9
I waited to hear Dane’s good news.
He rocked me a little in our hug. “At least we now have proof someone really did murder William.”
Oh.
I thought about it for a second.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” More good.
Technically, I was already pretty sure of that considering no one drowned without water in their lungs.
After another moment, I stepped away from Dane. I needed a little distance when I told him about the surprise I’d been hiding for our night.
“Although I have a little bad news.” At least he’d probably find it a bad thing. I was mostly excited.
The kitchen island in Dane’s unit had a bowl of rocks. I picked one up and ran my finger over the smooth, gray surface.
“What?” he asked, stealing the rock from me when I tossed it in the air to catch it. “Is it going to annoy me?”
“Everything annoys you.” I grabbed another rock and tossed it only for him to catch it. Yeah, he deserved this. “We have another walking ghost tour tonight. We need to call the cops about my room now if we’re going to make it on time.”
Dane grabbed my third rock right from my hand before I had time to toss it and put all the rocks back into the bowl. “We’re not calling the cops.”
“Why not?” The cops needed to know they had a criminal in their city.
“Because.” He pushed the rocks away from me when I tried to grab another one. “Then we’ll have a bunch of red tape, and they’ll tell us to stop looking into things. Do you want that?”
Eww. “No.”
“Exactly, so no cops. Not until we have to bring them in.” I agreed to his plan. We had to be super close to the killer if they were willing to break into my place. “Now, why are we going on another one of these tours? I’m starting to believe you just like doing them.”
I did.
“It’s the best way to talk with William’s coworkers. He had no girlfriend, and his mom lives in Atlanta.” I grabbed a rock when he turned his head. “It’s the easiest way.”
We had a mini stare-off.
I won.
Dane groaned when he realized we were doing the tour. “I can’t believe we’re doing another one of these corny things.”
“I could just approach them on the sidewalk and start asking questions.” Actually, that wasn’t a horrible idea. Maybe it would work.
“No,” Dane said strongly, as if he’d read my mind. “Grab your coat. The forecast says it might rain.”
Our tour started earlier than the previous ones. The sun was still shining across the street as it made its way to the horizon. Charleston at night was a different beast, but the twilight period bathed the town in a special glow.
The Spanish moss hung lower, almost heavier, as if it had secrets to share, but only once the sun lowered. Ahead of us, the Circle Cemetery loomed as streetlights flickered to life, highlighting the half-buried gravestones in shadows.
I tightened my coat against me as our group came to a slow stop. The temperature was dropping steadily, but somehow the humidity held on, making me half cold and half sweaty. Our group of ten tourists gathered in front of a black iron gate.
“You have to admit, the cemeteries in this town really are freaky,” I whispered to Dane.
He glanced at me. “They’re old. That happens.”
Man, he really had no sense of thrill. For a man who spent years in the military, he lacked an adventurous spirit.
