Free The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) by Evan Ronan Page B

going at the old bastard. But that was who he was. Tim would have done things differently for sure, dottings his i’s and crossing his t’s. He could try to be like Tim or he could do things his way.
    After Tim’s murder he thought he would change. Grief, guilt, and regret were his constant companions. For awhile he did change. He laid off the booze and drugs. But as the initial shock faded into the background, the old Eddie emerged.
    He started drinking again and of course he needed to smoke when he drank and there was the weed again, the great numbing elixir. He was adrift with no plans and no purpose. Idiots tried to romanticize being penniless and without any prospects, mooching weed and smokes from your friends.
    That existence had been fun, freeing when he was younger. His carefree, seize-the-moment attitude had made him the envy of all the working-stiffs and of many of the women around town. But at the end of the day, he was the grasshopper with no food for the winter.
    Finally, he’d turned to selling for one of his “friends” and wound up in the clink.
    In hindsight, probably the best thing that ever happened to him.
    Ana came to a stop at an intersection. “Earth to Eddie.”
    “Yeah.” He was thinking about the project ahead and how his brother might handle it. Truth be told, neither he nor Tim had worked an investigation of this magnitude. Multiple claims at multiple sites. Many witnesses to debrief.
    “How should we handle Kindler?” Ana said.
    Eddie snapped out of his reverie. What would Tim have done?
    Then Eddie realized. “We’re not going to Kindler’s tonight. We’re going to Colin’s.”
    “Why?” Ana turned onto a small road Eddie didn’t recognize.
    “Marty Kindler is the subject of this investigation, not in charge of it. You can’t let the subject take control.”
    “But he’s expecting us.”
    “Call him and tell him we have plans already and we’ll let him know when we can see him.”
    “I have to call him?”
    “Yeah. That way, you can push it off on me as the unreasonable one. Then when I talk to him it won’t be a surprise we’re not coming.”
    “He’s going to be pissed.”
    “He’s a big boy, he’ll get over it.”
    “What if Colin can’t do tonight?”
    “Then we don’t go anywhere. We do some research, massage the plan and talk about what I found out at Hollis’s.”
    An impish grin on her face. “Wait a minute—there’s a plan?”
    “Very funny.”
    “So what did that old shit tell you?” she said.
    “He had nothing but good things to say about you. I don’t remember the first couple words but the last few were and the horse she rode in on.”
    “You’re a riot.”
    “He did say that puddles of water were collecting in different parts of the old ratstead.”
    She nearly drove off the road. “Shut the fruit cup! Water?”
    “Don’t get ahead of yourself. You said it yourself, the old man’s got one oar in the water.”
    “Water, Eddie. Water. It’s Tessa. It’s her footprints, just like she’s leaving at Kindler’s. It’s her under the water crying for help. It’s all right in front us.”
    Ana shivered like she’d just plunged into freezing water.
    “Except for what isn’t,” Eddie said.
    “Huh?”
    “There’s always something you don’t see.”
    When Tim was stumped, he’d talk it out with one person and only one person. Eddie wondered if that same person would talk it out with him.
    “Can I use your phone?” Eddie asked.
    “You really need to get a cell phone.”
    “Somebody I need to call.”
    “Hence, the phone.”
    “Smartass.”
    Ana retrieved her phone from her altogether too tight pants by lifting her cute little fanny off the seat. She handed the phone to him.
    “Hey, listen. I know you met my boyfriend the other night when we were all out having a good time but …”
    “But what?” he asked.
    Worry lines formed around her eyes. “He’s going through a tough time right now, okay? I just want to leave