Page 8 of Her Last Whisper
“Always with.”
“I’ll just chill. Bye,” he said playfully.
Katie ended the call and let out a sigh. She should have rescheduled the dinner, but it was too late now.
As she drove to her house, Katie’s mind began to churn through ideas about what did or didn’t happen to Amanda Payton.
Six
Monday 1920 hours
As she drove up her driveway, Katie saw Chad’s large black Jeep parked outside with the driver’s door open, his long legs hanging out. He was clearly taking a nap.
“That is so Chad,” Katie quietly said to herself and smiled as she cut the engine and got out of the car.
Chad’s smiling face appeared as he sat up at the sound of her door shutting. He had changed into a nice pair of khakis and shirt. “Hey, how’s the town’s newest detective?” he asked.
“How do I even answer that?”
“Any way you like.”
“It’s exciting… terrifying… all rolled into one.”
“That’s a good answer,” he said as he followed her to the front door. “It’s truthful and insightful.”
A loud, rapid barking greeted them.
“Take it easy, Cisco,” said Katie as she inserted her key, turned it, then rushed inside to enter the four-digit alarm code while a jet-black German shepherd ran circles around her, whining in delight.
“Every time I see Cisco, I almost forget how handsome he is,” stated Chad as he shut the door behind him, nearly knocking over some photos. “And a war hero too,” he added as the dog obediently followed Katie into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry, Chad. I have to feed Cisco, let him out for a bit, and then I’ll quickly change. You sure you don’t want to do this another time?”
“No worries. I can still entertain myself. I don’t have to be at work for another twenty-four hours. No, make that twenty-three hours,” he said, browsing a bookshelf that ran along one of the walls outside the kitchen. The books were arranged chronologically and meticulously organized by size. Mostly various novels of mystery and adventure, but there were historical, dog training, and photography books as well.
“Hmmmm, let’s see,” he said as he ran his fingers along the books’ spines.
The living room consisted of a comfortable oversized couch with a neatly folded blanket on the back, flanked by two leather upholstered chairs with matching embroidered floral pillows, perfectly placed in opposite corners. The hardwood floor was covered by a large multicolored rug and two pieces of artwork filled the walls. One was a landscape painting and the other was a vintage oversized photograph of Pine Valley taken from an elevated location.
There was a small narrow table decorated with several photographs; one of Katie aged five with her parents, one of her graduating from the police academy, and a group photo of her and Cisco with her army company taken at a military base.
Katie prepared the dog’s dinner and then hurried to her bedroom, partially stripping off her dark pant suit as she moved down the hallway and disappeared into her bedroom. She could hear Chad reading the synopsis of a mystery novel out loud to Cisco and making funny voices for each character. “I’ll let Cisco out,” he called from the living room.
Chad had hardly changed from the kid she had met so many years ago in elementary school; light-hearted, fearless, and always charismatic. They’d been inseparable then—fishing, building forts, hiking—but now they had found their way back to each other. She wondered if they could ever be the same—together? They weren’t kids anymore. So much had happened in their lives. Was it just a comfortable place to be because of their shared pasts?
Katie washed her face, reluctantly and inexpertly applied makeup, and unpinned her dark hair from her practical work hairstyle. She removed a few dresses from the closet, stared at them and then put them back. Finally she decided on a pretty sleeveless blouse, dark pants, and low heels that wouldn’t hurt her feet. She quickly changed.
She stood in front of the full-length mirror and stared at her reflection; she didn’t feel comfortable dressing up. The truth was she felt more relaxed in jeans and a T-shirt doing training combat maneuvers with Cisco.
Was that who she really was? All she was? A soldier?
Was that the person that Chad really wanted to be in a relationship with?
There it was.
Again.
When Katie asked herself tough questions, or when she stepped out of her immediate comfort zone, a creeping anxious feeling took a hold of her. A tingling in her extremities, quickening of breath and strange dizziness caught her by surprise. No matter how many times it happened, it always filled her with dread. The fear of the unknown. Her legs weakened, pushing her to pace about the bedroom trying to outrun the feeling.
