“I’d welcome the company.”
Raven glanced over her shoulder at the running car. Chelsey sat behind the wheel, purposely studying her phone.
“I take it Chelsey doesn’t want to say hello,” Thomas said, shifting LeVar’s laundered clothes under one arm.
Rolling her eyes, Raven said, “She’s stubborn. I can’t decide what to do with that woman.”
Thomas couldn’t read Chelsey. She’d opened up to him the night he shot serial killer Jeremy Hyde, crying into his shoulder as she apologized for cutting him out of her life. The next morning, she turned frigid and refused to speak to him.
“Leave her be. She’ll say hello when she’s ready. How’s your mother?”
“She’s living with me now.”
“Rehab worked?”
“It seemed to.” Raven’s eyes trailed toward the west side of the lake where her house stood. “But I don’t prefer leaving her alone. She gets lonely, and I worry she’ll do something stupid while I’m away.”
“She’s welcome at my place anytime, Raven. Bring her by the house. I haven’t seen her since she was in the hospital.”
“Mom would like that.”
“Give me a day that works for you, and I’ll invite everyone to dinner. How’s that?”
“Everyone?”
Raven gestured at the running car.
“I don’t expect she’ll say yes. But sure, invite Chelsey.”
“Yeah, don’t get your hopes up.” Raven stared at her watch. “Listen, I’d better bounce. Chelsey’s driving me back to the repair shop. They’re putting new tires on my Rogue.” Raven hesitated, then knelt in front of the dog and patted his head. “It was nice to meet you, Jack.”
CHAPTER SIX
Monday, July 13th
7:20 p.m.
Thomas set his fork down and patted his belly. He had to give it to LeVar—the kid grilled a mean steak. Thomas skimmed the documents from the Lincoln Ramsey file. Nothing caught his eye. Like Aguilar and Lambert, Thomas chalked the death up to Ramsey’s disease. They found no evidence of foul play, and the shadow Kay Ramsey saw along her neighbor’s house was probably a kid from the group Thomas passed when he responded to the call.
At his feet, Jack gnawed a bone. He’d wolfed the steak down in record time, and already the dog had filled out. The deck door stood open to the screen, inviting a warm breeze to search through the house. The wind ruffled the papers, so he clicked them together and put them inside a manila folder. In the yard, LeVar threw his hands around animatedly as he grilled his last steak. Scout leaned her head back and laughed. Thomas couldn’t hear the joke. But their laughter was infectious, and he felt his lips curl into a grin. He reached for his water when someone knocked on the screen. Naomi, wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a pink Finger Lakes t-shirt, waved from the deck.
“Come on in,” Thomas said.
The screen slid open and Naomi stepped inside. She wore her dark brunette hair in a ponytail today. The second she entered the house, Jack jumped up. She stared at the dog and froze in her tracks.
“Easy, Jack. She’s a friend.”
Thomas doubted the dog had been to a trainer. But Jack took his cue from Thomas’s calm demeanor and lay beside his plate.
“Scout told me you found a dog,” Naomi said, eyeing the Siberian Husky with wariness. “But I had no idea he was so…”
“He’s something, isn’t he?”
“You’re sure he’s safe?”
“He let me bandage his leg and pull five thorns the size of wood screws out of his paw.”
Naomi’s eyes softened, and she dropped to one knee beside the dog.
“Is that right, Jack? Did Deputy Shepherd make you feel all better?” Jack panted and opened his mouth in a doggy grin while Naomi spoke to him in baby talk. “He needs a flea and tick collar. The ticks are terrible this year.”
“I’ll put it on my list. I’m running to the pet store after I wash the dishes.”
Naomi sat across the table from Thomas and folded one leg over the other. Thomas respected the woman for raising a teenager in a wheelchair by herself. After the accident, Naomi’s husband, Glen, blamed himself for the crash and drifted away from his family. The Mournings separated, Glen living in Ithaca where he worked as a supervisor for the electric and gas company, while Naomi moved Scout to Wolf Lake. The settlement paid for Scout’s initial medical bills and a down payment on the lakeside house, Naomi setting aside the rest for Scout’s college fund. But Naomi struggled to pay the mortgage. Her last employer, a technology firm in Auburn, downsized and cut Naomi from the payroll. Now she bounced between temporary jobs to make ends meet.
As she set her chin on her palm and gazed out at LeVar and her daughter, she smiled. It had taken a few weeks before Naomi accepted LeVar. These days, Naomi treated the teenager like her adopted son.
“I wonder what they’re laughing about,” she said. “With teens, laughing equals trouble.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open,” Thomas said. “Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”
“No, I’m fine. Hey, I need to talk to you about Scout.”
“I’m all ears.”
“She’s looking at the teen sleuthing website again.”
During the spring, Scout investigated the Erika Windrow murder case on the Virtual Searchers forum, a website devoted to teen amateur sleuthing. Scout corresponded with the serial killer, Jeremy Hyde, who disguised himself as a teen girl named Harpy.
“Are you worried?”
“After what happened in April, I’d be a fool if I wasn’t. But she’s interested in crime investigation, and she has a mind for it. The problem is, the school doesn’t offer classes in criminal justice or investigative work. Didn’t you tell me you interned with the sheriff’s department while you were in high school?”
“I interned under Sheriff Gray. But I was seventeen.”
“Scout is a little young.”
“It wouldn’t have to be a formal internship. What if Scout came to the office for a tour?”
“She’d get a kick out of it.”
“I’ll check my calendar, and we’ll set a date.”
“Thanks, Thomas. As always, you’re a lifesaver.”
“Would you like me to speak
