Southbound Page 12

  “That you committed an aggravated assault on a man and stole several items from him,” the officer said.

  “I would like to point out that if I had attacked someone, there should be some kind of marks on me--shouldn’t there?” I raised an eyebrow and showed off my arms, bare to the shoulder from the sleeveless top I was wearing, and then my legs, just as bare from the shorts I was in. “I mean, even if I was particularly good at fighting or something, I’d have at least some wounds from a guy defending himself, wouldn’t I?”

  “I’m also assuming that the person in question must have had some form of injuries, since you took his report seriously,” Gage pointed out.

  “He did,” the officer said. “Cuts and bruises, a black eye.”

  “Do you honestly believe that I could injure someone that obviously without having any kind of marks on me?” I gestured to my body up and down once again. “At least my hands.”

  “It’s possible that there was more than one person involved,” the officer temporized. “One to beat the guy up and the other to steal from him.”

  I couldn’t help myself anymore; I did roll my eyes.

  “What am I supposed to have stolen?” I crossed my arms over my chest, hating the officer and hating Brad even more. There was no doubt in my mind that Brad had been the one to make the charges up--after all, they’d known my name.

  “A wallet, a phone, and five hundred dollars from a bank account,” the man said. For a moment I just stared at him.

  “Okay,” I said, once I had myself contained enough to behave like a civilized person. “There is absolutely no reason for me to have stolen anything from anyone. I just recently inherited my grandmother’s estate, which after the house sells, will be worth about $300,000. Why in the world would I steal five hundred bucks from someone when I have that much more in my own name?”

  “He seemed to think it was out of spite,” the officer said. “He’d said the two of you had planned to come here, and that you’d left for Key West early, hooked up with Mr. Hawkins, and when he tried to catch up with you, you decided that you didn’t want to be with him.”

  The officer had the good grace to look embarrassed and I made myself take a deep breath.

  “Aspen dumped the man you’re talking about months ago,” Gage said. “He was a cheat and she dumped him for being a cheat, and he can’t deal with that.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t really act on that, since it’s hearsay,” the officer said.

  I closed my eyes and made myself take a slow, deep breath.

  “What is it going to take for you to believe us?” I said, opening my eyes. “I’m here for the sake of my recently deceased grandmother, at her request. I really just want to go about my day and not be bothered.”

  “If we can confirm where you were yesterday at eight o’clock, among a few other details, then I think we can put this behind us,” the officer told me. I took another deep breath and reminded myself to be patient.

  “I was with Mr. Hawkins, in his home,” I replied.

  The officer frowned. “That’s not a very good alibi.”

  “People who aren’t guilty don’t plan alibis,” I pointed out.

  “That is a good point, Roger,” an officer at another desk chimed in.

  “Seriously, just look at her,” Gage said, sounding more impatient than I even felt. “She has no indications on any part of her body that she was involved in an attack on someone. Do you need to come to my house and look for the supposed stolen goods?”

  “That might help things, actually, but I just want to go over your story first,” the officer said, and I had to admit I enjoyed how uncomfortable he looked. It only seemed fair, considering how he was acting.

  “So, what do you need to know about my ‘story’?” I asked.

  “What were you and Mr. Hawkins doing?”

  I barely suppressed a snicker. “We were having sex,” I told him. “That was just before we had dinner at his home last night.”

  “So, the rumors are true!” the other officer exclaimed. “Good on you, Gage.”

  “Thanks, Jackson,” Gage said wryly. He said quietly to me, “It’ll be all over the island before lunch.”

  “Yeah, I would expect no less,” I agreed.

  “So, the two of you were engaged in intercourse when the attack allegedly happened?” The officer seemed to decide that he wanted to get through the rest of the questions as quickly--and with as little detail--as possible, which made me feel a tiny amount better towards him.

  “Why don’t we just swing by Gage’s place, make sure that the alleged stolen goods aren’t there, and call it a day?” the other officer, Jackson, said. He was quickly gaining a spot in my heart as the better police officer with that comment.

  “Now that we have an official statement, I see no reason not to,” the first officer, Roger, said.

  I got up and reminded myself that as long as I cooperated, this whole mess could be cleared before lunch. And then I could get back to the biggest problem I suddenly had on my plate: the fact that where Grandma wanted me to scatter her ashes was private property, owned by a guy who’d been nothing but helpful to me, who I had gotten physical with the day before. How in the world was I going to fulfill her request? I couldn’t bring myself to sprinkle her ashes where, somewhere down the line, dogs might end up peeing and pooping on them. It just wasn’t right.

