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I struck a pose on the threshold of the seafood market’s back door, balancing on my whole leg while jutting out my prosthetic as if at the end of a dramatic dance. Even my practical friend’s lips twitched with a hint of a smile, but when I glanced at Maddie, she was gazing off into the shadows down the alley, her expression not just serious but haunted.
I held my position while Dexter checked the feeds from the three tiny cameras we’d concealed around the back end of the market so we could keep track of the deliveries the place wanted to keep out of the public eye. “Good,” he said, and I moved to join Maddie, but the expression on her face made me hesitate.
What could I say to her? She didn’t look like she wanted to goof around. Tonight’s expedition had obviously bothered her, and I didn’t know what to say that would encourage her to open up or make her feel better.
Logan was still focused on the surveillance we’d put in place. “As long as no one notices the cameras, we’ll get a good sense of the regular activities around the market. Whatever shady shit they’re into, we’ll figure it out.”
He glanced at Maddie too, maybe hoping to lift her spirits with the declaration. She shot him a small tight smile that wasn’t particularly convincing. My stomach knotted, watching.
“Let’s get out of here before anyone noticesus,” I said. Getting some distance from this place might take her mind off whatever was gnawing at her.
We hustled back to Logan’s car and slid inside. Maddie stayed quiet the whole drive back to campus, staring alternatively out the window and down at her hands. I grappled with my words. I knew how to speak in more than half a dozen languages, but I still had no clue what the right thing to say to this woman would be.
I had to show her I was good for more than just flirting and risky hookups. She was something special, and I had to be impressive enough to keep her. And she definitely wasn’t the type to be too impressed by a little suaveness. This was a woman who needed substance in a guy.
I had a little of that in me someplace, didn’t I?
Logan pulled into the parking lot near the law library, but as Maddie got out, somehow her expression seemed even more shellshocked than before. I took a gamble, grabbing her hand and tossing out the suggestion before I could second-guess it. “Hey, why don’t the two of us go for a walk while Logan and Dex sort out what we found? You look like you could use the chance to clear your head.”
Logan’s jaw flexed as his gaze flicked between us, but for once, he kept his mouth shut about our relationship. Something had shifted between him and Maddie recently—he’d seemed gentler with her and in how he approached everything to do with her. I couldn’t say I disliked the change, but it did make me wonder what was up with him—and what he planned to do next.
“Don’t take too long,” he said after a moment. “I want to get everyone’s observations down so we don’t miss anything.”
I gave him a playful salute. “We’ll be back soon to deliver a full report.”
Maddie exhaled in a long stream and squeezed my hand. “Yeah. I think a walk would be good right now.”
We meandered down the path that led away from the law library, the intermittent lamp posts providing occasional breaks in the thickening darkness. A small group of freshmen hustled past us, chattering and laughing with each other. Maddie drew a little closer to me.
Well, maybe starting with basics was the way to go. “How are you feeling?”
She rubbed her forehead. “Just… overwhelmed. Until tonight, I still found it hard to believe that my dad could really have beenmurdered. But seeing that logo, remembering the things he said… With that on top of everything else, suddenly it’s hard to deny.”
“I guess that’s shocking,” I said. “But you already knew it was a possibility. At least now we’re getting closer to finding the evidence we need to figure out who and why.”
“Yeah.” She stuffed her free hand in her pocket, hunching her shoulders against a chilly gust of breeze. “It means something really horrible happened all those years ago, something I had no clue about. But it also means… You know, for a long time I thought it wasmyfault that he died.”
I blinked at her, unable to hide my surprise. “Why would you thinkthat?”
She grimaced. “He got sick just a few days after we had a family trip to a beach house my parents rented. He was going to come a day later than my mom and me because he had some work to finish up. But there was a huge storm, and when I talked to him on the phone that night, I told him how much I wished he was there with us. He drove through the storm and then waded right through the spot where the road had flooded just to get to me.”
Her voice wobbled, but the main thing I heard was how much her dad had loved her. He’d gone to those lengths to try to comfort her. That was how a good parent acted.
“I figured he got exposed to something in the flood waters,” Maddie went on. “I mean, with the timing, and how quickly the sickness hit him… Maybe it didn’t totally make sense, but nothing else mademoresense.”
I tucked my arm right around hers, searching for the best way to reassure her. “At least you know now that it isn’t true. You had nothing to do with what happened to him. The dip he took didn’t hurt him.”
“It seems that way.” She knit her brow. “I don’t know why I’m having so much trouble letting that idea sink in. I’ve spent so long connecting his illness to the flood, and now there’s this other totally different, totally crazy story… My head’s a total muddle.”
“That’s understandable,” I said. But I had to manage better than that. I sucked in a breath and added, “The three of us in the Vigil have had years to get used to the idea, and he wasn’t a parent to any of us. Don’t feel bad about needing time to process everything.”
“I know.” She stopped at the edge of the path by a looming tree and gave me a smile that was still small but brighter than before. “Thank you.”
I guessed I’d done something right. I knew exactly what I wanted to do next. I stepped toward her and slipped both my arms around her, holding her close.
Maddie let out a ragged breath and let her head sink against my shoulder. The feel of her relaxing into my embrace melted something in my chest. I stroked my hand over her hair.
“We’re going to get it all figured out—the four of us, together. We’ve gotten so much farther since you joined up with us. You were obviously the missing ingredient.”
