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I take Storm a ways down the path and then back, but she doesn’t figure out where Bruno left it. By then, the sun is dropping.
“Call it a night?” Dalton says, peering up.
“I think so.”
“Really call it a night? As in, we aren’t going to go back and do more investigating because we’re exhausted from spending the last eighteen hours getting here, searching for missing people, finding a dead person, autopsying that dead person, searching again for missing people…”
“Feels more like eighteen days. So the answer is yes. I can officially declare the case—or cases—set aside for the remainder of the night.”
“Good. Then let’s get back and see our new house.”
CHAPTER NINE
The outside of our new house is exactly what we dreamed it would be. Exactly what we envisioned, after nights poring through designs and hammering out floor plans and making our endless list of requirements.
I remember how nervous I’d been, sending that list to Yolanda. I’m not a person who asks for things, at least not for myself. I’m certainly not a person who demands extras that’ll make her life easier while making someone else’s—in this case, the architect’s—difficult. I take what I’m given and make the best of it. Or that’s the old Casey. The new one is a little more confident in asserting her own needs, yet I still wanted to give a dozen qualifiers when I sent in the plans.
This is just an idea.
We aren’t professionals, of course.
If it can’t work quite like this, we understand.
I said none of that, having realized by that point that if it couldn’t be done, Yolanda wouldn’t hesitate to tell me. But I’d never heard a peep back. Now I realize, a little belatedly,who made our demands a reality without a word of complaint. Penny.
The house is separated from the town by twenty feet of trees, giving us both privacy and the sense of being tucked in the forest, which Dalton needs. It’s a small, two-story cabin, with a wraparound deck, huge windows—I shudder rememberingthatexpense—and second-floor balconies front and back. Inside we had enough demands for a two-thousand-square-foot home squeezed into a thousand square feet. People need to pay to come to Haven’s Rock, and we can’t have them looking at our house and thinkingthat’swhere their money went, even if it came from my inheritance.
We needed a living space big enough to entertain, with doors that open onto the back deck to expand the entertainment space. A decent-size kitchen—Dalton prefers to make our meals. A bathroom with a tub. Yes, a tub, which is a ridiculous luxury in a town that rations water, but Dalton insisted on it for me. We need a fireplace in the living room and we wanted one in our bedroom, mostly so we can leave the windows open even when it’s well past that time of year. We wanted an office upstairs. We’re both prone to working late hours, and we both want to be able to spend those late nights at home. Then there’s storage. Maximum storage for two people who want to make this their forever home. And that doesn’t even include all the little extras, like window seats for the deep walls.
Was it even possible to put all that into a small house?
We stand at the back door, both our hands on the knob, mine over Dalton’s.
“Ready?”
He turns the knob, and we throw open the door to see…
Darkness.
“You bring a flashlight?” he says.
“Uh…”
He laughs under his breath and takes out his phone. He shines the light around, and we spot a lantern beside the door. A moment later, it’s lit, wavering light shining over…
“Oh!” I say. “It’s…”
I don’t finish. I grab the lantern, leaving him laughing, and I run into the middle of the living room. A huge stone fireplace dominates the space. The walls are wood, like the floor, and there are as many chairs as could be crammed into the space, along with an oversized sofa. Bearskin rugs—Dalton’s—cover the floor, and the chairs are piled with blankets and pillows. Beside the fireplace is a raised cushion. I run over and pat it.
“Up, girl,” I say to Storm.
She comes over and climbs on.
“Your own couch,” I say. “Right beside the fire.”
“Which I am going to get going,” Dalton says.
“Excellent idea,” I say.
