“Nice to meet you.” Val stood and held her hand out to shake. “You look just like a cop that arrested me one time when I was younger.”
Drew frowned. “Uh, thanks?”
“But I’m old, so you were probably still in high school when that happened.”
Drew smiled. “If it was in Chicago, it might have been my older brother.”
Val’s eyes went wide. “Oh my God, it was in Chicago! It was a Tool concert! My ex and I totally did a road trip all the way there.” Val cackled. “That’s awesome.”
Sully was staring at her with narrowed eyes. “You got arrested at a Tool concert?”
“It was actually after the concert when some girl was hitting on— You know what?” She looked around. “Life moves on. It’s nice to meet you, Drew. I’m a mother and business owner from Glimmer Lake.”
“Nice. My family and I went up last summer and rented a boat. Really fun.”
“See?” She looked at Sully. “I can get along with law enforcement now.”
“Your boyfriend is law enforcement.” Sully turned to Drew. “I’m the sheriff up there. Ignore her. She rarely gets arrested anymore.”
Val muttered, “I super want to make a handcuff joke here.”
Katherine and Baxter got busy making sure everyone had drinks while Toni slowly moved from the tiny living room in her cottage to the wide front porch and patio where they would eat.
Megan wandered into the kitchen after everyone had a drink. Henry and Nico were muttering in the kitchen, talking under their breath and wrapping tri-tip steaks in aluminum foil before they went on the grill.
“Hey,” she said. “What do you guys think?”
Nico glanced at the door. “About telling Drew? I don’t know. I don’t know whether my vote even counts. It’s not like it really would affect my life, you know?”
Was that an ouch? Did something affecting her life affect his life yet? Probably too early for that, and Megan didn’t even know if she wanted that kind of commitment from Nico. Did she want to ride that cowboy? Hell yeah. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to bring him home to meet her kids though.
“I don’t think we’re going to get Sully to make up an elaborate story in order to get access to the truck though. Telling him may be the only option.”
Henry said, “Talk to Toni.”
“Why?”
He was shaking his head. “You guys make this all way too complicated. Just let Toni figure it out.”
Nico and Megan exchanged a look.
“We know you think she walks on water—” Megan began.
She didn’t finish because Henry snorted into his arm. “Don’t say stuff like that when I’m preparing food.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t walk on water,” Henry said. “She barely swims. She’s cranky and impolite and more than slightly devious when she wants something.”
Nico nodded. “I love her, but I can’t refute any of that.”
“What are you trying to say?” Megan was running out of time. She needed to get back outside to steer the conversation toward the truck.
“I’m saying just let Toni figure it out. Drew respects her a lot. Sometimes less is more.”
Megan shook her head. “That is such a man thing to say. Less is never more. That’s logically ridiculous. More is more. Less is less. You think the world just organizes itself? You think life just happens? You think the kids magically raise themselves? You think teenagers turn into adults all on their own? You think parties just fall into place or crimes solve themselves?” Megan grabbed two bottles of beer and an opener in her hands. “That’s not how the world works!”
She walked out to the front porch and cracked the caps on both bottles as she walked. She handed one to Sully—who’d had about as much wine as he could handle—and then, going on pure instinct and not a little frustration, she floated the second bottle of beer over to Drew, who was talking with Baxter and Katherine on the other side of the table.
Drew turned when the beer bottle tapped him on the shoulder. “Oh, thanks Meg—” He blinked twice, then scooted back and sprang to his feet. “What the fuck is that?” He looked up, then around, as if searching for strings even as the bottle came to rest on the worn silver oak of the tabletop.
“So.” Megan stepped forward. “All those weird little things you’ve noticed about us over the years? There’s a reason for them.”
Drew was on his second beer when he appeared to have everything sorted.
“Katherine.” He pointed at her with the beer bottle. “Visions. I never forgot the ambulance.”
“It’s very unpredictable,” she added. “I’m getting better at focusing them, but they’re still very sporadic. I’ve tried shamanistic tools for divination like casting stones, but the imprecise nature leaves too much to interpretation.” She looked around to see everyone staring at her. “I am considering tarot.”
Drew frowned. “That’s how you saw that guy in the gym when you all were attacked. He hadn’t taken the gun out yet, had he?”
Katherine shook her head. “I saw him in my vision; then I saw him reach for the gun. He never got a chance to shoot.”
“Toni.” Drew narrowed his eyes. “That one is still hard for me to understand.”
“Join the club,” Toni said. “I don’t understand most of it myself. I feel people’s emotions. If I try really hard, I can push a feeling into someone else.”
“A lot of it with Toni is unconscious,” Henry said. “I can vouch for that.”
“So when you were questioning that guy last year about Fairfield’s murder—”
“I want to be clear: that man already wanted to cooperate,” Toni said. “I just… made him a little more cooperative. And I grabbed a lot of his stress so he could open up. I relaxed him.”
“Right.” Drew turned to Megan. “And you? You can just move shit?”
She pointed at Katherine. “I saved her life with that car thing.”
“Are you the reason Ruben was so banged up when he got to the station?”
“He was threatening my kids, Drew. If I banged him against a couple of walls before we tied him up, can you blame me?”
Drew shook his head. “My mother warned me about the sweet ones with the pretty accents.”
“I have never abused my gift,” Megan said. “Except with Rodney’s car alarm, and that’s just amusing.”
Toni and Katherine had heard about the car alarm, and both of them had to stifle laughter.
Drew pursed his lips. “You know what? I don’t want to know.” He looked across the table at Val. “So what’s your superpower? I’m assuming this is all going to come around to them asking me for something, and I have a strong suspicion that it has to do with stolen vines and some suspicious blood.”
Katherine cleared her throat. “About the blood…”
Drew sighed. “You saw the dead guy, didn’t you?”
“I can’t tell you where he is though. I’m still working on that part. But I do have a very amateur sketch. I can give you that if it might be helpful.”