by Jeff Shelby
But I'd learned that no matter how far away I went, the memories would find me.
And I knew that eventually, so would the police. They had questions about Keene. They wanted to know my involvement. They wanted to know who killed him.
They wanted to know if it was me.
I wasn't sure what I was going to tell them.
But I knew I couldn't outrun the conversation.
“I've never been to Costa Rica,” I said.
“Me, either. I know they've got a ton of monkeys down there. Sloths, too. I read a magazine article awhile back about how you can zipline through the rainforest.”
“I don't believe that.”
“No, seriously. They've got platforms and cables strung up in the jungle.”
“I meant I don't believe that you read a magazine article.”
“Dude, I read all kinds of crap.”
“Now that I believe.” I laughed quietly and shook my head. “I don't want to go to Costa Rica.”
“Doesn't have to be Costa Rica, man. Can be anywhere.”
“But then I'll just be waiting,” I said, squinting into the sunshine. “Waiting on someone to show up or call or whatever.” I turned and looked at him. “I don't want to live like that.”
He frowned, adjusted the sunglasses covering his eyes. “If you call him, it's gonna get complicated, Noah. You know that.”
“It's already complicated.”
“You know what I mean. You call him and tell him you're back, there's no turning around. And if those other two asshole cops are still walking around with hard-ons for you?” He shook his head. “You're not gonna be able to walk away from that because they won't let you.”
I already knew all that. I'd thought about it the entire time I'd been hiding on the Florida panhandle. I knew what going back to San Diego meant.
But I also heard Liz's voice out there on the horizon somewhere, telling me to deal with the things that had to be dealt with. Just like she'd done when she was alive.
I pulled my wallet from my back pocket and thumbed through it until I found the business card I was looking for. Worn corners, a thin fold in the middle, a smudge of dirt just below John Wellton's name and phone number.
I punched the numbers on the small phone and held it to my ear, glancing at Carter. “I don't want to walk away anymore.”
LOCKED IN, the fifth book in the Noah Braddock series, arrives in December!