“I won’t call. I’ll just text. That’s what kids do these days.”
“However you want to do it.”
“You’re not into this case, are you?” she asked.
“There is no case,” he replied.
“There might be a case,” she corrected. “Depending on what we find out.”
“You’re just not letting this go, are you?”
“I really don’t know why this has gotten ahold of me. But it has. And I have to do it. Okay?”
“Fine. In for a dime, in for a dollar.”
“Now you sound really old.”
“Our new ‘client’ is barely past puberty. Of course I feel old.”
She nudged his shoulder with her hand. “Thanks for indulging me.”
“What I live for,” he replied. “But you have to promise me, if there is nothing to this case, and I can tell you right now that there isn’t, you will drop it and we go on vacation. I want your word.”
“You have my word. If there is nothing to the case, we go to New Zealand and I’ll wear a bikini. But you have to wear a Speedo.”
He said, “That would not do wonders for New Zealand’s tourism business.”
But what he was really thinking was, I’m just thrilled that I’m not grieving about losing you.
CHAPTER
8
TYLER MET THEM AT THE PANERA CAFÉ across from the high school. He was dressed in the school’s uniform of khaki pants, a black polo shirt with the school’s official insignia on it, and black shoes.
“You drink coffee?” Michelle asked him as they walked together into the Panera.
“I’ll just get some water,” said Tyler.
“You don’t get enough in the pool?” asked Sean in a joking manner.
Tyler didn’t seem to hear him. He just trudged on.
Sean and Michelle purchased coffees while Tyler bought his own bottle of water, declining their offer to purchase it for him. They sat at a table near the back. The only other people in the café were students with laptops and two moms with young kids in strollers. One pretty brunette about Tyler’s age waved at him. He self-consciously waved back before turning to Sean and Michelle.
“I want to hire you guys.”
Sean sat back and folded his arms over his chest. “So Michelle told me. Why?”
“I already told her,” replied Tyler. “To find out about my dad.”
“And you’re saying the Army didn’t tell you how he died?”
“No, they said he was shot.”
“Okay. It happened in Afghanistan, right?”
“That’s what they said.”