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Dale was quiet the rest of the afternoon, though that in itself wasn’t unusual. Jade and I both made sure he knew that he could talk to either of us or to Talon when he felt ready. In the meantime, he retreated to his bedroom.
Donny played outside with the dogs.
Jade’s nausea had returned, so I made her a cup of peppermint tea and brought it down to the family room, where she sat in one of the recliners.
“Thanks,” she murmured, taking the mug of hot liquid.
“You okay?” I sat down on the couch next to her chair.
She took a sip. “Not even slightly. I tried to put on a strong face for Dale, but I’m completely petrified. What if he truly saw a face he recognized?”
“In Snow Creek?”
“Tom Simpson lived in Snow Creek for decades, and so did Larry Wade. That’s two of them. It would make sense that they had others here.”
“Or it would make sense that they didn’t. Snow Creek was their other life.”
“I need to get back to work,” she said. “My leave of absence ends now.”
“Jade…”
“I’m the city attorney, for God’s sake. This town needs me, especially now.”
“Your sons need you,” I said. “Especially now. You hired the acting city attorney yourself. You know she’s qualified.”
“Yeah, but she’s not personally involved here.”
“All the better,” I said. “You know that. As an attorney, you shouldn’t be personally involved.”
“Larry ended that the day he gave me Talon’s case to work on.”
“Larry was unethical. Hardly the standard you want to live up to.”
“True.” She sighed and took another sip. “I feel like I should be doing something, especially if Dale is right and there is another psycho on the loose.”
“You’re still technically the city attorney, just on leave. You still have access to all the files, right?”
“Technically, yes, but I can’t access the server from here.” She shook her head. “That was my idea. After finding out Wendy and the others had hacked into so many files, I had the city install a superpowered security system. What was I thinking?”
“You were thinking you were doing your job, and you were. You can always go into the office to do research. Especially now that you’re feeling better.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to step on Mary’s toes.”
“You’re Mary’s boss. How would you be stepping on her toes?”
“I don’t know.” She exhaled. “All I know is that I feel utterly useless at the moment.”
“Useless?” Talon entered the family room. “Blue eyes, stop talking like that. Is Dale okay? I got here as soon as I could.”
“He’s in his room,” Jade said. “He was spooked something awful. I’m scared, Talon.”
“I won’t let anything happen to any of you,” he said. “Count on that.”
She smiled. “I know. Still…”
Still… I agreed. I wouldn’t go soft for Jade’s sake, but I was pretty spooked myself.
Talon kissed Jade’s lips. “Count on that,” he said again. “I’ll go talk to Dale.” He left.
