Page 10 of Trouble Comes in Threes

I’d nearly told her it wasn’t the same thing, but for all of her bluster, she’d be the first one to show up at a job site if one of her designs didn’t work. Plus, I knew for a fact that very thing had happened at her second cousin’s wedding a year ago.

So why was she here? Based on the state of her eyes, now didn’t seem the time to ask.

“We’re prepping for a small retaining wall.”

“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “So I just dig?”

“Dig up over the spray-painted line,” I said, gesturing to the orange line Bruce Wayne had already painted on the grass.

“Yeah, okay,” she said absently.

I cast a worried look at my friend. Something was definitely wrong.

We started digging, and I hoped she’d confess what was bothering her while we worked. Neely Kate was a talker, and she usually wore her feelings on her chest like merit badges. Then again, I knew from experience that she was plenty capable of keeping secrets. She’d kept some deep, dark ones from me for years, and she’d only told me then because they’d risen up like ghouls in the night to haunt her.

After a few minutes, I asked, “Does Daisy still have a cold?” Neely Kate’s daughter was about seven weeks younger than Hope, and they went to the same daycare. Since Daisy was Neely Kate’s only child, she tended to be overprotective and got a lot more worried than I did over sniffles and skinned knees.

“Last weekend, she was blowing snot everywhere, but it seems to be getting better.” She stopped digging and looked up at me. “Who knew kids had so many bodily secretions oozing out of ‘em?”

“True,” I said. “Thankfully, Liam seems to be over his. I’m just dealing with teething now. His molars are giving him fits.”

Neely Kate glanced away, and more guilt washed through me. Neely Kate and Jed had adopted Daisy when she was a couple of days old because Neely Kate had been told she couldn’t have children after a miscarriage several years ago. She loved Daisy more than life itself, but I knew some part of her wished she could still carry a baby in her own belly.

“Thankfully, that won’t last long,” Neely Kate said, pressing her foot on the edge of the shovel and shoving it into the dirt. A large thud sounded, and she took her foot off the shovel. “I hit something.”

“A rock?” The ground here was full of them.

“No. Something else.”

She dug up more dirt and exposed what looked like a piece of wood.

“It’s probably a piece of two by four left behind from when they built the house,” I said. Over the years, we’d found all kinds of things the builders left behind. Beer cans, wood, concrete. “Remember when Bruce Wayne found a toilet?”

“I do,” she said, scooping out more dirt. “What’s under here is a mystery.” She gave me a grin. “Remember when we used to solve those?”

“That was ages ago, and definitely before we had kids.”

She got quiet and dug out another pile of dirt. “Don’t you miss it?” she asked, then looked up at me.

“Investigating?” I asked in surprise. I hadn’t thought about those days in a long time.

But that wasn’t exactly true.

I’d been thinking about James and Ashley and Mikey’s dad…and having nightmares about Hardshaw coming back to seek their revenge. But Neely Kate didn’t know about any of that. Not even the nightmares. I barely told Joe because speaking about it made me feel like I was giving Hardshaw more power over me. “What’s in the water? First, some kid makes fun of Ashley about her daddy being in prison, and then you bring up investigating. It’s not like we even got our PI licenses.”

“Whoa!” she said, moving her shovel next to her and leaning on it. “What do you mean, some kid made fun of Ashley?”

I told her about my morning and my meeting at the school.

“At least they’re taking it seriously,” Neely Kate said as she dug more dirt off the piece of wood. I walked over to take a look. It was definitely bigger than a two-by-four. She’d exposed a section about a foot wide.

“Trust me. I’m going to follow up.” I drew in a breath. “I can’t imagine what Joe’s gonna say when he finds out.”

“He doesn’t know?”

“She told me this morning, and you know how crazy our mornings are.”

Her face went blank, and I tilted my head. “Okay, something’s goin’ on with you. Spill it.”

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