Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Back in the enormous great room, I realized that everyone was now inside. There was a man who I was guessing was Keith, Stella’s father, crouched down beside her, hugging her, and she had her head on his shoulder, hugging him back. A woman in a sequined pink bikini was standing behind him with a sheer wrap around her.
“Jed,” Stella announced, lifting her head up off her father’s shoulder, and beaming at me.
He stood up and offered me his hand. “Keith Burdine, Stella’s father.”
“I’ve only got one hand at the moment, sorry,” I told him, passing Stella back her phone. “Your mom wants to talk to you, okay?”
She nodded and answered cheerfully. “Hi, Mommy.”
I saw the defeat on her father’s face, knowing that his vacation with his daughter was over. Taking the hand he was still holding out, I startled him, and he looked quickly from Stella to me.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I suspect she didn’t want to ruin your time with Vanessa,” I said, glancing at the young woman. “She’s a very considerate child.”
He turned to his girlfriend, who covered her face with her hands. “I just wanted some time alone with you. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She didn’t,” I agreed. “And Stella’s a smart cookie, so she knew to find an adult, and once she saw the badge, she was good.”
The front door opened then, and two uniformed officers and one plainclothes one walked into the room. Bodhi lifted his hand to direct them, and they all reached us quickly.
“Deputy US Marshal Josiah Redeker,” I said, then tipped my head at Bodhi. “And Deputy US Marshal Bodhi Callahan, out of the Northern District of Illinois.”
The woman without the uniform introduced herself as Detective Naomi Dawes, and then the officers with her, Torres and Phelps. She pulled up paperwork on her tablet as Torres cuffed Luke. There was something about the cuffs going on that made me feel so much better. I would have to remember to pack mine going forward.
“Which one is the father?” Dawes asked.
I introduced her to Keith.
Torres escorted Luke out of the house, and Phelps, who had latex gloves on, took possession of the rolling suitcase from me. I explained, for their report, that Bodhi’s fingerprints would be there along with Luke’s but not mine. Phelps thanked me.
“Thank you, Marshals,” Torres said when he returned. “We don’t want sexual predators in our city, so we thank you for finding him so we can put him on a plane.”
“Thank you for your prompt response.”
Bodhi took a breath once they were escorting Luke out of the house. “I always feel better once the cuffs are on.”
“I was just thinkin’ the same thing.”
He leaned in, slipped a hand around the side of my neck and held me there a moment, smiling at me before he gently patted my cheek and let me go. “Now I could use a beer.”
“Me too, and I’m hungry.”
Stella was there suddenly between us, slipping her hands in each of ours. “Are you gonna eat now?”
“Yes,” Bodhi told her. “But I bet that plate of macaroni and cheese you made Jed is cold now, though, yeah? We have to put it in the microwave.”
She shook her head. “It’s gone already. The people who bring the food took it. You both have to make new ones.”
“Okay, good,” Bodhi said, pointing at something white. “What is that?”
“Ambrosia salad,” she told him. “My mom says you should never eat that if it’s not in the refrigerator or is sitting in a bowl of ice because you could get sick.”
“What kind of sick?”
“Squirtles,” I whispered to him.
“Well, that sounds horrible.”
Stella and I both laughed.
SIX
An hour later, Stella was running around like a crazy person, barefoot, in shorts and a crop top, no longer in her jeans and tennis shoes and a long-sleeve shirt.
“That’s another indicator,” Bodhi explained to Keith, who was sitting next to Hayden, Davis, and Hayden’s parents—Hayden Burdine the Second, who wanted me to call him Hank—apparently everyone did, which, in my opinion, made things easier—and his wife, Emily. Hayden’s sisters, Josette and Angela, sat with us too, on the couches around a coffee table. Hayden’s brother Giles had to take a Xanax and was now outside on a chaise with a cool compress over his eyes, while two of his cousins watched the kids. “Stella wanted to cover her body while Luke was here, but now she’s comfortable because she trusts all of you.”
Keith’s forehead was in his hand, and Angela, who had called him, was glaring, clearly unhappy with him, while Josette was rubbing his back.
There were a lot of questions, which made sense, and Bodhi was patiently going over them, as he was always better at that part than me. He massaged things, had more finesse than me, bluntness being my cross to bear. Watching Stella screaming with excitement as she played with her cousins was a wonderful sight to behold. There was a day-and-night difference in her.