Page 71 of For the Birds

Chapter15

Jed droppedme off at the office and said he’d call and check on Neely Kate in an hour or so. He wanted to give me time to talk to Neely Kate about the night before.

It was still early, but she was already sitting at her desk. Her face lit up when she saw me, and she jumped out of her chair. “Are you all right? Other than your clothes.”

Ignoring her question—I was definitely not all right, but I was trying to feel like I was—I walked over and gave her a long hug. I was grateful James’ shorts were long enough to cover not only my stitches, but most of my bruises and scrapes.

Neely Kate had brought my dog to the office with her, and Muffy jumped up on my legs, wagging her tail like a wind-updog.

Neely Kate’s arms wrapped around me, holding me tight. “What happened?”

Tears filled my eyes. I wondered how much I should tell her—then remembered the vow I’d made to stop keeping secrets. “I was kidnapped.”

“What? Oh, myword!”

I picked up Muffy and sat down in my office chair, cradling my little dog in my lap and rubbing her head. Then I told Neely Kate the whole story about the kidnapping, this time including the bit about Buck Reynolds wanting to hire me to look for Scooter.

“Do you want to investigate Scooter’s disappearance?” she asked.

“Yeah. I know Jed and Merv have been lookin’, but don’t you think those two burly guys are more likely to intimidate people into silence? Scooter’s girlfriend saw someone drive away with him on Wednesday, and she only came forward yesterday. I think we might be able to get more answers. People tend not to take us seriously.” She started to get worked up, but I held up my hand. “I say we use that to our advantage. They’ll be more likely totalk.”

“So you want to put Squawker onhold?”

“No. We only have a handful of appointments today. Let’s see if we can move some to the end of the week so we can focus on our two cases today.”

“I can’t believe you’re saying that,” she said, jumping up and down a little.

I shrugged. “I have good reason to look for Scooter. As for the parrot, we’ll see how he fits in with the rest of our day. Obviously he’s second priority.” But then again, when I thought about the circumstances of Squawker’s disappearance, I wondered if there was more to it. I stood and said, “But first I need to go home and change clothes.”

“I brought you clothes and shoes. Jed suggested it. He said you were spending the night with Skeeter.” She gave me a narrow-eyed look. “I thought you were pissed athim.”

“Turns out nearly gettin’ murdered makes you see things a bit differently.”

“So you forgavehim?”

“Yeah.”

“And what does that mean exactly? Are you two together? What aboutLevi?”

Oh crap. Levi.

“I don’t know about Levi. I really like him, but there’s no spark, you know? I kept hopin’ it would show up, but instead I got kidnapped and then went home with the king of the Fenton County crime world and hardly spent any time sleeping.” I hadn’t really intended to say quite so much, but the words all came out in arush.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “You and Skeeter . . . ?”

I nodded.

She still looked shocked. “And you hadn’t slept together before?”

Of course, it was at that exact moment that Joe decided to walk into the office with a takeout tray stacked with three coffee cups. Muffy jumped off my lap and took off running forhim.

“I think I’ve interrupted something,” he said, looking uncomfortable.

“No,” Neely Kate gushed. “Going by what’s in your drink carrier, you’re here in the nick oftime.”

Muffy continued to jump up on his legs, and he glanced down at her with a grin. “Just a minute, Muff.”

I sure hoped one of those cups literally had my name on it because I was about to pass out from exhaustion . . . and maybe die of embarrassment.

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