I rounded the corner and saw the police detective sitting at a little round bistro table with an older man with grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Her dark skin glowed in the morning light slanting in through the windows behind her. She wore sweats and a t-shirt and grasped a coffee mug on the table in front of her, but she somehow still came across as competent and businesslike. Briefly, I wondered what it would be like to be that calm and capable and assertive. I hadn’t felt anything like that since my life fell to pieces last November.
Shoving the idle notion aside, I stepped into the tiny dining area and cleared my throat.
“Good morning.”
Both of the people at the table started. I noticed both of their hands flying to their hips, where I assumed they were used to carrying their weapons.
“Wow, remind me never to sneak up on you two and yell boo,” I chuckled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s fine. We thought you were still sleeping. How are you feeling? Here, have a seat,” invited Detective Ewing, standing and pushing back her chair for me. “I’ll grab you a cup of coffee.”
“Oh, no, thank you, I don’t drink it.”
The cop stopped halfway to the coffee pot, arching a brow. “You don’t drink coffee? Not even with cream or sugar?”
I shook my head. “I never acquired a taste for it.”
“In Candace’s book, that makes you not quite human,” laughed the man, rising also. He came towards me a couple of steps, holding out his hand. “Hi, I’m Candace’s partner, Detective Gary Tozzi. You must be Ellie. Ah, who am I kidding? Of course, you’re Ellie. I’ve known who you are for quite some time now.”
I’m sure my confusion must’ve shown on my face. “You have? I’m sorry, I don’t know you.”
“I know. But, as Candace’s partner, I’m the one who was with her when she first caught the case involving you and Ballis. I’ve been…” He shrugged. “Informed since the beginning.”
“I see.” I wasn’t sure that I did, but I had more important stuff to worry about than how much this guy thought he knew about me. “Speaking of Carter, where is he?”
All of the sudden, Detective Ewing got real busy stirring some sugar into her coffee, while her partner cleared his throat and reached for the newspaper on the tabletop which he picked up, tapped its edges to straighten it, and shuffled around. Wariness crept in.
“I’m sorry, where is Carter? And, for that matter, where am I?”
“This is my house,” answered Detective Tozzi, finally meeting my gaze. “Candace brought you and Ballis here after, um—” He slanted a glance towards his partner. “After everything last night,” he added, looking more and more uncomfortable and shifty-eyed as he kept tapping the newspaper edges on the tabletop, straightening it.
“What? What happened last night?” I demanded, feeling anxiety curdle in the pit of my stomach. “I don’t remember anything after Carter and I decided to use the power of that Stone to come home.”
“Well, you made it,” said Detective Ewing, finally ceasing her stirring and laying her spoon in the sink with a thump. “Turns out, you made it to the same place the Stones were, which is also where I was.”
My brow wrinkled in confusion. “I don’t get it.”
The cop sighed. “Sit down. I’ll get you something to eat. Make that Gary will, while I tell you everything. What would you like? Eggs, toast?”
Thinking back, I knew it had been a while since I’d last eaten, but I also found I simply wasn’t that hungry.
“A piece of toast, please,” I said, my throat dry as I sank into the offered chair. “Where’s Carter? Is he okay?”
Detective Ewing shrugged one shoulder. “I hope so. Let me start back at the beginning…”
Which she did, explaining everything that had occurred since Carter and I passed the gap between the two worlds and made it back home, including their battle to get out of the warehouse where she’d been imprisoned and the Stones kept. My eyes bugged out while listening; I couldn’t believe I’d stayed unconscious through a shootout, and that neither she, nor Carter, nor I had been seriously injured. When she reached the end of the story, where Carter had left, deciding to visit the Costas compound and confront Ciara and Sean himself, I felt my stomach sink like a lead balloon, while at the same time heat crept into the back of my neck.
“He went there by himself?” I demanded, tightening my grip on the mug of hot tea Detective Tozzi had placed in front of me. “And you let him?”
Neither police officer appeared particularly guilted by my accusation.
“He’s a big boy, Ellie,” Candace pointed out. “We couldn’t stop him. And that man of yours does what he wants.”
“Yes, he does, but what he’s doing could be incredibly dangerous. Didn’t anybody consider that? At the very least he could’ve taken me with him.”
“Um, Ellie?” Detective Ewing tapped her nails against the porcelain sides of her coffee cup. “That’s why he didn’t take you with him. He asked Gary and I to keep you safe. You and your family. He also said to tell you he loved you.”
She delivered Carter’s message with a straightforward gaze and unembarrassed air. I supposed she was hoping—as Carter had been—that Carter’s words to me would soften the blow of his actions and blunt the edge of my anger, making me more pliable. Boy, was he—were they—mistaken. My chest tightened. I wasn’t simply angry. I was afraid. Afraid for him. Afraid for us, and what I would do if I lost him now. I hadn’t even told him I loved him yet. I knew I did. The perspective I’d needed to fully realize that had come while seeing him kneel there on the country club grounds, willing to die for me, but actually speaking those words aloud hadn’t happened yet. I wasn’t going to lose
