Part 33 (2/2)
”You said, 'I was so scared to jump, but I was even more scared to tell you I was scared. But if we can't tell each other our greatest fears, then what would our friends.h.i.+p be?' That was profound wisdom coming from a thirteen-year-old. Do you remember?”
”Yes.” He looked back to the sky.
”I don't see that Taylor so much anymore. Do you?”
Silence.
Tricia took his hands in hers. ”What happened when Annie died? And why is this book business turning you inside out?”
Taylor leaned back against the fence and sighed again. ”Maybe I'll never open up. Maybe this is who I am now. Maybe it's all I'll ever be. Am I so bad?”
”You are wonderful in so many ways. But there is still so much more inside you.”
”Maybe there isn't, Tricia. Maybe that part died along with Annie and is impossible to resurrect.”
”I don't believe that.”
”Maybe you should.”
Tricia trudged up to the house and tossed her work gloves on the deck. She glanced back. Taylor walked to the shovel and picked it up again. For a few moments she watched him work up a sweat, trying to pay penance for the rooms of his heart he'd shut her out of.
”Break him open, Lord. There's gold inside, but no one can get to it but You.”
Cameron glanced at his watch. An hour and a half had come and gone. At an hour-forty-five the bells on the coffee shop door chimed and Ann walked in.
”You're late,” he said when she reached their table.
”Are you going to dock my pay?”
”Sorry, I'm a little hyped up here. You won't believe what I'm going to tell you.”
”You could use a ma.s.sage too.” Ann slid into the seat next to him and squeezed the back of his neck. ”You're tight.”
He didn't need that. Cameron s.h.i.+fted in his chair and pulled away from her touch.
”Sorry.”
”While you were gone, I did a little research on Vela and Pyxis.”
”And?”
Cameron leaned further over the table and tapped his pencil against the constellation map like a woodp.e.c.k.e.r. ”Guess what the translation of Vela is?” He slid a piece of paper in front of her.
”The Sail,” she read off the paper.
”And here's the translation of Pyxis.” He slid another small piece of paper in front of Ann.
”The Compa.s.s.”
”Now take a look at this business card from a well-known Three Peaks restaurant.”
Ann eyes went wide. ”The Sail & Compa.s.s Bar & Grill. Oh, wow.”
”Great burgers. But we're in the middle of the high desert. Why would someone name their restaurant Sail & Compa.s.s when it's 160 miles from the ocean? Bronco Billy's, sure. Pine & Post Bar and Grill, absolutely. But Sail & Compa.s.s? It doesn't fit. Unless they were sending out a New York-sized neon sign.”
”We need to find out who started the restaurant.”
Cameron nodded. ”My thinking precisely.”
”You already know.”
”Yes, I do.” Cameron bent the Sail & Compa.s.s business card in the middle and spun it on the table like a top.
”Tell me.”
”Take a wild guess.”
”Taylor Stone.”
”He sold the restaurant three years ago, but Taylor still owns-”
”The building.”
”Correct. Owned one-hundred percent by him and him alone. No partners. It's the perfect place for him to store all his large secrets.” Cameron gathered up his papers.
”Are you saying the Book of Days is inside that building?”
”I'm saying we should head for the courthouse and look at the blueprints of the structure. It wouldn't surprise me to find a bas.e.m.e.nt.”
”Are you hoping to find blueprints that say 'Book of Days' room?”
Cameron grinned. ”That would be nice.”
Ann and Cameron stepped into the county courthouse at two o'clock. A large sign on the door told them the building would close at three. Plenty of time to find what they needed.
As they approached a tall counter with a black and white Information sign, the floorboards creaked, as if they were about to snap, but the bespectacled middle-aged man behind didn't look up.
After clearing his throat three times, each time raising in volume but eliciting no reaction from the clerk, Cameron looked around for another way to get the man's attention. A bell sat at the far end of the counter and Cameron stepped over to it.
A tiny sign matted down with yellowed Scotch tape said, ”Ring bell for service.” He looked at Ann, shrugged, and gave the bell a sharp rap.
The clerk instantly looked up from his Dean Koontz novel and smiled. ”h.e.l.lo! Nice to have you here today. How can I a.s.sist you?”
”We're selling hearing aids, are you interested?” Cameron said under his breath.
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