“He has a wife and a kid, though, so he has to consider them,” Rob pointed out.
“I know, but he’s also left us holding the bag.”
“I’ve been sitting here reading and you’re over there doodling on a sticky notepad. It sucks that Joey’s not here to count the ceiling tiles.” Brian called him a string of names that made Rob laugh. “I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think there’s much sense in riding his ass about it until Nora’s school lets out for summer break.”
“They’re not taking a cabin unless they pay full price for it,” Brian muttered. “And it’s not like he’s going to bring them with him all the time, because he’s supposed to work, not be on vacation.”
“No, but schedules probably get more flexible when school’s not an issue.” He wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but Brian was in a mood and Rob didn’t really want a minor annoyance with their brother to blow up into a whole thing.
The entire family would get involved, choosing sides. And since a good chunk of the family would be there on Saturday for their first cookout, it wasn’t a good time to throw that grenade.
He and Stella both looked up when the door opened and Hannah walked in. Rob’s pulse kicked up a notch, though he did his best not to show it. But Stella had no reservations about showing Hannah how glad she was to see her. Once she’d gotten her fill of scratching and rubbing, Stella went back to her bed.
Rob expected Hannah to ask about something campground related, but he was pleasantly surprised when she sank into the other chair and smiled at him.
“I’m bored,” she said. “How was your trip home?”
“Good. It was nice to see everybody, though I had some trouble sleeping because I was so thrilled to be back in the land of drive-through coffee shops, I might have done too many laps. How was your call home?”
“Good. I guess it worked out that I was the only one here because I was able to sit in an empty site down here, where the signal’s stronger, and video chat with my mom. But I was careful not to pick a site too close to the store so you couldn’t spy on me.” When both men looked surprised—and maybe a little affronted—she laughed. “Oh, Dave and Sheila told me all about how youkidsput in one of those fancy doorbells with the camera, and how it tapes audio, too, so you can listen to our conversations even though they say it’s illegal.”
Brian and Rob both laughed, and Brian shook his head. “Does it do audio?”
Rob shrugged. “I don’t remember. We should probably check, though, especially if itisillegal.”
“Why does he think we want to record his conversations? I don’t even want to hear them live, the first time.”
Rob grinned at Hannah. “We put in the doorbell and hooked it in so it rings in the house and we can say ‘Hey, be right there’ and not have to stay in the store all the time.”
“I assumed it was something like that,” Hannah said. “They weren’t interested in a logical explanation that didn’t cast youkidsas the villains, so I gave up and pretended I had a headache.”
“I’m surprised you had to pretend after talking to them,” Brian said.
“I should have told them you installed surveillance equipment to catch me scoping out places to bury my victims. That would have gotten them going.”
Rob groaned. “You’re not going to let me off the hook for that, are you?”
Brian held up his hands. “Dude, did you tell her you thought she was a serial killer?”
“We,” Rob shot back, pointing an accusatory finger at his brother. “Wetalked about her being a serial killer.”
“No, we talked about her being on the run from the law,” Brian said, and then he winced. “No offense, Hannah. We were just speculating on the reasons a woman might drive across the country to stay at a campground alone and it went sideways. I don’t remember who brought up serial killing.”
“And you think if a woman travels alone, she must be on the run?” Both men froze, the silence broken only by a questioning whine from Stella. “Women travel alone. We wear pants now. We even get to vote.”
Rob chuckled. “In our defense, we weren’t serious.”
“I was looking for an old foundation,” Hannah said. “On my walk, I mean.”
Rob leaned back in his chair, turning her words over in his mind. He didn’t remember coming across a foundation—either literally on the propertyorin the paperwork. “You think there’s a foundation out in the woods?”
“There should be, yes. It’s on the far edge of your property, but within your boundaries, I believe.”
Before Rob could respond, Brian jumped in. “How would you know what’s on our property?”
“Research.”
“Why are you even researching our land in the first place?” Brian demanded, with just enough of an edge in his voice so Rob shot him a look that told him he needed to take it down a notch. “I’m sorry. I’m just really confused.”
