Page 124 of For the Birds

Chapter25

I wastwo blocks away when Jed picked me up. I’d already texted Neely Kate an excuse—saying I was going to visit with Violet longer but I’d found out that Paul and Merlin had a different last name than their mother. I’d asked her to see if she could find out more about Elijah Landry without going to the rental house or the junkyard. We’d do that later.

Jed’s car pulled up next to me, and I’d barely shut the door before he drove off. “What’s this about?”

“I think I know where Landry and Paul Whatever-his-name-is and his brother took Scooter last Wednesday.”

His eyes widened. “And how’d you find thatout?”

“The neighbor. She heard a commotion Wednesday when she was leaving for church, and I’m pretty sure the parrot heard them talkin’ and was repeatin’ what they said.” I told him the phrases we’d heard Squawker say. “They broke in and tried to snatch the bird, but Mr. Whipple caught them in the act and the parrot gotaway.”

“Where’s Neely Kate and her cousin rightnow?”

“They dropped me off to see Violet. She tired out before they were supposed to pick me up, so I texted you and sent them on a wild goose chase.” When he gave me a questioning look, I said, “It’s kind of a long story, but bottom line: Witt wants to appear neutral when this is all over, and when I forced a vision to make sure that happened, I saw that I’d ditched them. It must be because I involved you. Not to mention, in my vision I called Neely Kate to tell her I’d found Scooter. It makes sense that you and I can find him together.”

He was silent.

“This is startin’ to get dangerous, and right or wrong, I feel like you need to be part of it. Scooter was your friendtoo.”

“Thanks for includin’ me. I do want to be part of it, especially since Skeeter’s shut me out.” He was quiet for several seconds. “Where do we need togo?”

I gave him the address and a few directions to the neighborhood. “We have to be careful because we were makin’ the neighbor suspicious with all our questions earlier. We can’t let her find us snoopin’.”

He nodded.

“Neely Kate’s liable to be ticked at both of us,” I said. “I’m used to it, butyou . . .”

“I can handle it,” he said, but he didn’t look one hundred percent sure. “I’d prefer to keep her out of it. You and I both have a stake in this. She just wants to see the ‘case’ to completion.”

“Still, I’ll take full responsibility, Jed. You and I haven’t discussed what’s goin’ on between youtwo—”

He shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “Rose . . .”

“No. Let me finish.”

He pulled up to a stop sign and didn’tmove.

“I’ll admit I was worried when I first suspected, but only for a tiny bit. I can’t think of two people more perfect for each other, and I know you’ll do everything in your power to protect her. This only proves it more. I have no idea what she faced in Oklahoma last week, but I want to thank you for goin’ withher.”

“I did it for purely selfish reasons.”

“And I know you got fired for it. That couldn’t have been an easy choice.”

“It was surprisinglyeasy.”

That gave me pause. “Well, in any case, you both have my blessing, not that you need it, but you have it all thesame.”

“Thank you, Rose.” He turned to face me and nodded. “That means more than you know.” He stepped on the gas and took off. “Now let’s go find Scooter, and we can face Neely Kate’s wrath together.”

* * *

We parked a few houses down,and I kept an eye on the neighbor’s house as we approached Pam Beagle’s place.

“So far, so good,” I said as we walked up to the front door. Jed had suggested it would be better to see if anyone was home before we started sneaking around the house.

I realized I could learn a lot from Jed. Probably more than we were going to learn from Kermit the Hermit. I wanted to ask Jed about setting us up with him, but now didn’t seem thetime.

He had me stand behind him, on the bottom step, while he knocked on thedoor.

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