“Yeah.” He gave a little laugh. “It’ll do. Not exactly House Beautiful, though, is it?”
“You put your time into other worthwhile things.”
He laughed shortly. “That’s the polite way of saying it needs some help.”
“The thing is, I mean it.”
He let it drop, and they drove the rest of the way to Jack and Aaron’s place, which sat on a street Casey had toured during her bike ride. The house was one of those with a flowerpot on the porch, and a Welcome sign on the door. Cheerful, well-kept. A not-so-subtle difference between their place and Eric’s.
Jack was mowing the lawn, but turned off the machine when Eric and Casey got out of the car.
“Hey!” Jack called. “What’s up?” He left the pushmower where it had stopped.
Eric held up the box. “We were wondering—”
The screen door on the front porch slapped shut, and Aaron came trotting down the steps. “It’s okay, Jack, I got this.”
“Actually, Aaron,” Eric said, “we need him this time.”
Aaron looked at the box. “I was wrong?”
“Nope. You were right. But we’re confused.”
“I am, too,” Jack said, with a grin. “What is it?” He leaned toward the box, as if to see inside the closed lid.
Eric glanced at the neighboring houses. “Can we go inside?”
“Oh! Right. Sure,” Aaron said. “Come in.”
He led them into the front room, where they stood in a circle around the box. Eric held it out to Jack. “Can you identify this?”
“Sure, it’s a box of pasta.”
The rest of them didn’t laugh.
“Sorry.” Jack took the box and opened it. “Oh, it’s a dryer door latch.”
“I told you that.” Aaron frowned.
“Yes,” Casey said, “you did. But we need to know exactly which dryer door latch this is.”
Jack squinted into the box. “Can I take it out?”
“Of course.”
He set the box on the coffee table and sat on the couch behind it. Aaron took a place beside him, and Casey knelt on the floor. Eric perched on a close-by chair.
Jack pulled the two pieces out, turning them over in his hands. He looked up at Eric. “It’s a HomeMaker piece. For sure. You checked inventory?”
“It’s not there. Several that look almost like it, but none with that metal piece.” He pointed at the side of the catch.
“Yeah. The ones we’re doing now are all plastic.” Jack’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and he set the pieces down on the table. “Last year. Last spring. We made these. And then all of a sudden they were gone, and we were making the all-plastic ones.”
“No explanation?”
He shook his head. “None was needed. They bring in the instructions, we make the parts. It doesn’t really matter to us what we’re making or why. We just put in our hours and come home. Everything goes to the all-mighty HomeMaker, no matter what it is, so what’s the point in worrying about it?”
Casey sat back on her heels. “We didn’t find it in the computer at all. There were other parts that were either out of production or special order, but this was gone completely.”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t know anything about it.”
“So as far as you can remember,” Casey said, “you made this a year ago last spring?”
“Yeah. Don’t know how long we made ‘em, but long enough it looks familiar. Why does it matter?”
Casey glanced at Eric. He said, “We found this, and got curious.”
Aaron frowned again. “But you said—”
“—it could be dangerous. I know. And it could be. So please, neither of you mention this to anybody, okay?”
Jack looked at Aaron, and back at Eric, half laughing. “What is this? CSI? Law and Order?”
Eric glanced down at his hands, and Jack’s mouth fell open. “It is. It is Law and Order.”
Casey leaned forward. “Promise you won’t tell anyone.”
“Except Aaron?”
Aaron punched him on the arm. “I already know, dude.”
“But we can talk about it.”
“Actually,” Casey said, “that would be good. See if you can remember anything more about these.” She stood. “We’ll take it with us.”
Jack picked up the pieces and looked at them some more before placing them back in the box. “There’s something…”
Casey closed the box’s lid. “What?”
“I don’t know. I just think I heard…” He shook his head. “Can’t get it. But I’ll let you know when I remember.”
“Thanks.” She stuck the box under her arm. “Eric? Eric.” She nudged him with her foot.
“What? Oh. We going?” He blinked, and his eyes focused on Casey.
“Come on.”
Aaron and Jack followed them onto the front porch, Jack continuing down to the lawn and the mower. Eric slid into the driver’s seat, grabbing his keys from the seat, and Casey opened the back door on the same side, placing the box in the back seat. She shut the door and bent down to Eric’s open window. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just…every once in a while it just hits me, you know? That she’s really gone. And now I have to wonder if she’s gone because of that.”
“It’s only been a little over a week, Eric. You can’t expect to not think about her.”
He looked away, then fumbled with his keys, putting them into the ignition. “You coming?”
“Where are you going?”
“I was on my way to the bulk food store. Home Sweet Home needs salt, sugar, that kind of stuff.”
Casey considered climbing back into the car and accompanying him. “You know, I have a few things to do. I think I’ll stay in town.”
“You want me to drop you somewhere?”
“Nah. I’ll walk. Thanks.”
“Okay. See you tonight at dinner, if not before.”
She patted the top of the car and stepped back onto the sidewalk. He eased away from the curb, and she waved to Jack. Aaron stood on the porch watching her, his arms crossed over his chest.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“So where are we going?” Death said.
Casey gritted her teeth. “I am going to the library.”
Death made a sound of disgust, focusing on a light blue hand-held computer game, pushing the buttons, turning this way and that with the image on the screen. “You’re so boring. The library, play practice, helping at the soup kitchen. Don’t you ever do anything fun?”
“I used to.”
“Oh, don’t get that whiny tone again.”
Casey walked faster. Death stepped deftly over a raised crack in the sidewalk, eyes still on the game.
“You do realize you could go bother someone more interesting,” Casey said.
“Of course. It’s just, your potential to be interesting is so much greater than most of the others.”
“I can’t see how that could possibly be.”
A car drifted past Casey, and she tried not to show her discomfort. A police car. Not the chief this time, but
