidarity and began raising their hands, offering up their own unsavory tales of their breakups. Alice was completely thwarted in her original plans for the session, inundated with wounds as deep as the Grand Canyon. I didn't know if she was a trained counselor, but she did make a decent effort to field questions.
Bo was all but forgotten by the time class wound to an end. Alice prescribed journaling homework for us and said she'd look forward to seeing everyone in a couple of nights. I wasn't sure I'd have any reason to show up—I was hoping Bo had located Coal and somehow whisked him into his truck.
Bo walked back into the room and started stacking chairs for Alice. She asked him where he'd been, and he said he'd gotten sick in the bathroom from what he thought was food poisoning. Bo had a natural gift for spinning the facts to his advantage. That's why it struck me as odd that he couldn't convince Tara he hadn't been unfaithful.
Alice seemed to believe his tall tale and told him he didn't need to continue helping her. He thanked her and walked back to me, so we left with no further ado.
I picked up my pace as we neared the now-vacated entryway. "So?" I asked.
He glanced around as we walked out the front door, then shook his head. The security guard or someone else must be lurking nearby.
Bo opened my truck door, which was an endearing habit of his and one Auntie A had worked very hard to instill. I climbed in, feeling chilly in my thin yoga pants. My heart deflated when I realized there was no Coal sitting in the extended cab seat, which is where Bo would've hidden him.
Tonight's mission had been a failure, then.
Bo got in and turned on the heat. "Sorry, sis. I guess you saw that I didn't have any luck. I didn't even hear a dog bark while I was in there."
I was glad it was dark, because a few tears slipped down my cheeks.
"But I did find something weird," he continued. "It had rolled over behind a statue in the upstairs hallway." He handed me something wrapped in a paper towel. "Isn't that a dog treat?"
I turned on the overhead light and gave the round pellet a sniff. "It surely is."
"So Alice says she doesn't like dogs—and dogs aren't allowed in Ivy Hill, are they?—yet there's a dog treat on the floor?"
It was nice to see my brother coming on board with my dognapping theory. "You're right. It seems suspicious."
"Also, I checked out Alice's office—don't give me that look. I didn't break in or anything. She'd left the door open while she taught her class."
"Did you find anything in there?"
He sighed. "Not really. I didn't even see that rhino horn you heard Isabella talking about. Alice seemed to have a lot of random knickknacks in her office. It wasn't like she'd invested a lot of money in her office decor."
"Yeah, Ivy Hill isn't exactly hopping. Maybe the golf course is more lucrative?"
Bo turned the heater fan down. "It's possible. Do you think Gerard was somehow embezzling from Ivy Hill, or even taking money on the side from lonely ladies?"
I cracked my window since the cab had warmed up too much. "Could be. Maybe that's why he got into it with Alice—she figured out what he'd been doing and called him on it." Rapping my nails on the door, I blurted, "I don't care so much about what Gerard was up to as I do about where Coal is. Do you think they're feeding him enough?"
"They'd be fools not to," Bo said quickly. "Like I said, he's worth a lot if they do decide to sell him."
I fell silent, hoping they didn't sell Coal before I could track him. It was a desperate situation, but I had no clue where to check next. It seemed like the only option left was to contact the police, but I couldn't prove Coal had been dognapped, much less by someone at Ivy Hill. I couldn't send the cops on a wild goose chase.
Bo pulled up to the sidewalk next to my place and led the way through the back garden. I was glad I had solar lights along the pathway, because I'd forgotten to leave the porch light on.
Bo had his house key ready and reached for the door. A split-second later, he shoved me off the porch and I nearly tumbled into a boxwood hedge. "Stay back," he commanded.
I hunkered down next to a solar light, wishing I could see what was going on.
"Someone must've broken in," Bo whispered, pushing the door open with a loud creak. "Your door was cracked open and they've messed with the lock."
I shuddered to think of some stranger going through all my things. "Do you think they're still in there? We need to call the cops!"
Bo flicked on the interior light, illuminating the gun in his hands. "I'll clear the place," he said. I considered protesting, but if anyone could handle an intruder, Bo could.
I backed into the dark shadows in the corner of the garden. It seemed to take forever, but Bo finally came to retrieve me.
"No one's in there," he said. "But sis, you need to be prepared, because they went through a lot of stuff and it's messy. We're going to have to call the cops and have them dust the place before we clean up."