There was some hassling and a few phone calls after that but Evie lost interest. She’d known the trucks were bad news. She now had flimsy evidence of some sort of shenanigans. But she had to rely on Jax to interpret it—and pretty and useful as he might be, he wasn’t necessarily on her side. From the mayor’s reaction, he thought Jax was onhisside.
She would have to call Great-Aunt Val and wake the sleeping dragon.
* * *
“You can’t sellour house if my parents are not dead,” Loretta insisted from the backseat of the sedan Jax had to rent on Saturday. His Jag didn’t have a backseat. “They would be horrified to come home to no house.”
Jax ground his molars and waited for the pixie in the passenger seat to reply. Today, Evie had dressed for a visit to the city in purple capris and matching halter top, with a gauzy, multi-colored, transparent shirt as a cover-up. She wore what appeared to be a purple crystal hanging from a silver chain. He didn’t ask if it was a magical amulet. He didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Jax hasn’t sold the house.” Evie spoke firmly—unusual for her. “But your parents wouldn’t want it to fall apart in their absence, either. If he’s to be a cautious guardian of their affairs, he has to weigh the cost of maintaining an empty house against the need to sell it before it falls apart. Houses need to be lived in.”
Loretta pouted long enough to hit the interstate into the city. “Then if you’re my guardian, we should move into it.”
Jax snickered and waited for Evie’s patience to fray.
“Do you not like the school in Afterthought? Or being able to walk home for lunch?” She glanced out the window. “Oh, look at those lovely homes! Does yours look like that?”
“No. Mine is boring.” Loretta kicked the back of the seat. “I have a pink bedroom. Can I bring stuff from my house to yours?”
“You may bring as much pink as you wish. We should probably pack up your clothes, too. If Jax doesn’t provide an allowance soon, you’ll be in rags, like me.” Evie sounded much too perky after diverting the kid’s complaint.
“I don’t want pink. I have scrapbooks and a complete set of Harry Potter. I left my clothes at school. Can I get those? I don’t want to go back there.” Kick, kick, kick.
Jax had a good idea why the Posts sent Loretta to school. “If your parents return, they’ll expect to find you at your school.”
“No, they won’t.Yousent me there. My dad sent me to a neat school where I didn’t have to ride horses.”
“You got kicked out of the neat school for telling the teacher she had a raisin for a brain and that you wouldn’t share a room with a pious prick. I trust you looked up those words before you used them.” Jax steered into the suburban McMansion neighborhood where Loretta had once lived.
It was Evie’s turn to chortle. Jax thought it a lot more pleasant to laugh at the kid’s foibles than yell. His adoptive father had yelled, teaching Jax to hold his tongue as a child. A silent kid might be easier on a parent’s ear, but kids should have rights too. How else would they learn to take their place in society and become responsible citizens? Not by being silent.
He’d never given kids much thought until this past week. He made a lousy guardian.
“The pious prick told me my parentsdied, and she was praying for me! They’re not dead.” Loretta expressed her indignation with another kick. “And yes, I did too look up the words. After.”
“Getting angry because you don’t agree with someone isn’t practical,” said the practical genius in a purple halter top. “This is a pretty neighborhood. The azaleas are gorgeous.”
“Everyone has landscapers.” Loretta sighed with a ten-year-old’s gloom. “I bet my parents have been home and no one told me.”
Jax parked the sedan in the driveway of a two-story, many-gabled house of brick and stone. “I changed the locks. Your parents would have to come to me to get in. And I handle all their credit cards and bank accounts. They’ve not made any charges. What are they living on?”
“Ooo, good point, lawyer-man,” Evie murmured before flinging open the door.
Loretta wasn’t a dumb kid. She didn’t answer but scuffled up the drive, studying the landscape as if she might find her parents hiding in the azaleas.
“This feels cruel,” Jax muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and following behind Evie.
“Life is cruel. She just needs time. I’m getting the impression she didn’t really know her parents well, and that might be part of the problem. She misses what she thought she should have had. And now there’s no chance that she ever will. That’s a tough one for a kid.” Evie sniffed the air. “Car exhaust here recently, unless your rental is in bad shape. Oil on the driveway. Landscapers?”
Instead of looking at the oil spot, Jax looked at Evie. The halter made it hard not to notice her ample cleavage. He had to remember her fireplug mother and divert his attention. “Are we playing Sherlock Holmes?”
“This is how I make a living—by noticing what’s around me. Ghosts don’t generally pop out and sayHi, how ya doin’. One has to interpret what one sees.” Instead of heading for the front door, she sauntered down the drive, purple-clad hips swaying. “Loretta, don’t go inside just yet. Let me take a look around.”
She made alivingat ghost hunting? He didn’t think so. At least she’d managed to distract him from the sexual vibrations generated by living with a firecracker. Apparently he’d developed a perverse taste for colorful explosions. Yesterday’s operatic screaming had been entertaining—until he’d seen the Posts’ signatures on the survey orders and his hackles rose. The papers had been signed right before they’d reportedly disappeared.
Leaving the females to play outside, Jax unlocked the front door. He didn’t believe a ghost had told Evie to search the desk so much as instinct had said it was a good place to look. Given yesterday’s episode, he wouldn’t mind having another go at it again. Hearing Loretta and Evie at the back door, he crossed through the living room and kitchen to let them in.
The door opened before he could reach it.