Heart of Gold - B.J. Daniels Page 0,32
high school photo. He thought of the stories Charlie had told him. There’d definitely been something dark inside Lindy. Too bad the judge didn’t get hold of her. But then again, not everyone came out of the judge’s boot camp changed.
Staring at her stepsister, he wished the photo could talk. What had happened that night outside the house? It seemed too coincidental that the one time Charlie locked Lindy out, a killer came along. He supposed it could have been random. They were close to the tracks and a lot of empty warehouses. A derelict could have heard Lindy yelling and come out to see what was going on.
Still...if that wasn’t what had happened, then what were the other options? Someone who’d been stalking the girl without her knowing it? The shoe tracks the police had found at the edge of the creek... Someone from school? Or someone from the neighborhood? He thought about the boy named Fletch. He also thought about the twentysomethings from down the street who Lindy had waved at.
He felt as if he was clutching at straws.
He realized he had a lot more investigating to do. Christmas was almost here and he had to get back to teaching after the first of the year. Even if he found the killer—unlikely after all this time—it didn’t explain why Charlie was seeing Lindy in someone who looked like this girl had fifteen years ago.
But at least he did know something. Lindy hadn’t come back from the grave. Though it did give him a chill to think that if she had, would it be to torment Charlie—or demand that someone find her killer?
The door to the apartment flew open and quickly slammed shut. He turned to look at Charlie standing there madder than an old wet hen, as his grandmother used to say. “He thinks I’m avoiding him.”
“You are.”
She rolled her eyes.
“He’s just annoyed that you don’t drop everything for him when he snaps his fingers. You can do better.”
“I should have known you would be understanding,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t want to fight with him. He thinks I’m breaking up with him, avoiding him, ghosting him.”
He met her shiny gaze. “Would that be so terrible?”
She stared him as if in shock. “This is really none of your business.”
Like that was going to stop him. “Charlie, tell him what’s really going on. That’s all you have to do. I’m sure he’ll be understanding since he knows that you’re being stalked by someone.” She shook her head. “What are you so afraid of? What’s so special about this guy anyway?”
“He’s...nice looking, easygoing and he likes me.”
“You could be describing a golden retriever.”
“We’re in a relationship. If you’d ever been in one—”
“I was in a relationship for three years.”
* * *
CHARLIE STARED AT him in surprise. Three years? She always thought of Shep as the love-em-and-leave-em type—even though she’d been the one to leave him all those years ago. “Three years? The same woman?”
“That is how a relationship works, isn’t it?” He turned back to the kitchen table and the papers on it.
She stepped in and pulled out a chair. Curling her feet under her, she sat. “Tell me about her.”
He gave her an are-you-serious expression. “She was nice.”
“Three years is a long time.” She swallowed the lump in her throat at the thought before she asked, “Were you serious about her?”
“I thought I was.” He went back to his papers.
“Did you...did you ask her to marry you?” She felt an ugly twist of jealousy turn in her stomach. Even though she’d been the one to break things off, she always thought of Shep as being hers. That he’d never forgotten her, maybe had even yearned for her over the years. That their connection had been so strong, that he’d not found her in anyone he dated and that’s why he was still single. He was single now, wasn’t he?
He didn’t look up. “I did.”
“You asked her to marry you? Did you buy her a ring?”
He dropped the handful of articles he’d been looking through to give her his full attention. “I asked. It was kind of spur of the moment. I didn’t have a ring yet.”
“Did she...say yes?”
He seemed to study her for a long moment. “She said yes.”
Charlie felt her eyebrows shoot up. “Did you—”
“We didn’t get married. End of story.” He started to turn away.
“She dumped you.” She felt guilty because that make her feel a little better.
“She didn’t dump me. I realized