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“Drop it,” Taz said immediately.
I let it fall to the bed looking at him in confusion.
“We need to preserve any prints that might be on that bag, besides yours now,” he explained. “Do you have tweezers?”
Silly man. Did he think I had been born with these perfectly arched eyebrows? What female didn’t have tweezers? I pulled tweezers from the make-up bag on my bed.
“Can you get me a baggie or something, Lindsey?”
I went to the kitchen and came back with one. Taz used the tweezers to life the small bag with the key and dropped it into the larger plastic bag, sealing it up.
“I’ll take this to our lab when we get back to D.C. and run the key and the plastic bag for prints.”
“That’s kind of an odd looking key, isn’t it?”
“It looks like a key to either a post office box or safety deposit box. Do you know whether your father had either?”
I shook my head. “Mom might know.”
What were the chances that I would have come across that key to begin with? Maybe I wasn’t supposed to find it.
I shivered. I finished tying the new purple ribbons around Robespierre. It did make his head less floppy being supported with a new sash.
“Sweetie,” Taz said, watching me. “I’m going to need to take your little poodle there, too.”
“Why?” I said, looking at him in confusion. “There’s nothing else in there but stuffing.”
“I just need to have the lab check and make sure.”
“So, the gist of it is that the one thing I have left that my father gave me is going to be ripped to shreds?”
“I will see that he is sewn back up good as new,” he said.
“There,” I said, tossing the stuffed dog over to him. I went back to my packing in silence. Why did everything have to be put under a microscope these days?
Taz followed me on the two-hour trek to Falls Church. He brought my suitcases and boxes into the house. I told him where my room was and he lugged everything upstairs for me.
The house was quiet for now. I knew that would change this evening once Mom, Slate and Bryce got home.
I checked the fridge to see if Slate had been bothering to shop while Mom had been gone.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had everything well stocked. The house had been kept neat and clean as well.
I had just sat down on the sofa in the family room when my phone sounded. It was Kyzer. Taz hadn’t come back downstairs yet.
“Hey, Kyzer,” I greeted.
“Hey, Lindsey,” he said. “I just wondered if you were home sick or something. I haven’t seen you at school the past couple of days.”
“I was going to call you this evening,” I replied. “Everything has kind of been chaotic. I’m at home in Falls Church. My stepfather called earlier in the week and said I was needed at home. There’s been a bit of a family emergency. I had to withdraw from my classes to come home and help out.”
“Oh, Lindsey,” he said, sounding genuinely concerned, “it’s nothing serious, I hope.”
I appreciated the fact that he wasn’t trying to be nosy about it. I didn’t totally agree with Taz on his assessment of Kyzer.
“Well, it’s not life threatening or anything. I’m helping my mother out until she starts feeling better. Mostly, I will be looking after my baby brother and helping out around the house.”
“I hope everything works out okay, Lindsey. Is there anything I can do?”
