A FEW HOURS later, Bree and I were back from walking the kids to school and running a few necessary errands to the drug- and food stores. “Upstairs,” I told her before the front door had even closed behind us. “We’ve got some unfinished business, you and I.”
She took the grocery bag out of my hands with a kiss. “I’ll be right there. Don’t start without me.”
I was halfway up the stairs when she called me back from the kitchen.
“Alex!” Her voice was tense. What was it now? “Company.”
When I came down, she was standing at the pass-through to the sunporch, looking out.
“Guess who’s here?” she said.
I stepped up next to her and saw Ned Mahoney sitting in our backyard, drumming his fingers on the picnic table.
“God damn it,” I said.
He stayed where he was as I came out onto the porch and then down into the yard to see what was happening.
“Was that you who called earlier?” I asked. Ned nodded, and before he even said a word, I realized the case wasn’t over. “You want to come in?”
“Let’s talk out here,” he said.
I grabbed a jacket and two cups of coffee from inside, and then came back out to the picnic table.
Ned gulped the coffee as I sat down. He looked exhausted. All his usual effusiveness seemed to be gone—or at least depleted.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Just a little tired,” he said. “I haven’t let go of this thing, Alex. I’ve used up all my personal days, all my vacation. Kathy’s ready to kill me.”
I nodded. “So is Bree. And she has a gun.”
“Still, it’s paid off. Boy, has it ever. I’ve got somebody I want you to meet. His name is Aubrey Lee Johnson. He lives down in Alabama, but he’s got a custom fly reel business that brings him up to Virginia a lot.”
Ned downed the last of his coffee, and I slid mine over to his side of the table. Some of the usual rev was coming back into him already. “This guy’s got a story he thinks might be important. And guess what, Alex. It is.”