I glanced up and met his eyes. This was a big step for him, he knew it and so did I. He’d never, not once before, asked for my help with a case. Carefully, I accepted the file. “Are you asking me to consult?”
“Yes, I am. It’s a runaway. He’s fourteen years old, the cops don’t have any leads, I’m running into dead ends, and his mother is scared. But I thought maybe you might be able to give me some new information.”
“I’d be happy to,” I said.
“I’ll give you some space,” Henry said. “Let me know if you get any information.” He walked to his office.
I lifted a picture of the boy, a selfie printed from his own social media, and considered it. As I gazed at the photo, my nose began to tickle. I sneezed and had to grab a tissue. I caught the faintest whiff of something...but my eyes began to water and I sneezed again.
“Oh, man,” I muttered. “I better not be coming down with a cold.” I made a grab for the tissues on my desk and sneezed several more times, loud enough for Henry to come out and stare at me.
“Hannah.” Edmund came out of his office too. “Did you forget to take your allergy medicine or something?”
Allergies, I thought it over. The last time I’d had such an explosive reaction of sneezing was when I’d been around someone’s longhaired golden retriever. My fingers began to tingle where they rested on the files. “This is gonna sound weird,” I wheezed, “but this kid is around dogs. A lot of dogs.”
The expression on Henry’s face went from concern to humor, and then to calculation. “Dogs, eh?” He dropped a kiss on my head and bolted out the door. “I have an idea.”
“Well, well,” Edmund said as soon as Henry had left. “Somebody’s starting to come around to you being a consultant.”
“We’ll see,” I rasped, and sipped at my tea.
Edmund slid the files off my desk, stepped back, and the sneezing and wheezing stopped as suddenly as it began. “Wow, that was weird,” I said. “Even for me.”
CHAPTER TEN
Henry didn’t return to the office, but he’d texted me and let me know he’d found the runaway.
That cute nose of yours was dead on. He was hiding out behind a local kennel, in their supply shed.
I smiled and texted back: The fee for my consulting service is: dinner.
Come out to the farmhouse for dinner tonight. 6:00pm. Bring Eli. Was his reply.
I smiled over that, touched that he wanted to include Eli in the evening. I texted back, letting him know we’d be there and settled back in to my work.
That evening, I’d barely had the car off before Eli was letting himself out and running for the farmhouse “Henry, we’re here!” Eli hollered, banging on the old screen door. I followed a bit more slowly, and caught Henry’s grin as he opened the door.
“Hey little man.” He ran a hand over Eli’s head as he raced past. Henry stood waiting for me. He drew me in, kissed me, and we went straight back to the kitchen, where a pizza box rested on a card table.
Eli smelled pepperoni and cheered.
“The kitchen is starting to come back together,” I said as we ate the pizza. “I love the deep blue cabinets that you went with, they’re gorgeous.”
“You ought to like them, you picked them out,” Henry said.
“Well you needed more color in here with the white tile backsplash and gray countertops you chose,” I said.
Eli had spotted the boxes the cabinets had arrived in, and as soon as dinner was finished he pulled the cardboard boxes into the adjoining living room and began to play.
“I’m glad you took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room,” I told Henry as he used a box cutter to make a “door” and “windows” in the boxes for Eli. “This is going to be a great space to entertain in the future.”
Henry tucked the utility knife in his pocket. “Hannah, step outside with me for a moment.” He held out his hand, and I went to join him on the porch.
We sat side by side on the front steps as dragonflies chased each other across the grass. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the view. “It’s nice to sit and listen to the quiet.” I set my purse beside me and leaned against Henry’s arm.
“Are you happy here?” Henry asked.
“It’s great, all the fresh air and the breezes.” Content, I leaned into him and relaxed.
“I keep waiting for you to open up to me,” Henry began. “But I feel like you’ve been holding part of yourself back.”
He was so solemn that my heart began to beat faster in my chest. “Is something wrong?” I asked him.
“I’ve been patient, giving you time to confide in me, on your own, but I think I deserve the truth from you.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I remember,” Henry said, and those two little words terrified me.
“You remember what, exactly?” I struggled to remain calm.
“Everything.”
“About?” I said with a half smile. Don’t react, don’t react!
“Don’t sit there and pretend like you have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“I—”
Henry tossed a quick peek over his shoulder, making sure Eli was still playing happily. “I remember, Hannah. I always have. I know what you did to me the day of the fire. I saw you.”
I licked my lips against a mouth that had gone bone dry. “And what do you think you saw?”
His eyes were an angry glittering green as he sat next to me. “Fine.” He clenched his jaw. “I saw you throw your hands out and the Miller’s gate blew open. I was watching your face, when you sensed...smelled that the shed was going to explode.”
Sitting beside him, I struggled against tears. “Go on,” I said.
“You looked me in the eye, told me you were sorry, and made a motion with your hands...”
