Page 101 of Midnight Waters

Ben’s thunderous expression returned, and he reached for the door to the garage.

“I brought a car. I’ll drive us,” I said.

Ben raised an eyebrow at me. “Where did you park it?”

“Outside the wall.”

To my disappointment, Ben dropped my arm as we headed for the front gates at a jog.

“I thought you were calling about… something else,” Ben said.

“We’re investigating the murder of your friend. Why would you block the only person trying to help you, regardless?”

“I didn’t want to talk to you, okay? I was… dealing.”

Just because I understood where he was coming from that didn’t make me any less annoyed.

We walked out the front gates and to my car in silence, and it wasn’t until I had driven us back onto the road that I had the courage to speak again.

“We should probably talk about… you know… at some point,” I muttered.

“Or we could go on ignoring each other.”

“You’re happy to just forget about it?”

Ben didn’t answer for a moment. Instead, he stared, glassy-eyed, through the windshield.

“Have you wondered how we matched so closely?” he asked quietly.

“Since I found out it was you. It doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“Or does it?”

We were plunged into silence once more. I had half accepted our similarities a handful of times since running out of that dating agency.

“I guess we should talk about that later,” I muttered.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I sealed my lips as we drove off through the darkness. Whether or not he wanted to talk about it, I couldn’t help but feel warmed that he had thought about us, too.

We had caught Mallory on her way out of the office, and the watch and the potion were enough for her to grab a handful of off-duty police officers and march down to Michaela’s home.

It was all pretty informal, but it was the best we were going to get under the circumstances.

“You two had better be right about this,” Mallory said as she knocked on Michaela’s front door.

“We are,” Ben said.

I pulled my jacket sleeve as it rode up my arm. We definitely were. But unless we could get George to crack and get hold of those old potion bottles, we weren’t exactly court-ready.

George opened the door. Thank the gods he hadn’t gotten to the hospital yet.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, looking at every one of us before settling on Mallory.

“Sorry for the late-night intrusion, George, but we’ve got to ask you a few questions,” Mallory said.

But Ben had no time for questions. He stepped forward and yanked both of George’s sleeves up. Just like before, no watch.

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