Page 55 of Jagged

"I have some dry wood in the boot to give us a jumpstart."

"In your boot?" I stared at her while holding a handful of twigs.

"In the boot." She repeated, her eyes locked on mine.

"The…boot? What boot?"

"The boot." She pointed to the car and huffed.

Nervousness expressed itself in the form of me fiddling with my hat, lifting it up then flopping it back on. "The car has a boot?"

Clem's hands fell to her hips. "In the boot of the car."

"What's a boot of a car, girl? Goodness." I huffed at her.

"The back part." Clem tossed me her dead eye scary stare and I gulped.

"The trunk. Okay." I held my hands up in surrender which broke her stance. Her entire face shifted from annoyed to amused in a beat. "Sorry."

"I'm sorry. I forget I say things strange sometimes."

"I've never heard it called a boot." I headed back to the car, still within earshot of her, and unloaded the wrapped bags of wood. I gripped the handles and toted them back to the tent.

Again, Clem stared at me, this time wide-eyed as I approached.

"What?"

"Nothing." Her gaze flickered down the front of me. "Except your arms are super strong."

"My vanity point." I flexed my biceps for her before setting down the wood. "Favorite part to work on at the gym."

"I hate the gym." She shifted toward the cooler after unfurling the sleeping bags in the tent. Her deft preparedness impressed me as I watched her. "I fixed some sandwiches for tonight and salad, and also brought some snacks."

"I'm down for that. Thank you for doing all of this."

"Well, I did ask you, so I hope to make it a good experience," she said after locking the cooler again.

Crickets chirped around us coupled with the croaks of tree frogs and the other nightly sounds of the Pacific Northwest's forest life. If I paid attention to it, the sounds drowned out the world and I imagined nothing existed beyond this moment. It surprised me how loud it grew as darkness peaked, but over time, they began to quiet a little.

Together, we got the fire going after I dug a small pit and surrounded it with thick stones. Clem's starter logs helped, giving us a small survival cheat for the time being. The fire roared to life, and we settled on the cozy ground mat she placed in the grass beside it.

We sat side by side, cross-legged in similar postures with food in our laps.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked in between bites of her sandwich.

The avocado, cucumber, and tomato delicacy settled nicely in my mouth while I ate. "Huh?"

"You look thoughtful." She glanced at me, and I nodded.

"I am. I've never done anything like this before, I suppose."

"Do what?"

"Leave Seattle with a somewhat stranger to chill by a fire in the middle of the woods. I mean, there are female serial killers. In fact, you may have helped me identify one. How do I know you're not here to lure me to my death and bleed me like a farm animal?" I tried very hard to keep a straight face while I said it.

"Well…" She chewed patiently, then swallowed. "You're a detective. If I'm a serial killer, you probably stink at your job."

I burst out laughing, but Clem's steadfast seriousness remained.

---