Page 43

“I won’t have a choice. Hey, do you know how to get here?”

I gave him directions and we hung up. Tomorrow afternoon. Supper with the family, plus Harry and Malachi. It was enough to make me break out in hives, but it would only be worse if it was a surprise.

Lu and Dave were lounging on the back porch together, watching the rain like Lu and I had the day before. We lived in a quiet patch of Signal Mountain. Our nearest neighbors were two lots away on either side, so we had plenty of trees in our backyard and no one to bother us.

It was easy to feel isolated; but then again, it was easy to feel secure.

I made myself a stiff drink—then I thought further ahead and made three. I used up the last of Lu’s sweet rum and a two-liter bottle of soda, but it would be worth the replacement costs to have an alcoholic buffer. I finished the drinks off with ice and straws, then stuck them on a TV dinner tray and took a deep breath.

I pushed the patio door open with my foot.

“Frosty beverages?” I offered, trying to sound jolly.

“Absolutely!” Dave agreed first, reaching forward and taking a blue plastic tumbler off the tray. Lu took the orange one and I was saddled with the pink. “Now what do you want?” he asked.

“Want?”

“Or need?” Lu clarified. “You look positively ill. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, exactly. Nothing’s wrong. Can’t I bring my two favorite people a drink without getting the third degree?”

Lu sipped hard through the straw and smirked. “Maybe you should pick two other people—possibly people who don’t know you very well. ”

“Oh, that wouldn’t be any fun. I just wanted to run something past you before tomorrow afternoon. ” I settled in, taking the patio chaise longue and pushing it a foot or so back, up against the wall. I did my best to look relaxed, and almost certainly failed.

“You in some kind of trouble?” Lu asked, taking the safe route because she was unsure whether to be concerned or amused.

“Do you need money? What have you done now?”

“I haven’t do

ne anything. But I’m about to do something you might take objection to, and I want to warn you rather than spring it on you. ”

“Whoa, boy. ” Dave made a show of taking a deep drink. “It must be serious. These are pretty strong. ”

“Well, serious is sort of relative, isn’t it?”

“Sweet Jesus. ” Lu followed Dave’s example.

“No—no, really. Okay. Before you get worked up, let me make some disclaimers. First of all, I’m not in any kind of trouble. Second, no one’s gotten hurt, and no one needs money. I’m not moving to Europe and I’m not plotting anything illegal. ” The minute I said the last part, I wondered how true it was. In the interest of full disclosure I backpedaled carefully. “Actually, we might be in a gray area, there. Like, I don’t know if it could be called ‘harboring a fugitive’ if the police stopped looking for him because they think he’s dead. ”

It was as big of a preparatory hint as I could deliver. Lu and Dave both froze and stared, each of them trying to parse out what I was so reluctant to divulge. Neither one knew what to ask, so neither one asked anything. They waited me out. So when the moment had reached its critical mass of awkwardness, I kept going.

“It’s like this. You know a couple of years ago—when I went to Florida. ” It wasn’t a question. We all knew what I was talking about. I had a quick flashback to the swamp, and to Avery with his dank little cabin. I remembered the smoke and the ashes, and the way Malachi—even hog-tied—had repented enough to lend a hand.

“Go on. ” Dave said. He was trying to sound tough and warning, but I heard eagerness there too.

“You guys remember Harry, right?”

“Sure,” Lu said. “Older guy. Tall and tough-looking. The Jack Palance of clergy. ”

“Used to work for Eliza,” Dave added.

“That’s him. He went back to the monastery in St. Augustine after all the craziness happened. And it’s hard for me to overstate how seriously crazy all that was. But I need you to take my word for it. ”

Lu definitely didn’t like this. The toughness Dave feigned was iron-clad in her voice. “Word taken. ”

“So what if I told you that maybe I wasn’t entirely complete in my description of what happened there, that I might have left out the part of the story that I didn’t think you’d like very much? Say, hypothetically, well . . . you remember Malachi?”