My phone rings, and the sound startles me. I didn’t realize I’d left it on after leaving Miss Jolly’s office. Deklan glares at me, and I shrug apologetically as I check to see who is calling.
“It’s the coffee shop,” I say as I stare at the screen quizzically. I answer before Deklan can tell me not to. “Hello?”
“Kera? It’s Terry.”
“Hey, Terry. What’s up?”
“I just…well, I thought you should know that the police showed up here. They were asking about you and your husband. It’s Deklan, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, some detective named Warren was here asking a lot of questions. He wanted to know where you live and about a guy named Charles Grange. They say he’s missing. Is that the weird guy who kept coming in here? I told them I hadn’t seen him for a couple of days.”
“Um, wow, Terry,” I say as I glance at Deklan. “That’s really strange. Why would the police be asking about my husband?”
Dek glares at the phone.
“I guess someone called about an argument here,” Terry says. “They said something about a fight in the alley, but I don’t know what they were talking about.”
“I don’t know either. Thanks for keeping me in the loop though.”
I disconnect the call and relate Terry’s message to Deklan. He immediately calls Brian and finds out the police were at our old apartment earlier in the day.
“It’s a good thing we left,” I say. “Did you know they would be showing up?”
“I didn’t know for sure,” he says. “I had a feeling though. Grange has some ties to the police department. I had a feeling he was going to be missed.”
“Are you going to let him go?”
“I don’t know. I might have to, but I don’t like the idea.”
“Where is he now?”
“With Brian.”
“Vague.” I fold my arms and give him a hard look, but I get no information regarding Grange’s whereabouts. Instead, I get a subject change.
“Want to go see the new place?”
“Is it ready?” Maybe if I can get him distracted with the new apartment, he’ll decide to talk some more.
“Let’s go find out.”
The new apartment is much bigger than the old one—newer, too. It smells like fresh paint, and all the appliances are shiny. I find a brand new Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.
“That’s going to be fun,” Deklan says as he wraps his arms around me from behind and kisses my neck. “I can think of all kinds of things I can do to you in there.”
“It’s big enough, you might actually be able to lie down!”
“That would be nice. We’ll have to save it for later though. Brian is on his way over with the stuff from the other apartment.”
Brian shows up with a trailer full of boxes from our old place. While I unpack a couple of boxes of kitchen supplies, Brian takes Deklan aside. I have to listen closely to hear their conversation.
“I had to ditch the cops on the way here,” Brian says.
“They were following you?”
“Yeah—they were at your old place. Do you know how hard it is to ditch cops when you’ve got a trailer?”