Free Return to the Shadows by Angie West Page B

showed up, so we never ran away
together.” I smiled at the memory.
    “And she was heartbroken.”
    “That’s enough, Mike.”
    “So. You want to tell me what that was all
about?”
    “Who knows? I was fourteen.”
    “I meant tonight. You call. You hang up on
me, then send me a cryptic message and show up on foot. Are you
guys okay?”
    “More or less.” I rubbed my temple.
    “He came after you, didn’t he?”
    “Earl? No. Not that I saw, at least. Ashley
woke up around two in the morning.”
    “I had a bad dream,” she piped from the back
seat.
    “Right. She had a dream about the man who
showed up at her school and told her that he knows me.”
    “Earl,” Mike nodded, and turned left onto
Sepulveda Avenue.
    “No.” My voice was quiet. “Not Earl. I asked
her to draw a picture of the man who told her his name is Earl. She
drew a picture of Officer Jones instead.”
    “Shit,” Mike swore.
    “That’s a bad word,” Ashley chastised.
    “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
    “He showed up today at her school. As the
D.A.R.E officer for her class.”
    “Jesus Christ.”
    “Mom, is that a bad word? Because it kind of
sounded like it. But I don’t know that one.”
    “Mike,” I warned.
    “Sorry.”
    “I think he bugged my house, because after I
tried to call you, my phone lines were cut. A few minutes later, we
lost power. They disarmed the security system after that.”
    “They?” Mike’s hands tightened on the
steering wheel.
    “Don’t creeps always travel in packs? We were
ready for them. I suspected what was going on as soon as the phone
line was cut. We staged a diversion and escaped out my bedroom
window as they were coming in. We hid in the neighbors hedges long
enough to see three men burst into the bedroom. I don’t know what
happened after that, but I imagine they left shortly after. The
security company would have notified the police when they couldn’t
get ahold of me. I imagine Officer Jones and his cohorts would have
known that. Anyway, we slipped into Mrs. Flores’s backyard, through
the alley, and headed straight to Sycamore.”
    “Were you followed?”
    “I don’t think so.” I bit my lip. “No, I’m
certain we weren’t. If we had been followed, we wouldn’t be here
right now.”
    “You think that’s what they were there to
do?”
    “Who else goes to the trouble to break in
during the middle of the night?”
    “Unless….”
    “Unless?”
    “What if they wanted something else?”
    “Like what?”
    “I don’t know.” Mike shook his head and
frowned thoughtfully. “But I find the timing to be strange. If they
were listening to you, and chose the exact moment when they knew
their cover was blown...”
    “I see what you mean.”
    “So what did they want?”
    “I don’t know.” The denial hung in the air
between us, because suddenly I did know. “Oh no,” I breathed.
    “Claire?”
    “I think I know what they may have
wanted.”
    “And?”
    “Don’t get mad,” I warned.
    “Wha-oh no. No.” Mike shook his head. “I know
that look. Damn it, Claire. That’s why you were asking so many
questions about Terlain, wasn’t it?”
    “Well…”
    “Tell me I’m wrong. Please, tell me I’ve got
this all wrong, Claire. We destroyed those keys. We burned them
last year. I still have the ashes. They’re gone. Right?”
    “Yours is gone.”
    “And yours?”
    “No.” I swallowed hard. “Mine is not
gone.”
    “How? I saw you toss your half of the key
into the fire.”
    “No, you saw me toss a carefully crafted copy
of the key into the fire. I had a metal worker a couple of towns
over make a copy as soon as we got back. After you said we had to
destroy the key.”
    “Well, that explains how Jones knew you had
the key.”
    “I know. I just thought of that. John was
probably still having me followed.”
    “Right.”
    “Damn it.”
    “You left the key, didn’t you? It’s still in
your house, isn’t it?”
    “Yep.” I let my head fall back against