Page 163 of Hidden Nature

Sari clasped her hands together. “We bought a house!”

“What? When? I know you were looking, but—”

“We just couldn’t find the right one. When we’d find one, it’d be just out of our range, or we’d look at one in our range and it wasn’t in the right place, or needed too much work for us to take on.”

Joel finally sat. “We fell for this one. In just the right place, three bedrooms like we wanted, and two and a half baths, nice kitchen, sweet backyard. Have to finish the basement sometime. But the asking? Too much of a stretch.”

“We sent you a link to it a while back. Two-story colonial with a pretty front porch. I could just see myself sitting on that porch in the summer, drinking some lemonade.”

“You bought it!”

“Mama Dee and my mama put their heads together, and they—”

Sari waved a hand in front of her face as tears sprang. “I get weepy just thinking about it.”

“Honey, you get weepy these days if the batteries die in the remote.”

“I do. I just do. They helped us with the down payment. Enough we can afford the mortgage payments. We’re so grateful!” Sari pulled a tissue from the pocket of her maternity jeans.

“We’ll move in next month,” Joel added. “We’ll be all settled when the baby comes.”

“We’re doing up the nursery first thing, and we’ll bring our baby girl home to her own sweet room.” Another tear spilled before Sarilevered herself out of the chair. “Show us the rest of your house before I flood the place.”

“There isn’t a lot more. Second bath.” With a gesture, Sloan led the way. “Second bedroom I’m using for workouts.”

Sari took one look at the second bathroom. “You say the other was worse than this?”

“Considerably.”

“Well then, that man doesn’t just do good work. He’s a remodeling genius. Tell me you’re going to set him loose on that pitiful kitchen.”

“In time. Exterior next, and I’m adding on a mudroom and front porch. The kitchen…” She shook her head as they walked back and into it. “I haven’t decided exactly what I want.”

“You got this little room off it. Office space.” Sari gave a nod. “Good use of it. I can see why you picked it, Sloan. It’s like a cozy cottage in the woods. And you know how to fix it up just right.”

Joel, his eyes on the wall, moved into the room. “What’s all this?”

“Something I’m working on. On my own time,” she added.

“Missing persons. Three of them, in just over three months.”

“Uh-oh, I see where this is going.” Sari held up both hands. “I’m fine with it. Give me a drink without caffeine and I’ll sit by that fire, look at baby furniture on my phone.

“I’m a police wife,” she said before Sloan could apologize. “When you pick out a husband, make sure he knows he’s marrying a cop.”

“I’ve got the best police wife, or any kind of wife, there is.”

Sari settled down with a ginger ale, her phone, and a trio of Oreo’s.

Joel stood in Sloan’s office, his hands in the pockets of his ancient jeans.

“Talk to me, sis.”

She did, giving him the details while he studied the board, looked through the files. They fell easily into their old rhythm as he swigged from a Coke.

“Crazy-ass motive, so you’ve got crazy-ass people.”

“I considered a group, like a cult, but—”

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