Page 33 of The Executioners Three
“You could be,” Freddie offered. “With cheekbones like those.”
“Enough.” Bowman’s nostrils flared. “You’re too much like your dad, Gellar.”
Freddie’s stomach sank. The stones took hold. Because Bowman never spoke of Frank Carter—even though the man had been her former boss and trained her. Yet Freddie had never known if Bowman’s blatant omission was because she knew about the Gellar family unspoken rule—Thou shalt not discuss Frank Carter—or if she, like Mom, just had a lot of baggage she didn’t want to deal with.
Freddie swallowed. “Is being like my dad… a bad thing?”
Bowman’s cheeks twitched. She noticeably didn’t reply. “Thank you for stopping by, Gellar. I’ll return your camera tomorrow. Now,go home.”
Freddie winced. She wished she hadn’t asked about her dad. Shame was bubbling up now, and she hated this feeling.Hatedit.
Tamp down thoughts,she reminded herself.Tamp down feelings. Focus on the task at hand.Did Dana Scully let weird, amorphous emotions get in her way? Absolutely not.
Nor did Sheriff Bowman right before her, who was once more fixing those blue, wiggle-inducing eyes onto Freddie. “One more thing, Gellar: for the love of god, please don’t get tangled up in this school rivalry, okay?” She jerked her head toward the house. “I don’t need two of you geniuses out there causing trouble.”
Freddie sighed. She was flattered Bowman had called her a genius. She was not flattered to be compared to Theo.
“I already knew it was you who’d pranked the prep school—even if you hadn’t just confessed.”
“Oh.”
“And Itoldyou, it’s dangerous in those woods. Also, Mrs. Elliot’s cul-de-sac is private property. Now, go home.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Freddie watched Bowman leave, disappointment oozing down her spine.
She didn’t want to quit the pranks. Not on top of everything else. Although, the more Freddie considered it as she toed in her kickstand and rolled the bike toward the street, the more she decided that if anyone was to blame here, it was Sheriff Bowman herself. After all,shehad stopped Freddie and Kyle on the lakeshore, and thenshehad let them go.
Yes. This was sound logic. Nary a post hoc fallacy in sight.
Freddie was halfway to the street when a voice called, “Hey, Gellar! Wait.”
She glanced back and found Theo jogging toward her. His eyes were wide, and his hair was especially mussed now. Like maybe he’d been running his hands through it for the past five minutes.
She wished it didn’t look so good that way.
“I wanted to tell you…” He slowed to a stop on the other side of her bike. “Nice job with the birdseed and the trash. It took me and the other weekend students four hours to clean up the mausoleum gardens. It was…” He squinted into the distance. “Inspired.”
Freddie’s lips twitched. “I don’t think you’re supposed to compliment the enemy.” She also didn’t think the enemy was supposed to be delighted by such compliments either.
“What can I say?” He bounced a single shoulder. “I expected the BHS kids to completely implode without their prank book. They can’t come up with any ideas without that thing. Then you show up and ruin my plans.”
This felt like another compliment, and Freddie really wished her heart would stop thumping so much at the prospect.
He is the enemy,she scolded inwardly.The Mercutio to your Tybalt!Except, now that Freddie considered it, he looked more like Leonardo DiCaprio than John Leguizamo.
“So you, uh… You came out here just to compliment me?”
“Uh…” Theo scrubbed nervously at his hair. There was a restless energy to him; he couldn’t seem to stand still. “I mean, it was either come find an excuse to talk to you, or spend the next five minutes on the couch waiting for my uncle to come home. And trust me: five minutes is more than enough time for my aunt to list all my faults. In detail. Again.”
“You do seem to have a lot of them.”
“Hey now.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. His knee juddered. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you drink beer on school nights and drink soda for breakfast. And thatdothnot a wholesome human make.”
He gave a weak laugh at her joke, but it was forced. Distracted. There was definitely something else he wanted to say—something that was theactualreason he’d come out here.
So Freddie took a page from Sheriff Bowman’s book and preserved her silence. Sure enough, after three Lance Basses of quiet, Theo cleared his throat. “So, uh… do you really think that Fontana guy was murdered?”
