Galen bobbed his head. “The island was a wild place to live two-hundred years ago.”
“Do you ever wish you’d lived here then? You strike me as the sort of kid who would want to be a pirate.”
“I did play pirates,” he conceded.
“You and Booker?”
“And Aurora and Lilac. What’s weird is Lilac was always the barwench back then. Aurora refused to be anything other than a lady pirate. That’s how she termed it.”
“What would her other option have been?”
“A prostitute. The island was flush with them back in the day.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t blame her for wanting to be a pirate.”
He laughed. “As much fun as that was, I’m glad I was born when I was.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re here.” It was a simple declaration and I went warm all over.
“You’re kind of sweet when you want to be.”
He kissed the top of my head. “You are too.”
I wasn’t feeling particularly sweet so I went back to watching my zombie mother. “Mombie,” I muttered.
“Hmm?” Galen didn’t look up from the file.
“My mom is a zombie. She’s a mombie.”
He paused what he was doing. “See, this is why I could never fall for anybody but you. Weird things come out of your mouth all the time and somehow you remain adorable.”
“Yeah, I’m awesome.”
He laughed again before turning serious. “If we had a name to work with, we might be able to pull up a second file. Perhaps no one ever put it together that Declan was the same guy as a previous resident.”
“Jareth would have volunteered that information if he had it.”
“Maybe.” Galen didn’t look convinced. “I’ll ask him anyway.” He flipped a page. “Basically everyone on the island found him odd. The women tried to bring him casseroles to entice him when he took up residence in the house.”
“Can you look at property records to see who owned the house before him?”
“That’s a good idea.” Galen pulled up a browser window on his phone and logged in to his internal police system. “Let’s see.” Hehummed to himself as he searched. “Interesting,” he said a little bit later.
“What?”
“There’s no former owner listed.”
“How is that possible on an island where bureaucracy isn’t a dirty word?”
“It’s just another piece of the puzzle. It suggests someone knew he was here before and covered up for him.”
“Who could have done that?”
“I’m not sure.” He was intent on his phone. “We may have to ask my mother.”
“That will be fun.” I patted his knee and went back to staring through the viewing window.
