“Are you searching for buried treasure as well?” I gestured at his equipment.
“This? Just having some fun. You never know what you might find.”
“Well, you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.” My heart raced, and I held my hand at my side to stop the shaking. I didn’t know if it was fatigue or fear.
He shrugged. “I guess you didn’t hear me coming with all the noise you were making.” He took a few steps closer.
“No, I didn’t hear you.” I bent and quickly packed my things. I had to get out of there. Thinking about how wrong I had been about Jadyn started me thinking that I could be wrong about Milo.
“Are you alone out here?”
I stopped and looked up slowly, wishing I had left my gun loaded. Had he seen me release the clip, or could I bluff?
“Why do you ask?” I felt the reassuring bulk of the Browning in my hand.
“You should be careful.” He nodded toward my hand. “Accidents can happen with guns.”
I watched him head off into the woods, and then I jogged to the car, got in, and locked the door.
*
My hands were steady by the time I got to Alex’s house. I told myself that Milo was harmless. It was just coincidence that he kept turning up in the woods when I was alone. He’d helped me when my car flipped over. I had never been wrong when the feeling resulted from physical touch. I even picked up things from objects sometimes. Something still nagged at me, though.
Alex and Josh lived in a cozy ranch-style house that sat back from the street, up on a small hill. They had landscaped it to the point that I felt I needed a wilderness guide to find the door. I think the front was a combination of stone and siding, but the ferns, bushes, and hanging plants obscured most of the facade.
I found Diana and Alex sitting in his small, welcoming living room. A bottle of Glenfiddich sat open on the table. Alex had broken into his favorite. They seemed to be fully involved in a game of “remember when” and drew me in immediately with the story of Tish convincing my mother that a U2 concert in Chicago was not only a good idea, it would be educational as well. She had volunteered to chaperone, but Alex, Diana, and I had to restrain her from throwing herself on the stage. She then freaked out a security guard with her psychic knowledge, so he let us backstage to meet the band. They were less impressed by her predictions, but she managed to snag a towel that Bono had used to mop his face. She claimed she’d never wash it. I guess that was mine now, too.
“I’ll really miss her.” Diana rubbed her nose and scrubbed her eyes viciously with a tissue.
I decided I needed some of that whiskey.
“What did the lawyer have to say?” Alex asked after pouring a shot into my glass.
“He read Tish’s will.”
“Was it just the two of you?” Diana asked.
“Yeah. She left everything to me. There was no need for anyone else to be there.” I took a sip and grimaced at the burn in my throat.
Alex whistled. “Whoa, Vi isn’t going to like that. She probably thought she’d get rid of your parents if they got the house back.”
“I know. I don’t know what promises Tish made to my mother, but she did own the house. She had a right to do what she wanted with it.”
“You don’t want the house, do you?” Diana reached over to touch my hand.
I pulled away. “No, it’s not that. She left a clause in the will. I have to live in the house for a year before selling it. If I don’t, everything goes to charity.”
“What about your job?” Alex asked.
I hadn’t talked to either of them about my job and the way I had left it. They thought I was on “sabbatical.” As if the police force gave sabbaticals. Even if I didn’t return to the force, I had been planning on returning to Ann Arbor. I wasn’t sure I could live in Crystal Haven full-time. I knew I couldn’t live with my family for the long term, but maybe if I had my own place . . .
“I’m not sure I want to go back to my job,” I said.
“It was that bad?” Diana’s green eyes held mine, and I knew that she had figured out that there was trouble in Ann Arbor.
“Yeah, it was pretty bad.” I downed the rest of the whiskey.
“What are you two talking about?” Alex looked from Diana to me.
I finally told them the whole story. It felt good, in the end, to let them know what I had been spending so much time avoiding.
“Is it still being investigated?” Alex asked.
“Yes. The kid I shot was definitely part of a gang. We don’t know why he was breaking into that house, but he didn’t have a gun when I shot him. There are a lot of people who want to see me lose my badge.”
“Wow. I knew something was up with you, but I couldn’t figure out what. I’m sorry, Clyde,” Diana said.
“So, how are you going to break the news about Tish’s house to your family?” Alex leaned forward in his armchair, setting his glass on the table.
“I don’t know. I might have to do something drastic.”
“Drastic?” Diana sat up straighter.
“I might have to call Grace.”
27