The Scariest Tail (A Wonder Cats Mystery Book 4) by Harper Lin Read Free Book Online Page B

and saw Blake staring right back at me. I never saw him smile, but I swear he had a devious glint in his eye that made it clear he was enjoying my embarrassment.
    Without asking, he opened the door and climbed in. I really hoped my car didn’t smell.
    For a second, I didn’t say anything as my mind raced for a plausible explanation for why I was in Prestwick a few houses down and around the corner from the Roys’ house. I got lost? I was in the neighborhood?
    “Funny seeing you here,” Blake said.
    “Yeah, well, I felt bad.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I did feel bad for Lisa Roy. How did a person make that phone call to her parents or to his parents and tell them what had happened? How did she put into words that the person she loved with all her heart was in such a dark, lonely place that he took his own life? And worse than that, how did she admit she hadn’t seen it coming?
    There wasn’t a person alive who wouldn’t somehow find a way to blame herself for this kind of tragedy.
    Lisa Roy would be permanently crippled from then on, and no doctor, not even Bea, would be able to fix it. That kind of injury never healed.
    I felt tears sting my eyes, and as I looked at Blake, my cheeks turned red. I rolled my eyes as if to say I knew my excuse sounded corny, but for a second, I saw compassion in his eyes.
    Clearing my throat, I looked back at the Roy house. “So, what are you doing here? Follow-up questions?” I asked, mentally pulling myself together.
    Blake looked at the house through the windshield for a moment. “Sort of. I had a gut feeling that I should stop by and just observe.” He looked back at me. “I didn’t think I’d have a partner to pass the time.”
    Okay, yes, I felt a little jitter in my stomach when he said that, and it was impossible to stop the corners of my lips from curling up at the edges.
    To keep it light, I told Blake that Jake was a bit under the weather, careful not to tell him that his partner had fallen into the house after nearly having his head torn apart from the inside out.
    He looked worried. “Maybe I should check up on him. I’ll follow you to your aunt’s house.”
    “Oh, no.” I said, waving my hands in front of me. “It was probably something he ate. My taco salad or something.” I chuckled nervously. “Bea will take good care of him.”
    “Yeah, well, all the same, I think—”
    Before Blake could finish his sentence, a strange truck pulled into the Roy driveway. It was an old, rusty blue pickup that belonged in the neighborhood about as much as my Dodge Neon. And when the man hopped out of the cab, he didn’t act as if he were a concerned member of the family. He began marching toward the front door as if he were heading off to war.
    But before he could make it to the middle of the driveway, the front door opened. An older man in his late fifties, wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, stood there holding a shotgun. He didn’t aim it or even cock it, but he just stood there.
    “Oh my gosh,” I whispered.
    Blake and I sat there frozen just like the man in the driveway had frozen.
    “I just want to talk to Lisa!” the man shouted. His blond hair was messy, and he was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.
    “She’s got nothing to say to you!” the older man shouted back. “Now you just get in your car and get out of here!”
    The blond man hesitated for a moment. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Blake was slowly reaching for the door handle with one hand and his sidearm with the other.
    Thankfully, the man in the driveway thought better of whatever it was he’d been planning. He took two steps backward then turned and got back into his truck. With a loud rev of his engine and squealing of his tires, the man peeled out of the Roys’ driveway and headed in our direction.
    Both Blake and I immediately ducked down in our seats, our faces nearly colliding as we hovered over the gearshift between the seats.
    I held my breath, sure I smelled like stale