Free The Edge of the Shadows by Elizabeth George Page B

quickly, “Not permanently. Just for a few numbers at Djangofest.”
    Seth added that Parker had come to Whidbey Island as part of the contingent of gypsy jazz lovers who showed up yearly to attend the performances of musicians from around the world. “He used to be part of a group from Canada,” Seth said, “BC Django 21.”
    â€œBritish Columbia,” Parker added helpfully. “That’s the B and the C.”
    â€œAnyways,” Seth said, “you know how the musicians all get put up during the festival by people around Langley? Well, see, I was sort of wondering . . .”
    â€œAh,” Ralph said.
    Becca smiled. She knew where this was heading. She also knew that Seth had learned his lesson when it came to making decisions about his grandfather’s personal property and his land. Seth wanted to put Parker up in a tree house that Seth had built deep in the woods. But since he’d stowed Becca there without his grandfather’s knowledge the previous winter and spring, he wasn’t about to make that mistake another time.
    â€œBritish Columbia is it?” Ralph said affably. “Whereabouts?”
    â€œIn the Kootenay Mountains,” Parker replied. “Town called Nelson.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    SETH SAW BECCA freeze when Parker said this, but he didn’t know what it meant. Derric saw her freeze, too, and his glance went from Becca to Parker to Becca again, as if some message had passed between them that was unreadable to everyone else. For Ralph’s part, he seemed to notice nothing. He merely said, “Not familiar with the place,” to which Parker replied, “It’s north of Spokane.”
    Quickly and perhaps to cover for whatever she’d felt when she’d heard the place name Nelson, Becca went back to work. So did Derric. Seth could see, though, that she was listening intently. In her haste to put the firewood where it belonged, however, she’d lost the ear bud to the AUD box.
    â€œAnyways,” Seth said, hoping for his grandfather’s agreement to the plan, “Parker’s been sleeping in his car, and I was thinking the tree house might be better. He could maybe use your downstairs shower if Becca doesn’t care. It wouldn’t be for that long. Just till after Djangofest. More or less.”
    Ralph shot him a look at the
more or less
part of it. He said, “I expect that’s up to Miss Becca, Seth. It’s her bathroom.”
    Becca said, “Fine by me long’s Parker knows it’s a hike from the tree house.”
    â€œI’ll show him the place,” Seth said. And then, a little anxiously, “’S okay, Grand?”
    Ralph waved him in the general direction of the woodland trails beyond the pond. He said, “Have at it,” and Becca added, “I’ll go, too, Seth,” and gave no one—and specifically Derric—any chance to quash her intention.

ELEVEN
    B ecca’s ear bud had kept becoming dislodged as she was stacking the wood, and she’d finally removed it altogether. This hadn’t been a problem. She needed the practice tuning out whispers, and those coming from Ralph and from Derric had been easy enough to “un-hear,” as she was starting to call it. Ralph’s whispers had been about
enough wood for winter
and
can’t remember if there was snow last year
and
Sarah’s question’s got to be answered
while Derric’s had been concerned with his dad, her butt, her boobs—he was
such
a guy—and a coming test in Sports Medicine.
    But when Seth and Parker arrived, things changed and the air became thick with thoughts that Becca didn’t want to try to un-hear. So she replaced the ear bud and went on working, listening idly to Seth’s plans for his new friend Parker . . . until Parker had said he came from Nelson.
    It was an oh-my-God moment, and Becca thanked her stars that she