“Two weeks until trick-or-treaters. You can’t walk outside without tripping over a pumpkin.”
We were dealing with enough scary shit, thanks. “Great.”
Even the café showed a few signs of the incoming Halloween trauma. I’d been overruled when I said we should go with zero decoration. I took a little bit of time off and now it looked like some monster spewed orange vomit all over the shelves and display window.
I did benefit from the season. The whole town did. Even now, tourists gathered on the corner in preparation for some new walking tour. Dead people and their ghosts were big business. My yearly jump in sales at this time of year proved it.
“Aubrey has to know, right?” Jeremy stopped slouching. He balanced his elbows on the edge of the table as his eyes lit with excitement. “What happened to the rest of them, I mean.”
“Possibly.” Clipped. Noncommittal. I didn’t have the energy for any other response.
“You worked for her dad. You never talk about it, but I doubt you’d work for a killer.”
This topic couldn’t lead anywhere good. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“We need to be ready. No one is going to whisper about anything else for weeks, maybe months.”
My headache kicked up to big band levels. “That’s my worry.”
“I’m actually excited she came back.”
Sweet Jesus. This day was trying to kill me. “Why?”
“She said she was going to stop by again to see you. That means I’ll get an up-close view and can decide if all those theories about her being dangerous are right.”
He’d missed the point. Aubrey’s last words weren’t friendly or about catching coffee sometime. She’d issued a threat. A subtle one but one meant all for me. Jeremy didn’t pick up on the clues because he didn’t know her or that family. I’d spent years limiting his information and exposure. Not an easy task since no one else shared mylet’s not talk about themfervor when it came to the Tanners.
“Do you ever think about what would have happened if you were still working with Patrick Tanner, at that house, when they vanished?”
Every damn day.
The knife. I could see it when I closed my eyes. But there was so much more. The breakfast dishes on the table despite Victoria’s clear rules that the kitchen be clean at all times. The front door standing wide open.
Jeremy didn’t show any interest in being diverted from the Tanner mania sweeping across the county, but I tried another deflection anyway. “Okay, we should—”
“I’ve read up on the case. They found blood in the kitchen and the parents’ bedroom. Specks in Patrick’s office. I’m betting that’s where you worked. Same room. Maybe the same desk.”
All of that. Yes.
“Man.” He whistled. “I know it sucks that you dropped out of college and all, but you got lucky.”
Not the word I’d pick. “Yeah, I feel lucky.”
“I’m just saying it’s a good thing you moved on or you could have been there on the actual day of the murders.”
That was the problem. Iwasthere that day.
And Aubrey knew it.
Chapter Six
Aubrey
My grand entrance played out exactly as planned.
The women didn’t disappoint. They squirmed and tried to appear calm in the uncomfortable courtroom pews. They shared quick, terror-filled glances. Their panic raged and snarled like a wild beast until it swept around them in a tightening circle, choking off the air.
Surprise, ladies!
