“And it’s not that you discovered he’d groped me the other day, so you followed him out here and ran him over?”
“He did what?!” I resisted the urge to drag him out of the boot and run him over a few times more.
“It’s not a big deal. I handled it.”
“You didn’t tell me, though!”
“Because I was worried you’d do something like this.” Haze gestured at the dead Danny.
“God, Haze. You can’t trust me?”
“Look at how you’ve been behaving! You’re all over the place! I wasn’t about to upset you with information I wasn’t sure how you’d react to.”
“I’m sorry. I know I’ve been…off my game. It’s been hard. I’m trying.” I risked putting a hand on her shoulder. “Please, let’s find the gun. I don’t want you doubting me. It has to be here somewhere.”
I didn’t want to tell her it was more for my own peace of mind than hers. She was right. Iwasall over the place. I kept seeing danger where there wasn’t any. What if that was what had happened here?
Haze huffed and slammed the boot closed. “Where was he when you saw him?”
I motioned toward the large oak tree. “He was standing halfway behind there. He came out just as I approached.” I turned on my flashlight. “I’ll take this side. You go over there.”
Haze walked over to the other side of the road. “Have you told Jenny?”
“Not yet. Didn’t think it was a good idea to even insinuate something was wrong when she was sitting at work, in an actual police station.”
Haze turned on the flashlight on her phone. We started sweeping the ground.
I didn’t want to think about what I’d do if I found anything other than a gun. In our line of work, I had to be able to rely on my instincts. What if mine were broken? I chewed the insideof my cheek as I stared at the ground. We worked silently for ten minutes or so. And then I saw it. A black object in the long grass. I held my breath as I reached down toward it and picked it up. A gun. It was an actual gun. A Glock 45. Irecognized it right away. I might now be an honorary Brit, but I’d grown up American.
“Found it!” I called out to Haze as I examined it. The safety was off. My shoulders loosened a little. It had been a righteous kill. I had got him before he’d got me. I clicked the safety back on.
Haze came up to me and took the gun from me. She turned it round and round in her hands.
“You believe me now?”
“I didn’t ever doubt you. Not really. It’s just…you can see how it looked.”
Now that I was redeemed in my wife’s eyes, I felt a little calmer. But my head was hurting with trying to piece it all together.
“Danny had a gun. He was pointing it at me. Who the hell was he? What was he into?”
Haze shrugged. “Back when I knew him, he was just a party boy with a six-pack. We didn’t talk much.”
I gritted my teeth.
“He had a fancy car,” she continued. “A nice flat. Didn’t seem to work much, as he was always hanging out in clubs. I just presumed he had rich parents.”
“He was out here pointing a gun at me. I’m thinking it wasn’t rich parents, but…”
“He was a criminal! And I didn’t even notice.” Haze’s eyes widened. “Ohhh, he was a drug dealer! Out at the clubs, he was always saying hello to random people. Carried a lot of cash. And he did always have a weird amount of energy. He was always wanting to keep going, never wanted to stop, really—”
“Haze! Come on.”
“Dancing! I’m talking about dancing!”
I paced around in front of the car. “He was working with The Chameleon. Running this event at Balgray. Whatever they’re planning, it’s big.”
“What did you find at the Airbnb?”
