Ganache with Panache: Book 2 in The Chocolate Cafe Series by Valley Sams Page B

Vanessa said, turning once more to her phone. She was surprised when Mac reached out and gently stayed her hand. She fixed Vanessa with her icy, almond eyes.
    “Not yet. I think a visit may be in order.”
    “Don’t you think the police would be better…” The intensity in Mac’s eyes grew. There was something obsessive about it that Vanessa found both exciting and a little alarming at the same time. She knew she was about to be whisked off on an adventure and she was certain there was nothing much she could do to stop it.
    “I’m a bit like the girl that cried wolf around here. Let’s just go for a little visit and see if there’s anything we need to worry about before we call in the cavalry.”
    There was a moment where Mac could almost see Vanessa make the decision. She looked down at herself in her pajamas then over to Mac in her soaked running clothes.
    “Thank goodness there are lots of clothes around. We should probably get changed before we start knocking on people’s doors.”
    “I’m starting to think that’s debatable.” Mac said, absently.
    “What is, showing up unannounced in your pajamas?”
    “No,” Mac said. “Whether those two could be classified as people.”
     

CHAPTER TEN
    Mac was unsurprised that the butler who finally answered the Hoods’ door looked about as browbeaten as a punished dog. His eyes, rheumy and hardly focused, flitted over Mac and then to the car parked in the driveway.
    “Are you expected?” he drawled from the side of his mouth, his lips barely moving.
    “No,” Mac said. “Not at all.” There was a brief moment when the two of them locked gazes for a split second. No, she wasn’t expected and frankly, the butler couldn’t care less if she was.
    He stepped back and let her in, motioning with an almost sarcastic gesture for her to make her way up the stairwell and into the ballroom.
    This time, there were no shrieks echoing off the garish gold-framed portraits that hung on the walls. No screaming to shake the imported crystal and tacky statuettes. There was an eerie silence that would’ve normally made Mac nervous if she hadn’t been so enraged. She had had more than enough of the Hoods to last a lifetime.
    Mac strode up the stairs, full of confidence. Of course, Vanessa’s clothes helped a great deal. Before they left, she had chosen an outfit specifically for Mac from the wonderland of perfectly tailored offerings on her racks. All black, sleek, and fitted to Mac’s surprisingly slender legs and perfect runner’s bottom like a custom-made suit, it gave Mac the look of an undercover vixen rather than a university dropout acting on a hunch.
    Mac began to lose her nerve as she approached the top of the staircase. Vanessa was in the car after adamantly refusing to get out. Maybe she had the right idea. She said she would wait for Mac, like a driver of the getaway car, primed to tear out of the driveway at breakneck speeds should it be necessary.
    Mac tried to convince her it probably wouldn’t be, but in all honesty, experience had proven otherwise.
    When she entered the ballroom, she was surprised to find not the Hoods as she had expected, but a tall, handsome man and a tiny, Asian woman who could only be…
    “Oh, I’m sorry…” Mac said. “I was looking for Mrs. Hood. You must be Zachary Lau’s sister.”
    The two of them stiffened visibly as soon as she said his name. His sister, who bore such a strong resemblance that they might as well have been twins, seemed to cringe the most. Her head was shaved as her brother’s had been save for a long streak of bang that had been died an electric purple.
    The sister looked to her companion nervously and then back to Mac. She advanced, nervous as a cat and offered her hand,
    “Kyra Lau.” She said, her voice deep like a man’s. “We’re just…”
    “Helping Miss Hood with her gown.” The man, considerably more polished, stepped forward and practically grabbed Mac’s hand as soon as the sister had