“If he hasn’t guessed, he will soon.”
“I know. But I owe him honesty.”
“I want to spend time with him,” Elijah said. “I understand he’s not going to call me Dad, but I’d like to be his friend.”
Nate ran out the front door, slamming it behind him. He rushed up and grinned at Elijah. “What’s up?”
Elijah held up a book. “I thought you might like to read this.”
Nate glanced at the title. “A Tale of Two Cities.”
“A little bit of a challenge, but you might like it,” Elijah said.
“Cool, I’ll read it later.”
“Maybe one day we could get an ice cream and talk about it?” Elijah said.
“Mom, could I?” Nate asked.
Ann’s knee-jerk response was to say no. Old habits were hard to break. She took a deep breath, unfurling the fist clamping around her heart. “Sure. That sounds fun. Maybe the three of us could have lunch sometime.”
“That would be nice,” Elijah said.
“Cool,” Nate said. “Mom, we’ve got to get going. We’re going to be late.”
“Get in the car.” When the door closed, and Nate was settled, she turned from the car toward Elijah. “I don’t know how we’re going to work this out.”
“I used to think I knew, but I’m currently as clueless as you are. But I know I’ll always put Nate first.”
A bittersweet chuckle rumbled in her chest. “That never changes with kids.”
She lowered herself into the driver’s seat, and when she hooked her seat belt, he closed her door. She started the car and rolled down the window. “I’ll call about next week.”
“Looking forward to it.”
She backed out of the driveway, and as she headed down the street, she could feel Elijah’s stare. He had not been found guilty of any crime. But deep in her gut, she worried there was so much the world did not know about Elijah. God, she hoped she had made the right choice.
An hour later, dust kicked up around the tires of Ann’s car as she drove herself, Nate, and Kyle onto the long driveway that fed into Bryce’s ranch. It was a postcard-perfect fall day with cool air, an explosion of orange leaves on the horizon, and a blue sky dotted with white clouds. The mountains in the distance were already capped with the season’s first snow, suggesting an early winter.
As the boys chatted excitedly in the back seat, she parked in front of the ranch house, then gingerly exited the vehicle. She was lucky in many respects. Her wound would heal, and Nate showed no aftereffects from Maura’s narcotics and had been back to himself by the next day.
Bryce had invited Ann and the boys to the ranch and offered to drive into Missoula and pick them up, but she had been cleared to drive by her doctors and wanted to prove to herself she could get on with her life.
As the boys tumbled out of the car, the front door opened to Bryce, who stepped onto the porch with a young German shepherd puppy. Bryce was dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt, and boots, and if there was ever an image that could make a woman go weak in the knees, it was that one.
“Is that a puppy?” Nate shouted.
“I don’t know. Could be a horse,” Bryce said, smiling.
The boys ran across the yard as Bryce climbed down the stairs. “He’s not a horse,” Nate said.
“What’s his name?” Kyle asked.
“His name is Thor, and he just got rejected from puppy training. Seems he’s not tough enough.”
“How old is he?” Nate asked.
“He’s six months old,” Bryce said.
“Why is his name Thor?” Kyle asked.
“Runs like lightning.” Bryce handed each boy a red ball. “He loves to play fetch.”
The dog licked Bryce’s face before he set it down, and then Thor raced across the yard, barking. The boys chased after him, and the dog’s excited barking mingled with the boys’ laughter.
“Boys, if you go around the side of the house, you’ll see my brother. He’s working with the other dogs.”
“What do the big dogs think about Thor?” Nate asked as the dog ran circles around him.
“They get annoyed by him, but they’re tolerating him well enough.”
The boys, with the dog running behind them, dashed around the side of the house.
Laughter bubbled in Ann’s chest, and she realized she had not felt this normal in a very long time. “It’s good to see them laugh.”
“Good to see you smile,” he said huskily.
Without hesitation, she closed the distance and kissed him on the lips. He leaned into her, gently wrapping his arm around her uninjured side. “How are those stitches doing?”
“Gone. Doc took them out a couple of days ago. It’s one hell of a scar, but it beats the alternative.”
He tipped his forehead toward hers. “I’ll never forget you in that room, covered in blood with that crazy woman wielding a knife over your head.”
“A lot of the details are blurred for me, which is just as well. It’s not a moment I want to relive.”
DNA and fingerprints had been pulled from Maura Ralston’s body, and testing confirmed she was Judy Monroe. Bryce had traced Judy to a small town in West Virginia and confirmed that her younger sister had vanished during a Fourth of July party sixteen years ago. Not only had Judy’s mother been devastated, but the townspeople had started locking their doors, demanding the kids always travel in pairs and never again trust strangers. Bryce had relayed Judy’s confession to the town sheriff. It was cold comfort, but all agreed the closure would help with healing.
Judy had met Paul Thompson as he had said. He had hired her to organize his house, and in the process, they had become lovers, and she had told him about Elijah and the Fireflies. But when she had seen him with Sarah, she had unleashed her fury on him.
They tracked down several of Judy’s other Nashville clients, and though some gave glowing reviews, others spoke of computer-security issues and missing personal items. One woman claimed she often felt as if someone had been in her home repeatedly after Judy had long gone.
A search of Maura’s/Judy’s truck unearthed the grisly discovery of the harvested skin neatly pinned to velvet boards. In another black box was a collection of Polaroid pictures, featuring not only the known victims but other women. It was impossible to identify them, but the case had been detailed in a ViCAP report in case another jurisdiction discovered old cases similar to these.
“I hear Paul Thompson has shifted his focus to finding Judy’s sister,” he said.
“He’s going to tie it into the Firefly murders,” she said. “He’s promised to keep all mention of Nate out of it.”
“And how does Elijah feel about it?”
“He’s adamant that Nate not be included in the story and said that he’ll be paying close attention.” She rubbed her hand over his arm, savoring the feel of muscled biceps under the flannel. “He’s not going away, and I’ve decided not to fight him about Nate. My kid will put the pieces together if he hasn’t done it already, and I’d rather he hears the news from the both of us.”
“You know how Nate’s going to take it?” Bryce asked.