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“And?” he asked.
Nora read the clue out loud and waited for his reaction. As she suspected he would, he bent over laughing.
“We can claim our prize tomorrow. Right now, I want to go to my place and have a drink. You in?” he asked.
Nora nodded. “Of course. I’m sure Jade will understand why I didn’t rush to her side to claim our prize.”
His eyes sparked. “I bet she does.”
Hand in hand, they slowly walked back to Jack’s cabin. The town was deserted, no doubt, because those who weren’t participating in the scavenger hunt were in bed, and those who were off chasing clues would either be on the lake or in the woods.
The quiet of Half Moon Key saw them all the way to Jack’s home, where he started a small fire in the hearth. Nora settled on the couch, curling her feet under her. Jack sat beside her, holding a manuscript.
“This is what I’ve been working on for a decade,” he announced, laying the thick stack of paper on her leg.
“What do you mean?”
He took a deep breath. “Remember how I said that there were a lot of people who disappeared from my family’s business? Well, the very first one to go was my best friend, Zak Prentice. I have been trying to solve his murder for ten years.”
Nora gasped. “What? Oh, my god, Jack! Is that why you write murder mysteries? Because you want to solve the murder of your friend?”
His head nod was solemn, and his cheeks slowly colored deep red. “Yeah.”
“Ah, my sweet Jack.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry you’ve lost so many people to violence.”
“They made their choice.”
“But you didn’t make that choice as they did, and yet, you are still facing the same dangers as them. How is that fair?”
“That’s why I love Half Moon Key so much. It’s safe here, but you’re an avid reader. You can always tell who the murderer is before you get to the end of a book.”
She blinked at him, her mouth gaping. “Jack, no. You think that I can try and solve this murder for you based on what you've written of it?”
He nodded but remained quiet.
“You know that is impossible, Jack. I could never solve a real crime.”
“Sure you could.”
“But this is real life.”
“And real life is stranger than fiction. I just need a fresh pair of eyes on this.”
Nora took a deep breath. “This is a lot of pressure to put on me.”
“Nah,” he assured her, dropping a kiss on her head. “I won’t be mad if you don’t find anything new, but I trust you. I know you have a good mind that can spot things others don’t.”
“I can give it a try, so long as you promise that it won’t come between us.”
“That is an easy promise to make, Nora. Nothing will ever come between us.”
“You can’t know that,” she shot back. “What happens if, together, we solve your buddy’s murder? What are you going to do? Go to the police? Have your sister arrested? Won’t that bring more trouble to your door? You’ve been hiding and safe all of these years. You really want to borrow trouble like that?”
Jack’s shoulders slumped. “I guess I never thought about it that way. I couldn’t do anything, could I?”
Her face was pained with all of the comforts she couldn’t offer him. “I don’t know, Jack. Could you? Because from what I understand, you would have to get the cops to reopen the case, and the only way to do that nowadays is to have new evidence.”
“And the chances that we find new evidence all the way out here is slim to none.”
