Free Forgotten (Shattered Sisters Book 2) by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page B

Ash asked.
    "Not really."
    "Oh, yes, you do, Ted." Caroline smiled in Ash's direction. "You ought to hear him in the winter."
    "Well, who wouldn't miss the sun when there's three feet of snow outside the door?" Ted chuckled, but it seemed strained.
    Ash nodded, smiling. "You get back there often?"
    Ted paused with his fork halfway to his mouth.
    It was Caroline who piped in with the answer to Ash's question. "We used to take vacations there, but it's really not much fun for little girls. They were toddlers last time, remember, Joey? It took all three of us just to keep up with them."
    Ash's stomach clenched. "Joey went with you on vacation?"
    Caroline nodded. "To help with the girls. These days, we opt for places with theme parks nearby."
    Ash was itching to ask if that trip happened to occur during the summer of the Slasher’s Vegas killing spree. But he couldn't just come right out with it. These people were not stupid. They'd know he suspected something, even if they might not know what.
    "Time for dessert?" Bethany asked.
    "It's Aunt Joey's favorite," Brittany sang.
    "Caro, you didn't—"
    "Of course I did.” Caroline rose and began clearing away dishes. Joey got up to help, and Ash automatically stood as well.
    They accomplished the cleanup within a few minutes, then sat around the living room with luscious cheesecake and wonderful coffee, groaning almost in unison that they couldn't hold another bite.
    "You play pool, Ash?"
    Ash almost answered yes, then caught himself. "Damned if I know." He tapped his head with a forefinger by way of explanation.
    Ted laughed. "I have a new table downstairs. What do you say we find out?"
    “I’m game...if you’ll show me around your shop first.”
    Ted frowned. “It’s pretty boring.”
    “It’s your business. I’m fascinated by sole proprietors.” And curious to see if the shop held any clues to whatever Ted was hiding.

    Ted Dryer was an electrician. TD Electric had its "headquarters" in a shoe box of a building he'd put up beside the house. He had a professionally crafted sign over the door, and a company pickup with magnetized signs stuck to its doors in the driveway. Ted walked Ash outside to show him around. The pickup was less than two years old, the building freshly painted. From all appearances, business was good. Ted unlocked the door to the shop and ushered Ash into the office portion. It consisted mostly of a desk and chair, a phone, a file cabinet and a little rack to hang keys on tacked to the wall just inside the door. The pickup keys dangled there on a key ring that read, My Other Car's a Mercedes. There was a computer on the desk. It was turned on. Ash was dying for a moment alone with it.
    “What’s through there?” he asked, pointing at a door in the back.
    “Workshop area.” Ted unlocked and opened the door, led Ash into a room about the same size as the office, with a workbench and tools and lots of small electronic items with their guts exposed. “Hell, I shouldn’t have left that out,” Ted said, and began picking up a set of tools and replacing them in a box.
    Ash grabbed his phone from his pocket, looked at the screen and then at Ted. “My boss texts me at the damnedest times. I’ll just be a sec.” Then he walked back into the office while tapping on his phone’s screen. The second he was out of Ted’s sight, he leaned behind the desk, grabbed the mouse and clicked on HISTORY. A list of recently visited websites came up and he flipped up his cell phone, snapped a photo of the screen, then paced back into the workshop barely missing a beat, tapping the phone as if he’d never stopped. He paced out and back in again once more for good measure.
    Ted finished putting his tools away and then they returned to the house and knocked balls around on a green felt pool table in the finished basement. Joey’s brother-in-law seemed friendly, but maybe just a little too curious.
    "So tell me about you and Joey," he said at one point during the