Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,54

stopped by to pick up Toast and Jade felt newly awkward around him. She imagined herself accidentally saying something like, “Thanks for bringing Toast over, bye, love you. I mean – love him.” So she decided to keep her mouth shut.

As luck would have it, Morgan was bursting with excitement and wanted to give him an update on their day. The only thing that Jade dared to add was a thank you for his help with her mom. She also asked if they should expect any charges for the pepper spraying incident.

Matthew laughed. “I wouldn’t worry about that. It sounds like Eddie knew he was in the wrong, and he threatened you. Right?”

Jade was about to say no, but Morgan beat her to it. “Oh, definitely. Very threatening.”

“Now I need to talk to Hank and see what we’re going to do about him.”

“Can you maybe wait on that?” asked Jade.

“Why?”

Jade bit her lip. “I just wanted some time to process it – maybe get some more information. I don’t even know if I want to press charges against him.”

“Well,” Matthew said with a sigh. “That’ll be up to the prosecuting attorney.”

“Will it be a difficult case?” Morgan asked. “We didn’t even really get a confession out of him.”

Matthew nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. But…”

“Well – just keep me updated,” Jade said.

“I will. I can’t do anything until I talk to people who are much more important than I am anyways,” he said with a laugh.

Jade wanted to tell him that he was one of the most important people on earth as far as she was concerned, but she didn’t dare. Instead she just said, “Okay.”

The next morning, Jade offered to pick Toast up in the morning. She felt bad that Matthew had to extend an already long shift by coming to her house in the morning and at the end of the day.

Also, it worked well for her plan. As soon as she got Toast into the car, she drove straight for Eddie’s house. If the sheriff’s department and the prosecutor decided to start asking him questions or bring charges for the arson, Jade might lose her chance to talk to him. It needed to happen now.

She didn’t tell anyone what she was doing. First of all, she didn’t want them to worry and insist on coming along with her. As long as she had Toast, she knew that she would be safe.

And just to be safe, she also brought along a can of her mom’s pepper spray. Just in case.

When she knocked on Eddie’s front door, he answered bleary-eyed and grumpy.

“What do you want?”

Toast let out a low growl and Jade patted him on the head. “Hi. I’m sorry about him. He’s mostly friendly. But I, uh, really need to talk to you.”

Eddie shook his head. “Oh no – I know how this works! You’re going to try to get some confession out of me. Well that’s not going to happen! Just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone, okay?”

Jade tried to speak quickly before he shut the door in her face. “I’m not here for that. But you almost killed me. The least you can do is talk to me.”

Eddie let out a sigh. “All I can say is that I’m very, extremely sorry about the horrible accident that happened to your house. I was glad to hear that you weren’t hurt. And that I know whoever did it didn’t mean to do anything but scare you, and that they called 911 right away with an anonymous tip about what was going on.”

“I believe you,” Jade slid her shoe into the doorway to ensure he couldn’t shut her out. “But I know that there’s more to the story.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jade said with a nod. “So can I please come in, just for a few minutes? I promise that I’m not trying to trick you.”

“Then why did you bring that vicious dog with you?”

Jade shrugged. “Because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that you wouldn’t try to kill me again.”

He grunted and pulled the door open. “Come in.”

He led her to the kitchen which was, unsurprisingly, a mess. “You want anything? Coffee or something?”

“No thanks,” she said. She pulled a treat out of her pocket and got Toast to sit next to her. He was eager to sniff around the kitchen, but Jade didn’t want him getting into anything that he shouldn’t.

“So what do you want to know?”

Jade cleared her throat. “After my mom –