Ah, damn.
Now Trey had tears in his eyes. He turned away from them but not because he felt he was intruding. He didn’t want either of them to see him all choked up.
Magnus laughed. “She was a smart girl, my sister.”
Trey managed to get his emotions under control, turning back to find they were both looking at him.
“What? I got dust in my eye,” he said as he wiped the corner of his eye at the same time he batted the air. “Damn dust motes.”
They both laughed, and for some reason, that broke through the somberness of the mood.
“This is the only thing I wanted to come back for,” Ava explained, gesturing toward the box. “I hid it the day I moved in here. I had packed it with my mother’s things because, at the time, I was worried Harrison would be bothered by my wanting to keep something that reminded me of my first love. I was glad I did because he would’ve burned it if he knew about it.”
Ava looked up at Trey, then over to Magnus. “I’d like to go home now.”
“There’s nothin’ else you want?” Trey didn’t bother telling her that Harrison’s father had sent a representative down to get his personal items, of which there hadn’t been many. Trey had been here for that. It’d felt like an FBI hunt for incriminating evidence. They’d combed through the place from top to bottom. Clearly, they weren’t all that thorough since they’d missed the false bottom of that vanity. He was glad they had.
Ava shook her head and reached for the box, but Magnus got there first. “Nope,” she answered. “I’d like to donate it all to charity: a battered woman’s shelter or something. And you can sell the house. I’m not sure how much we’ll get for it since there was a murder-suicide here.”
Trey didn’t bother mentioning that she’d be surprised by the crazies willing to buy up real estate like this. Whether they wanted it for its fifteen minutes of fame, for potential paranormal activity, or because they intended to gut it and turn it into their own McMansion, someone would snatch it up.
As quickly as they’d walked in, they walked back out. Trey set the alarm, locked the door, and left the house right where it belonged.
Behind them.
***
“Before we head back to the house, you mind makin’ a detour?” Magnus proposed as Trey was pulling out of the neighborhood.
“Not at all.” Trey cut his eyes to him briefly. “Where to?”
“Coyote Ridge.”
Trey did a double take, his eyebrows dropping low. “Really?”
Magnus nodded, then sat back and watched the road in front of them. It was evident Trey was looking for an explanation, but Magnus wasn’t ready for that yet. He’d take the next half hour to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. And if his stomach stopped threatening to launch into his throat, perhaps he’d get the words out.
They rode in silence; the only sound was the random flip of that jewelry box as Ava clutched it in her hand. He’d been so stunned to see it he’d nearly hit the floor. It had been a gift he’d given Tabby when she was seven or eight, he couldn’t remember. At the time, she had some little tin ring their parents had gotten her, and she thought it was the most precious thing in the world. Magnus had found the little jewelry box at a yard sale he’d gone to with his dad. They’d had a shit ton of yard tools and a bunch of other random crap. The second he’d seen the jewelry box, he’d thought of her. It wasn’t fancy, the silver having turned mostly black from neglect. It’d cost him two bucks, but the way Tabby’s face had lit up, you would’ve thought it had come from Tiffany’s.
“Which way?” Trey asked when they reached the exit for Coyote Ridge.
“It’s across the street from Brantley’s.”
Trey looked confused. “Jesse Mercer’s place?”
Magnus nodded, swallowing hard.
Even as he steered the truck in that direction, Trey lifted an eyebrow, a silent request for Magnus to fill him in.
“From the first time I went to Brantley and Reese’s to meet Tesha, I felt some strange connection to the area.”
“Tesha’s their dog, right?” Ava asked.
“Yeah.” Magnus kept his eyes on the road in front of them as he spoke. “I couldn’t explain it, nor could I ignore it, so one day, I made a detour to Jesse’s house on my way out. I didn’t know his name at the time, but I knocked on the door, introduced myself.” He glanced at Trey. “Nice guy, if not a bit surly.”
Trey chuckled. “He’s about as nice as a rattlesnake.”
“Not once you get to know him.”
