04 - Shock and Awesome (43 page)

 
   
Aidan grinned. "No problem." His face paled and he glanced outside. "Oh shit! Barney!"

 
   
"What?"

 
   
"I left him with the groceries."

 
   
Aidan pelted out to the front and I followed him. When I got there, Aidan had his hands on his hips, while berating a very satisfied-looking Barney, whom he caught muzzle-deep in a grocery bag. An empty packet that once contained sausages listed on one side. Aidan grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the bag. Barney had a steak half hanging from his mouth. I swear if dogs could smile, he did.

 
   
"Aidan Marsh, meet your neighbors, Mr. And Mrs. Schubert," I told him, as the older couple approached. Mr. Schubert wielded a wireless house phone; while Mrs. Schubert carried a wooden mallet, not for tenderizing the steak. It appeared that Barney was in no danger of giving it up. "Aidan is a furniture maker. He has a workshop in his garage. And this is Barney. He's just weird."

 
   
"Aidan Marsh, the designer?" breathed Mrs. Schubert. "I've just been reading about you in my interior design magazine. They say you're the hottest new talent around. Your furniture sells for a fortune. And you're our neighbor!?"

 
   
"Not for long," I reminded them. "Also, he totally doesn't kill people, but I think his dog might need therapy."

 
   
"We know a great dog therapist." I raised my eyebrows as Mrs. Schubert hooked her arm through Aidan's. He seemed a little taken aback, but didn't shake her off, mostly because she had him in a vise-like grip and kept beaming up at him.

 
   
"
Lexi
told me you heard things. I'm sorry about all the noise," Aidan said as he scooped up the remains of his groceries with his free hand. "Barney is supposed to tell me if it gets too loud with my tools, but he just turns on the TV and makes it worse."

 
   
"Maybe he's lonely," said Mrs. Schubert. "He could come play with us until we move."

 
   
Mr. Schubert nodded. "This young lady is buying our house."

 
   
"High five," I said, raising my hand. After a tentative pause, Mr. Schubert high-fived me.

 
   
"That's the spirit," I told him.

 
   
"We'll contact our realtor and tell him we're proceeding with the sale," said Mrs. Schubert. "You still want to, right, dear?"

 
   
"Absolutely! Yes, please! Thank you so much!" I turned to Aidan. "I'm really glad you're not a psycho."

 
   
"You're welcome?" he said, after a moment.

 
   
"And you'll send us a bill for all the surveillance work you did?" Mrs. Schubert asked me, with a nod to Aidan, in a not particularly subtle way. I hoped it wouldn't make the neighbor thing awkward.

 
   
"No charge. I'm just happy to solve the mystery," I told them, hoping Aidan was watching.

 
   
"You could have just asked," Aidan told Mrs. Schubert as she steered him towards the house. "You really thought I was a serial killer?"

 
   
"Oh no, no! Goodness! Not at all!" She pulled a face at me and widened her eyes. Oh great! Now it looked like I suggested he was. Over Mrs. Schubert's head, Aidan grinned. He stuck his tongue out. I stuck mine back out at him and decided I liked him. A wet nose snuffled my palm then licked. That was fine too, mostly because it was Barney and not Aidan.

 
   
"Yes," said Mr. Schubert, coming to my rescue. "We thought you were killing all kinds of folk in there. So, you create all this furniture my wife likes? Oh great." He didn't sound thrilled. He sounded like a man who expected a shopping spree in the imminent future. My father had a similar sort of a tone, but I knew he loved buying my mother whatever she wanted. After all, my mother was lucky to get him, but my father was even luckier to get her.

 
   
"Come in and have a drink. I just made some oak patio furniture," said Aidan. His baffled expression turned to warm smiles, and he seemed pretty amused by the whole turn of events. Or maybe it was just because the
Schuberts
were so wowed by having a cool designer and master craftsman as their neighbor. "
Lexi
?"

 
   
"Oh, no, I can't, but you go ahead. I have to get home," I explained, although a little bit of me wanted to take a look in his house. I figured there was plenty of time for that once I moved in next door. Maybe Aidan and I would become friends. Maybe he'd let me take Barney for a walk. Barney sniffed my leg, looked up with a doggy grin, and did a huge doggy burp. Maybe not.

 
   
Mrs. Schubert and Aidan prattled on, and I'm pretty certain I heard him ask if I were single, but I didn't hear her answer. At the driveway, Mr. Schubert shook my hand. "Guess, I'd better follow and make sure she doesn't spend anything," he said, with a sigh. "Thank you for your good work, young lady. It's a relief to know he wasn't killing people all this time. We would have struggled with our consciences if we didn't do anything."

