Kee Patterbee - Hannah Starvling 01 - The Chef at the Water's Edge by Kee Patterbee

exclaimed in mock pain. “I just agreed that you would bump into her again.” He looked into her eyes and frowned. “She’s nice. Don’t read too much into it.”
    “Not like I had to.”
    Looking toward where Jazlyn had exited, Cate frowned. “I find it odd she would just let us roam around, given her Uncle and all.”
    Hannah again glanced around the area to look for security cameras, hidden or otherwise. “Me, too. There’s more to her than meets the eye.” She looked over to see Buster frowning hard. His brow furrowed, and the corners of his mouth pulled tight. “Come on. I know you like her, but you got to admit…”
    “Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Still, I’m hoping she’s cut us loose for a reason. Maybe she wants answers, too. Maybe she thinks we can get them for her.”
    Cate gave her cousin a questioning look. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would she want us to find answers?”
    “Not us.” Buster then turned to look at Louie.
    “You did know her, perhaps better than anyone. Even her husband. Maybe she thinks you can get some answers because you know how she would think.”
    Under normal circumstances, Hannah would scoff at such an explanation. She would have chalked it up to Buster’s libido over-thinking his reason.
Regardless, this time he could be right
, she deliberated with herself.
But if he is right, what is she looking for?
Shaking off deeper considerations, she redirected her attention to the moment at hand. Asa was gone for the moment, with the key phrase being ‘for the moment.’
    “Let’s head back to the library. She spent a lot of time there. And I think I saw a journal of some kind on the shelf.”
    For the first time in a while, Louie came to life. “She always kept a journal, at least when I was around.”
    “Good. She spent a lot of time in her office and around that set. People tend to relax where they are most comfortable. Reveal themselves in areas we least expect them to. We need to be careful, though. I’m not so sure just how unsupervised we are.”
    Glancing around as inconspicuously as possible, Cate shuffled her stance. “To tell you the truth, I’ve felt like someones watched us all day long. Targeted. There are security cameras everywhere. But I don’t think there are mics.”
    “We’ll need to look as discreet as possible then,” Louie offered. “Follow my lead.” He then gathered the group around as though he were giving them directions. He explained that, given they were to be his assistants working for Food Critic, they should act as such. Journalist working to cover a story. Hannah, Cate, and Buster all agreed to the plan. They proceeded back down the halls, acting as if they were doing their official work so as not to raise the security’s curiosity.
    Louie and Buster headed back to the new sets and took on the different technicians. Like Louie, Buster recorded notes on his cell phone He showed particular interest in the various equipment, and focused on how it all worked.. He chatted up camera persons, soundboard operators, and lighting crew, and the like about the work they were doing. All the while, he questioned them about the atmosphere on set during Julia’s time and now under its new direction. While many were new to the studio, some were from the time between Julia’s passing and Jazlyn’s emergence. For the most part, Louie took observational notes. Talking into his cell, he flittered between documenting the look of the new set and that of Julia’s world before the accident.
    Meanwhile, Hannah and Cate headed toward Julia’s original studio. Examining the set, both took special care to look to be studying the ‘kitchen’ in detail. They looked over cabinets, opened drawers, and examined cooking utensils. All the while, they made casual comments back and forth. It surprised Cate to find that the kitchen set-up was not a mock up and not full of props, but functional. It could have been in someones home. Hannah noted the storage of