Free Afterthoughts by Lynn Tincher Page B

miserable whenever she would smile at him or
casually touch his arm as they worked together at the auction. He
had to keep himself from yelling at her to get her away from him
but at the same time he didn’t want her to be away from him at all.
He felt like a dog chasing his tail in a chase he’ll never win and
if he did, it would hurt badly.
    Paige was feeling his
distance. Here again, she was pushing someone away from her. First
David, now Jay, and she wondered what she would do next. “At least I still have Harry,” she thought to herself as she dried off from her
morning shower. When she looked into the mirror, she realized she
looked healthier. Some of the color was back in her face and her
eyes did not look as dark and sunken as they had been. She smiled
at her reflection and got ready for the day.
    The auction was now over and hopefully
Ian was happy with all of the proceeds. The Tree House was now over
two million dollars richer.
    This meant that Paige was going back
to work.
    Jay paced around his office. He was
doing this a lot more often lately but today, he was really
nervous. He’d have to face Paige on a daily basis and hoped things
would get back to normal as they would fight over cases and wear on
each other’s nerves. That would help him get over her. He pictured
her stubbornly arguing her point as if hers was the only one that
mattered. Smiling he tried to remember all of the picky little
things she used to do to aggravate him and to get his blood
boiling; things he now thought were cute.
    “ God I’ve got it bad,” he
said to himself as he paced around his office, picking up his
baseball bat and rolling it in his hands. “Maybe I should knock
some sense into myself. Yeah, that’ll work.” He held the bat up
high and lowered it laughing.
    Paige was nervous as well. It had been
nearly two months since she had worked full time. She knew she had
her work cut out for her in finding who murdered Anthony Steckler
and why Richie had killed himself. She didn’t care if the case was
officially closed. It wasn’t closed for Paige. She had a promise to
keep.
    As she walked into the police station,
the newest rookie, Hannah, met her at the door and introduced
herself. She handed Paige a pink envelope that was delivered to the
station late last week. It was hand written with only her name. The
handwriting was extremely neat and on the back over the seal it was
marked Confidential. Paige pondered this for a moment, running her
fingers over the seal before walking into Jay’s office.
    “ Hey there! Welcome back!”
Jay tried to sound cheerful and was overdoing the tone. He laid the
baseball bat back down on the desk.
    “ It’s good to be back!”
she smiled. “What’s the scoop? Where’s the Steckler
files?”
    Jay only smiled at her. “Under S,” he
laughed.
    “ Okay, smart ass. I see
you haven’t missed a beat. You’re not planning on using that thing
are you?” she laughed and pointed at the bat. She whirled around
and walked out of the office and headed for the filing cabinet.
Speechless, Jay stood motionless as he watched her walk
away.
    With shaking hands, Paige flipped
through the cabinet and pulled the file. She hugged it to her chest
and walked to her office. She laid the pink envelope aside and
opened the Steckler file. She read each page carefully, studying
for any mistake, looking for any missed lead. Nausea crept over her
as she looked at the pictures of the crime scenes so she decided to
grab a cup of coffee. She walked past Jay’s office toward the break
room. When she entered the room, she was greeted with several
“Welcome backs” and “We missed yous”. This made her feel a little
better. She worked her way to the coffee pot. As she filled the cup
with cream and sugar, she pictured Anthony, lying on the bedroom
floor, his face blue and swollen. She tried to remember everything
about the crime scene. Everything in the room looked normal. Other
than the body on the floor, there