The Girl in the Mist (Misted Pines 1)

“The girls that don’t stay with Betty?”

“Two have moms at home. One has an older sister who watches after her. No rec center.”

I let out a breath, both mentally and physically.

“I’m kind of glad, because if I was wrong, I mean, Ray’s been put through the wringer with that video thing.”

“Yeah. He gave that to Jess. He also said he’s probably going to be leaving town soon. Though he has no clue where he and Shelly would go, considering he’s internet famous in a way he didn’t ask for and pretty much no one is gonna hire him to work with kids anymore.”

“Now that I know he’s not a prideful psychopath, I feel bad for him again.”

“‘To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.’”

“Confucius knew his shit.”

A meager smile came from the depths of Bohannan’s beard.

And then he asked, “You tired?”

I wasn’t.

“Do you want me to be?” I asked back.

He nodded.

I bent to him, touched my mouth to his, got out of bed and went to the bathroom so I could get ready to get back in bed with Bohannan.

This, I did.

Bohannan held me in his arms in the dark and he was dead weight in seconds.

I held him back, and I had a pretty freewheeling relationship with God.

I wasn’t a fan of how a lot of His supporters regarded my daughter.

I wasn’t a fan of how a lot of His supporters hid behind Him to do a lot of things.

But since I figured He felt the same way, I sensed we were on the same page.

I also figured He listened to everyone’s prayers, even if some of them made Him shake His head.

Though, the one I sent His way that night, I knew in my heart, He agreed with me.

Fifty-Three

It’s Over

Bohannan’s phone ringing woke us both.

He turned, grabbed it, and just like Agent Palmer, when he spoke into it, he sounded like he’d been up for a couple hours, had a run, a shower and was enjoying a smoothie when the call came.

He offered all this up with just, “Bohannan.”

Then he was out of bed.

I sat up.

The light from the closet shone into the room.

I heard him say, “Pinned?”

Then I heard him say, “Yeah.”

Finally, I heard him say, “Twenty.”

I switched my light on.

Maybe five seconds later, he came to me dressed, bent, touched his mouth to mine and then gave me the briefest of briefs.

“They have him pinned in a cabin in Ash Peak. Shots have been exchanged, he caught Dickerson in his vest.”

“Oh God.”

“I gotta go.”

“Do you have a vest?”

And helmet? And full body armor?

“Office. Nothing they can do, and they’re gonna be pissed, but I’m leaving Jace and Jess with you.”

If there was nothing to do, why was he going?

“Okay,” I said.

Another touch on the lips.

And he was gone.

Jace and Jess didn’t stay left.

A couple hours later, as I sipped coffee in the kitchen and they climbed the walls of the great room (fortunately, Celeste remained sleeping through this), their phones chimed with texts at the same moment, and without a word to me (something which, later, I’d be having words with them about), they loaded up and then they blasted out in a Ram.

I did not go back to bed.

I stayed up with coffee and my laptop.

I tried writing.

That didn’t work.

I tried reading.

That didn’t work either.

In the end, I turned on the lights of the Christmas tree and fell into a trance that was not like what I would do when my mom wanted me to be invisible.

It was a trance that was being caught in the grip of worrying.

I pulled out of it when I heard Celeste was up and moving around, getting ready for school.

I then made a parental decision that was not mine to make, but if she was my daughter, or if I was her, it would be what I wanted, so I went up and knocked on her door.

She was just out of the shower and sitting at her vanity-cum-desk in a room that proved the tentacles of Bohannan’s genius instincts went in many directions, because it was not too young or too girlie, and it was not I’m a dad and don’t know my girl needs her space like she needs her space.

It was a room where it was space like Celeste needed her space.

Her burgeoning, self-possessed young woman was stamped all over it.

“Okay, lovely, you’re staying home today because your dad got a call last night and the latest news I had, they found the guy and were in a standoff with him in Ash Peak. If you hear at school, you won’t be able to concentrate. And if I didn’t tell you, you’d be validly upset with me. So we’re going to stay home, camp out and wait. But if you want to go to school, okay.”