AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A copyof theSnotty Garlicwas in the envelope. Just the front page. Raggedly trimmed around the photo he recognized from the last time Zoey had been featured in the gossip rag.
Zoey was dancing inhisarms, after all.
He’d never forget that red dress. Or…dancing with her that night. The photo was captioned beneath.Zoey Daviess, dancing with Sheriff Murdoch Lake, of Garrity…Can these former partners find love together now?
Zoey's mother had been killed five years ago. No one even knew her true age at the time of her death. Her oldest was forty now, so she’d be at least in her mid to late fifties, if she had been a teen mother. But six? That was damned young to be one of Denise Daviess's kids. And Zoey was for sure not this kid's mother.
"Neil, old pal, Garrity is yours. I have some business to take care of."
"Gee, thanks. I'm on my way out now. Domestic call, checking up, mostly. I’m taking Prost with me. Call me if you need me for anything, old man. I can always take that seriously hot woman off your hands. You can have that damned cat instead."
Neil wasn’t joking.
Well, that wasn’t happening.
"Never going to happen. Zo’s mine. I’m working on forever with her, pal. Find a seriously hot lady of your own."
"I might just do that someday. Got to be one that won't mind living out here where nothing exciting ever happens. I'm rather looking forward to growing old around here." Neil’s time with the army had been…eventful, he’d told Murdoch once. Now he wanted to watch paint dry and nothing more. Murdoch had seen some pretty ferocious scars on the man’s chest and back once. He hadn’t asked questions. This was a dangerous man in front of him.
"Best of luck to you. I am out."
He'd take this letter over to his woman's place. They'd figure this out together.
Maybe take a little drive out to 37564 Old Coleson Road tonight instead of heading up to Finley Creek like he'd planned.
A kid had claimed Zoey was her mother on the phone. A kid had claimed Zoey was her mother by mail.
Well, now…Murdoch wanted to see that kid for himself.
He was a man with questions.
It was that insatiable curiosity, after all.
90
Grandfather was back.
Oakley was watching out the high front window when she saw Grandfather's big car pull in again.
Grandfather parked at the other end of the driveway.
He usually parked by the front doors, so he didn't have to walk very far. He was old, he said. Why should he have to walk?
He was really, really old.
But that didn't mean he wasn't scary.
Oakley left the window and went to the other one. The one closest to the garage. Oakley liked to look out the windows and pretend she could go outside andplay.Like kids on TV did. She really wanted to try to play during the daytime sometime. Or go swimming or do swings or something like that. That stuff looked really, really fun.
The garage was where he kept all those other cars and vans he said were useful for the experiment. And his work with the mean lady. The lady who gave him money for helping her make the babies to sell. There were other stairs in the garage, too.
They wentdownstairs.
Oakley and Orionneverwent downstairs. Ever.
Grandfather let the mommies stay in the basementdownstairssometimes. Nanny said he was their doctor when the babies were in their bellies.
She knew what it meant when a lady's belly got really big like that. There had been babies in there. What happened after the babies were borned she didn't know.
