by Matt Lincoln
“Okay. I—sorry,” he said, and I stepped aside so he could leave, walking through the glass door with his shoulders hunched and his chin on his chest.
I watched him go for a second, then turned and crouched down beside Rachel’s chair.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
She smiled, tears glittering in her eyes. “Not really. But I will be.” She gently shook Malia’s hand until her daughter uncoiled and lifted her head to look up at Rachel. Malia seemed much smaller than she had when I’d first met her.
“Ready to go home?” Rachel asked her quietly, and Malia nodded.
Malia wrapped her arms around Rachel’s neck as Rachel stood, her feet hooked behind Rachel’s back as Rachel adjusted her grip.
“I meant what I said,” Rachel told us. “Take some time off. I will be.”
“We will,” I assured her. “Call us if you need anything.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rachel replied as she stepped through the door, Ramirez holding it open for her. As a group, we headed for the parking lot, each of us splitting off to our own cars with one last wave. I sat behind the wheel until the others were gone, drumming my thumb against the worn leather, deep in thought.
I quickly came to a decision, put the car in gear, and peeled away from the parking lot with a short squeal of rubber on tarmac.
A short while later, I stood on the narrow porch and rang the doorbell, its peal echoing all the way through the house. I stepped back to wait for an answer, an overnight bag slung over my shoulder, and a pillow clutched to my chest. I didn’t have to wait long. Lex opened the door warily, brow creasing when she realized it was me standing there.
“Hey,” I said, smiling at her. “So I was thinking that my house is pretty empty right now, and maybe I could sleep on your couch for a night or two?” Given the state Lex was in, I didn’t want her to be alone, especially since she still had the burden of caring for her mother on her shoulders. But I didn’t want her to think that I was coddling her or anything, so I thought she would be more likely to accept the company if I was the one who didn’t want to be alone.
She opened the door a little wider and smiled, a wave of relief crashing through her eyes. “Sure. That would be great.”
Lex stepped back to let me inside, my bag catching on the doorframe before I shoved it through. She shut the door behind us with a click, sealing us inside a house that was quiet but far from lonely.
Epilogue
My voice trailed off as I hit the last slide in my presentation, and the class waited with bated breath to see if there would be anything else. I stepped away from my podium and hit the light switch, blinking in the sudden glare.
“People are always asking me why I do this job,” I said as I returned to the front of the class. Cal still sat in the first row, long legs stretched out as far as they would go, ankles crossed, and they sat up a little straighter now that the presentation was finished. I opened up my satchel and dug through it as I spoke, searching for something in particular. “There are a lot of answers I give. It’s a pretty personal thing. But the main reason is this.” I pulled out a worn and yellowed envelope, its corners crinkled, the flap ripped down the middle. I delicately slid the thank-you card free. It was small and colorful and filled with a child’s round and wobbly handwriting. “Malia Bane sent us this several months after the events of this case, thanking us for saving her.”
I walked over to a student on the corner of a row and handed the card to her, indicating that she should pass it around. She smiled softly as she flipped it open and read the message inside before handing it off to the next student.
“I’m not saying we do it for the thanks,” I continued. “But for every crappy and dangerous moment you go through, there’ll be a moment like this as well. One where you’ll know that you made a difference.”
Cal lingered over the card when it came to them, fingers still as they lightly touched the penciled letters. They passed it on and then smiled at me, nodding in agreement.
“That’s it for class today. Remember what I said about Cal’s presentation.”
“Room 302,” Cal announced. “Two o’clock.”
The class gathered their things up, and a student came up and returned Malia’s card to me. I carefully slotted it back into its envelope. Cal stayed in their seat until all the students were gone and then drew themself upright, sauntering up to my podium with their hands in their pockets.
“I forgot just how crazy that case was,” Cal admitted. “It could have gone very badly, very quickly.”
“That’s very true,” I agreed as I tucked the envelope back into my bag. I led the way out of the classroom, locking up the door behind us.
Cal took the lead, moving toward the room where they would be giving their own lecture. “I’ll start to put some feelers out to the others to see if they’d be up for a reunion,” they said. “I mean, it’ll happen even if they disagree. I’ll kidnap them if I have to.”
I laughed. “I’ll help. It’ll be nice to have the gang all together again.”
We traveled up the stairs since Cal’s room was a floor up from mine. Students hurried past us without sparing us a glance, wrapped up in their own little worlds of homework and stress over the future. Cal’s lecture hall was dark and empty when we arrived, and I helped them turn on all the lights and make sure everything was in order. The first students started to filter in fifteen minutes later, and I settled into a chair one row back from the front, eager to hear what Cal had to say. There was always more to learn, after all.
Author’s Note
Hey, if you got here, I just want you to know that you’re awesome! I wrote this book just for someone like you, and if you want another one, it is super important that you leave a review.
The more reviews this book gets, the more likely it is there will be a sequel to it. After all, I’m only human, and you have no idea how far a simple “your book was great!” goes to brighten my day.
Also, if you want to know when the sequel comes out, you absolutely must join my Facebook group and follow me on Amazon. Doing one won’t be enough because it relies on either Facebook or Amazon telling you the book is out, and they might not do it.
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