fall.
It was all that, yeah, but holy shit, it was so much more, and he didn’t have the first freakin’ idea what the hell he was supposed to do about it. And now, as their hours sped by, the pressure was on to figure it out, to make this craziness make sense to both of them.
Or at least give her something to really smile about so she could stop faking it.
They were in his truck, heading back to her place, when his phone rang, bringing his time to figure it out to a screaming halt.
“Hale? Where you at?” Hudak’s tone was short, clipped, and since it was coming straight through the speakers in his truck, Ellie instantly picked up on that and turned worried eyes his way.
“We’re just heading to Ellie’s. What’s up?” He could only hope she caught on that he wasn’t alone.
“Oh.” Tone change; she got it. “Miss Palmer’s with you?”
“Yuh.”
“Okay, uh, listen: I know your shift doesn’t start for a couple more hours, but can you swing by the detachment after you drop her off?”
He got it.
“No problem. Be there in about ten.”
“And Miss Palmer? While I have you: I haven’t received any new emails from you for a couple days—does that mean he hasn’t sent any?”
“I haven’t checked my email since Friday morning,” Ellie said. “I’ll look when I get home and let you know.”
“Good. Thanks.”
The line went dead, and the radio kicked back on.
“So what does that mean?” Ellie asked. “Why would she want you to go in early?”
“Could be anything,” he said, forcing his shoulder into a shrug. “Or nothing more than they want me to take a shift this week, before I go. Tonight’s my last scheduled; then I start my four off, and then…”
Ellie lifted her chin in a half-nod, then turned to look out her side window.
“Would you please do me a favor?” she asked, her voice quiet but not in a good way.
“Course.”
She turned to look at him again, her eyes dull. “Don’t start lying to me now.”
Shit. He should’ve known she’d get it, too.
“You’re right,” he muttered, wishing she’d stop looking at him like that, like he’d just stomped on her heart. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on. It might not even have anything to do with you or Kurt.”
“But chances are…”
“Yeah. Chances are.” He nodded. “Hudak and I aren’t working any other cases together, and she should be on her four off, so something’s gotta be up.”
She was painfully quiet until they turned off the highway, into town. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“Course.” He smiled, but she didn’t smile back. “Safety first and all that crap.”
Before heading to the detachment, he did a walk through her house, then stood at the door for a second, feeling more awkward than he ever had in his full thirty-four years. The only thing that saved him was Ellie; he should have known.
“Go,” she said, her small smile reaching past her lips, past her eyes, and sinking right through him. Damn, he loved that smile. “Go do your Dudley Do-Right thing. I want to start going through the stuff we brought home, anyway.”
“Can I call you later?”
“Anytime.” She didn’t come close, just stayed over by the kitchen table, which was better for both of them. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He stared back at her for a long second before he finally shook his head slowly and jerked the door open. “Lock up behind me.”
Before he could do or say anything that would get him into trouble, he jumped back in the truck and drove straight to the detachment, where Hudak was waiting.
—
“Before you ask, Sarge already knows. He’s the one who told me to call you.”
Brett nodded. “Okay—so, what? Did you get something off those leads?”
“Not off those, but a couple other things you’re going to like. The day I spoke to our friend Kurt Neill outside Palmer’s store, he had stains on his hands.”
“So?”
“So after he left, I canvassed the other stores to see if he’d been in or what he bought. You can read the list, but the thing I thought was weird was that he’d gone into the Thrift Shop and the Buddha’s Belly looking for ink.”
“Like a Bic pen ink or a jar of ink?”
“A jar. And it had to be black. The only reason they remembered him at the Thrift Shop was because they helped him root through all that crap in the back of the store, looking for some. They found a tub of blue,