Page 50 of The Map Home
His grin was mischievous and possibly contagious because Dakota found himself smiling too. Dakota had been right—showering together took twice as long as it normally did for him alone, but he’d already decided against pointing it out.
“Are you headed over to talk to Curtis after this?” he asked a few minutes later as they walked together from the parking lot to the Sheriff’s Office entrance.
They’d both driven since Tad had work to do and a shift at Jake’s later. Dakota noted that the holiday decorating fairies had finally found their way to the station. The evergreen shrubs on each side of the entrance had been wrapped with colorful blinking lights, and what looked to be handmade snowflake cutouts had been taped to the inside of the windows.
“I’ll stop by The Chron first. I need to download pictures from my camera, then I’ll drive out to ‘the prison’ and talk to Curtis. I promised him a burger from Jake’s and I don’t want it to get cold.”
“The prison?” Dakota snorted as he reached the door and pulled it open.
“Curtis is not happy in the rehab center. But he might be less agitated if we figure out what Peter Kline and DreamDwell are up to. Hi, Gloria.” Tad beamed at the older woman. “The decorations look great.”
“Thank you,” the dispatcher said, returning Tad’s smile. “Ben’s in the back. Also, Sabrina Suarez called to let us know that her tenant returned.” Gloria shook her head. “She’d gone on a spontaneous trip to Disneyland with an old friend. Apparently, she did leave a note, but her cat knocked it behind a cabinet and Ms. Suarez never found it. Then, on the first day, she left her cell phone on one of the rides, which was why Sabrina couldn’t reach her. A comedy of errors, I guess.”
“That’s incredible news.” Dakota felt a rush of relief that nothing terrible had befallen Marcy Auchler. “Sucks about her phone, but I hope she had a great trip. Come on, Tad. Let’s see if we’re correct about our other mystery.”
Dakota led the way down the hall to the evidence room. The door was propped open, and Ben had the dismembered bears out, all ready for them to go through.
Just five minutes later, Tad triumphantly held up his grandmother’s wedding ring.
“Got it,” he said with satisfaction. “Now, let’s track down Boone before he does anything else ridiculous.”
“What about Curtis?”
“He can wait a little longer. It’s not as if he’s going anywhere.”
Dakota eyed his—yes,boyfriend.“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
SIXTEEN
Tad
Digginghis cellphone out of his bag, Tad texted his brother and quickly learned he was in town at the Seed and Feed. Perfection.
“He’s picking up salt licks for the winter barns,” Tad told Kota.
When they arrived, Tad’s brother was easy to find. He was aimlessly wandering the pet aisle, picking up cat toys, examining them, and putting them down again. They watched him for a minute, and Tad, who found his brother very irritating and didn’t want to feel sorry for him, sighed.
“What is he doing?” whispered Dakota.
“No clue. This is Boone, remember? Heya, Boone,” Tad called out.
Ignoring them, Boone continued his search through silver bins full of bouncy balls of all sizes, colorful feathers, and shiny things to chase.
“What do you two want?” he finally asked. Unsurprisingly, he sounded dispirited.
“Wondering if you’re missing something,” Tad replied, moving closer to him.
The muscles around Boone’s jaw tightened. “Like what?”
“Come on, Boone,” Tad said, “you’re not fooling us. We saw Amanda last night.”
Tad was kind of surprised it was only last night that he and Kota had seen Boone’s girlfriend after picking out their first tree. It seemed like a lifetime.
His brother turned to face them, and it was then that Tad realized a tiny black fluff of kitten-beast was tucked into his forearm. It was purring.
“Oooh, kitty,” Tad crooned.
Boone looked down at the feline.