 
   
"You're welcome. I'm glad to help."

 
   
Mr. Schubert leaned in. "Of course, if you never see us again, you remember this is where you last saw us." He leaned out again. And winked.

 
   
"You got it." I gave his hand one last pump, glad to see the couple happier than when I first met them. I continued to wave at the happy trio as I walked back to my car. I buckled myself in, and reached for my cell phone.

 
   
"You're not going to believe this," I said to Lily when she answered.

 
   
"You're not dead?" she asked. "That's great!"

 
   
"I know, right?" I happily relayed the results of my investigation as she oohed and
ahhed
. Finally, she said, "Whoa. This is unreal. So, he's a deaf, blind, animal-loving serial killer? Wow."

 
   
"Where did you get blind from?"

 
   
"You? Didn't you say that?"

 
   
"No!"

 
   
"But he is a deaf, serial killer?"

 
   
"No. He's just a nice guy with a stupid dog. He's not violent at all. I thought I covered that?"

 
   
"I must have missed that bit. Is the dog deaf too?"

 
   
"No that would be pointless, wouldn't it? A deaf guy with a deaf assistance dog?"

 
   
"I guess. Ooooh! Oh! Oh! Did you two have a moment?"

 
   
"Me and the dog?"

 
   
"No. You and the deaf guy? Did he look into your eyes and realize that now he's met you, the world is his oyster and he can achieve anything? Is he totally in love with you?"

 
   
"No! Jeez, Lily, he's deaf, not stupid. And he's not Helen Keller."

 
   
"Of course not. Helen Keller's a woman. And dead."

 
   
"I was going more on the blind, deaf, and super intelligent thing."

 
   
"And dead. Don't forget that," added Lily. "Is he good looking?"

 
   
There was a long pause. "Kind of. He has nice eyes. We didn't have a moment; but Barney licked my hand, so I definitely think
we're
friends."

 
   
"Good enough for me," said Lily, "but I admit I'm easily pleased."

 
   
"I know. You're with my brother." Lily giggled and blew a raspberry. "I'll be home in a little while. Want to hang out?"

 
   
"You know better than to ask that. I'm not going anywhere."

 
   
"Do you want me to get you anything? Do you need more pain medicine?"

 
   
"No. Just come over and talk and tell me gossip. You can free my mind from its misery for a few hours."

 
   
The pang of her pain hit me squarely in the heart. For a moment, being so pleased with myself, I forgot everything in Lily’s world wasn't perfect. I felt mean and horrible and selfish. I could do much, much better, and I would. "Done. I'll be there soon. I'm finished with Aidan and the
Schuberts
for now. I have news from the fraud case too."

 
   
"You solved it? Great! Are you still buying the house?"

 
   
"For sure."

 
   
"I have an IKEA catalog. You want to go through it?"

 
   
"Yup." I would have gone through any catalog she liked, just to keep her company and take her mind off her sadness for a few moments.

 
   
"See you soon."

 
   
"Love you, Lily."

 
   
"Love you, too, babe."

 
   
Chapter Twenty

 
   
The worst thing about the job... No, wait, one of the top ten worst things about this job, when it wasn't awesome, was the waiting. Waiting for cases to come in, waiting for targets to move, waiting, waiting, waiting... This time, I was waiting for Maddox to call with an update on the investigation into Ken Moody, our wanna-be aristocrat. Since my call, there was not a word. In this case, that didn't bode well. Why didn't Moody crack the moment he knew the game was up?

 
   
"I gotta get out of here," I told Solomon as I stood up and stretched. The boardroom felt stifling. The hammering on the floor above was starting up again, and we were yelling, though Solomon remained as tight-lipped as ever about who and what he was installing up there. I didn’t miss the epiphany that if I were such a great investigator, I could just find out for myself, but I did my best to ignore that. I just solved one itty, bitty case of false assumptions, and was instrumental in a breakthrough on another. The moment Moody confessed, I planned to take off for a few days and spend some more time with Lily.
Jord
, my mom, and I were keeping Lily company in shifts for a few days. I wanted to help her pack up her home as well as mine, mostly as a ruse to keep her company. It seemed strange to think that our lives had suddenly changed so dramatically. We would go from living in each other's pockets to separate homes in different neighborhoods. Our lives had changed so much in a year. Lily had
Jord
, and I had a new neighbor with a dog in need of therapy.