Page 56 of Water's Edge

“I’ll give it to him personally, but I don’t have any paperwork. He’ll want me to sign for it.”

“Tell him I’ll bring the paperwork today. And don’t sign anything.”

I put the phone away to find Ronnie giving me a quizzical look, but she doesn’t ask me anything. I can see the wheels turning, but they’re not getting her anywhere just yet.

I watch the scenery go by. I think about my “date” with Dan tonight. I don’t have any new clothes. Not my style.Clothes.I think of what Ronnie and Mindy said about the clothes left lying out on Leann’s bed at her cabin. She was an attractive young woman. She would probably turn heads in a potato sack. And yet she’d tried on at least three outfits.

God knows, I don’t have a lot of experience with dating, and the only thing I know about fashion are the things I’ve seen on TV or picked up around my old college dorm. Three outfits indicates she was really trying to impress whoever she was going off to see. That makes me think of my date again. And Dan. Should I try to impress him? He already seems impressed or he wouldn’t be trying to keep in touch. But where did he expect this to go? If he just wants me to sleep with him, he won’t have to break my arm. But what if he expects more? He may want me to share things about my past with him. I can’t. I haven’t even shared a lot of my past with my own brother. I told Hayden only what he needed to know. So how much do I want Dan to know?

“Earth to Megan.”

I’m driving on autopilot and our turn is just ahead.

“I’m thinking.”

“About tonight? Your date?”

“No,” I say in such a way that she not only knows otherwise but also knows that I don’t intend to talk about it.

We follow the coast of Puget Sound to State Route 104, cross the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, past Port Gamble to Northeast State Route 104, and then to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office substation in Kingston.

The Kingston office is a one-story building, wood-sided, with a wood-shingled roof. There’s minimal parking. I pull into a spot marked “Sheriff’s Office Only.” There are two other spaces. Both empty.

“This is where he said to meet us, right?”

Ronnie takes her phone out. “Kingston office. Should I call him?”

I notice a boy’s bicycle leaning against the front. “Maybe that’s his police vehicle.” I get out and she follows me to the front door. I twist the knob.

“Hello. Anyone home?”

No answer.

Inside is an empty yawning space, no private offices. No interview rooms. There isn’t even a counter separating the front from the two desks that have name plates on them. I can hear a copy machine running somewhere and I follow the noise just as a man wearing faded Lee jeans and a purple University of Washington T-shirt stretched tightly across his chest emerges.

He holds out his hand. “Detective Clay Osborne.”

His grip is strong and grinds the bones in my hand and I try to give the same back.

Never show weakness.

“Detective Megan Carpenter,” I say.

“Reserve Deputy Ronnie Marsh.” Ronnie holds her hand out and looks him over.

Clay takes her hand and I see her wince. To him, I suspect, it is akin to squeezing a Nerf ball.

Detective Osborne is in his mid-thirties, six feet something. His weight is hard to guess but it is perfect for his physique. He has thick red hair and a lumberjack’s beard. The only thing identifying him as law enforcement is the shoulder holster he’s wearing. He has an old Colt Model 1911 in the rig and sees me noticing it.

“Are you familiar with the government model Colt .45?”

“A little,” I say.

The truth is I know a lot about it. Rolland, my stepfather, had a Colt M1911A1 semiautomatic. It was old army issue and was carried by soldiers in a lot of wars. My mother said my real father—who turned out to be a fictitious father—had one just like it when he went overseas. I always imagined him charging the enemy with that gun. She told me he was a hero.

Liar.

Clay slips the pistol from the holster, drops the magazine, and makes it safe. He does all this with practiced ease, second nature. He doesn’t offer it to either of us but holds it up and turns it so we can see each side.

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