The Border Part Three by Amy Cross Read Free Book Online Page B

dared ask about yet, she finally reached Mr. Crutchlow’s table.
    “Here you are, Sir,” she said with a smile as the music pounded so hard it shook her bones. She set the drink down for him. “I hope you’re having a good evening.”
    She turned to him. He was sitting right in front of a bright red searchlight, so her field of vision was filled with the brightest red haze of all, but somewhere in the mix she could just make out Mr. Crutchlow’s mouth as he smiled back at her.
    ***
    “The kids are asleep,” Jack said as he made his way back into the front room. “Oliver seems a little funny tonight, but I guess it’s nothing. You know what boys are like.”
    Smiling, Jane continued to tap at her phone for a moment, saving a couple more documents that she’d downloaded from her email.
    “You still working?” Jack asked, flopping down on the sofa next to her and letting out a sigh. “Please, tell me you’re not still working.” He checked his watch. “It’s almost eleven. Jesus Christ, when did I get so old that almost eleven feels like a late night? I remember when eleven was the start of a good time, not the moment when I sit on the sofa and worry about developing a gut.”
    “Join the club,” she muttered.
    He stared at her for a moment. “You okay?”
    “Never been better.”
    “I mean in general. Not too stressed?”
    “I’m working a murder investigation,” she replied. “It’d be weird if I wasn’t stressed.”
    “Sure.” He looked around the room for a moment. “Why’s it so quiet in here?” he continued, as he realized that all the gadgets were all off. The TV, the radio, the laptops… Everything was dark and untouched. “Not even watching the news tonight?”
    “I’m all newsed out,” she replied, setting her phone down on the coffee table. She made sure to position it in a very specific spot, with one side exactly parallel to a magazine. “Sometimes I just like peace and quiet, you know? It helps me to get things straight in my head.”
    “Cute,” Caitlin whispered. “Let the test begin.”
    Turning, Jane saw the dead girl sitting in the armchair by the TV. That side of the room was darker than the rest, but Caitlin’s scarred, dry face was just about visible in the gloom.
    “So are we friends again?” Jack asked after a moment.
    She turned to him. “Did I miss something?”
    “You just seemed a little off at lunch. I could tell there was a little grit in your voice.”
    “I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” she told him. “The whole Mel Armitage thing is taking up all my time, we’re still… Well, you know I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on, but let’s just say that we’re not making progress quite as quickly as we’d have liked. Don’t put that in the paper, by the way.”
    “Of course not.”
    “Plus, Alex is getting weirder by the day.”
    “Is that even possible?”
    “Believe it or not, yes, it is possible. Sometimes I think he…” She paused, trying to find the right words, before glancing at her phone again. She needed to be certain about where she’d left it, so she could tell if it got moved when she left the room. “Sometimes I think Alex is a little more than just pleasantly eccentric. I mean, he’s always had that edge, that ability to go out on a mental limb, but sometimes I think he’s…”
    “Batshit crazy?”
    Smiling, she nodded.
    “Well, I told you that years ago,” he continued, putting an arm around her. “The man’s an over-thinker. He follows his thoughts down too many rabbit-holes and he doesn’t know when to stop.” He paused. “You go down too many rabbit-holes, sometimes you accidentally come back up through a different one. That’s how you end up losing your mind.”
    “I need a glass of water,” she replied, getting to her feet. “You want one?”
    He shook his head.
    “Back in a moment.” She glanced at her phone again, and then at Caitlin in the armchair, and then she made her way to the kitchen,