  Get yourself out of this mess first, and then think about the ashes, I reminded myself firmly as Gage and I walked out of the police station, with officers Roger and Jackson flanking us. It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gage

  “So as you can see, there’s no stolen property here,” I said as the officers finished up their search of my home. Jackson had--fortunately--made sure it wasn’t much more than a quick look through the rooms, since he knew as well as I did that it was a stupid situation all around.

  “Yeah I think we can just about wrap this up,” Jackson said.

  Aspen still looked like she might enjoy spit-roasting Roger over some coals. “Please tell me you intend to file charges against him for filing a false report.”

  “To be honest, Ms. Blake, those kinds of charges don’t usually--”

  “I don’t care if they don’t usually amount to much,” Aspen said firmly, interrupting the man, and I had to resist the urge to snicker. “You had better bring those charges against him.”

  “Ma’am, I will make sure to file the paperwork as soon as we get back to the station,” Jackson said. “I may have to ask you to come in to give a statement later on--would you be willing to do that?”

  Aspen nodded. “More than willing.”

  “If nothing else, that will likely convince him to leave her the hell alone, finally,” I pointed out. “If I were you guys I’d be a bit more concerned that her shitty ex decided to pull something like this. If he’s willing to injure himself to try and get even with her, there’s not really any telling where he thinks the line will be.”

  “We’ll take that under advisement, sir,” Roger said, and I couldn’t help but notice that he was looking particularly chagrined. I didn’t think he was going to have an easy time at the station for the next few weeks, given how word was likely to spread. At least he hadn’t really embarrassed himself by getting too tough with Aspen.

  The two officers left and Aspen sat down on my living room couch, shaking her head and scowling. I could almost hear her rattling off a litany of cuss words in her mind, she was so obviously upset.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to track down your ex and let Roscoe pee on him?” I asked.

  Aspen’s expression shifted and she just stared at me in shock for a moment before laughing.

  “Okay, that worked,” she said, relaxing a bit.

  I grinned and sat down near her. “Do you feel up to more sightseeing, or should we just chill for the rest of the day?”

  Her frown came back, but it was more thoughtful than angry. “I
kind of want to do some sightseeing on my own, I think,” she said.

  “Really? But haven’t you been having trouble with finding stuff, since things have changed so much?” I mirrored her frown. “And aren’t you worried about Brad?”

  She looked down at her hands. “I figured out where the place is.”

  “That’s great!” I reached for her hands and took one of them in mine, giving it a squeeze. “So I guess maybe you’ll want to go and scatter the ashes on your own?”

  Aspen shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure I can do it at all, now.”

  “Why the hell not?” She wouldn’t look at me. “Aspen, what’s wrong?”

  “It’s on the property you just bought,” Aspen said. “And you--you want to turn it into a dog park or something like that, and I just don’t think…” She took a deep breath and exhaled on a sigh. “I don’t think I can scatter her ashes, knowing that a dog could end up eventually peeing on them or something.”

  She took her hand back from me and finally met my gaze.

  “Can we talk about this?” I reached for her hand again, but she pulled away from me, rising to her feet.

  “I don’t think we can,” she said, taking another deep breath. “It’s been a big day--I just need to go for a walk and think about stuff.”

  “At least take Roscoe with you,” I suggested. “That way if Brad tries to come after you, you at least have something.”

  “I have my willingness to rip his throat out if he tries anything,” Aspen said tartly.

  “Willingness isn’t the same thing as ability,” I pointed out. “Please. I know you want to be alone, but Roscoe isn’t a person, and I don’t like the idea of you being on your own with your crazy ex out there.”

  “Fine,” Aspen said. She called Roscoe, who was more than willing to go for a walk, and left me alone in the house, hurrying out the door with her purse barely slung over her shoulder and my dog at her side. I sat there for a while in the silence, stunned at how things had gone today--and it was just barely lunch time. When I’d gotten out of bed this morning, I’d been happy in a way I hadn’t felt in years, and now the woman I’d started to fall for had left my house upset: at me, at her ex, at probably everything in the world.

  What the hell can I do about this? I’d bought the property down by the seaport to be able to do something with it--and I’d started to really think that creating a private dog park for Roscoe and some of the other locals’ dogs would be a great plan. But was I really that attached to the plan?

  “Am I really going to change my entire idea for what to do with that place just because of some woman I had sex with?” But Aspen wasn’t just a woman I’d had sex with. I hadn’t had sex with anyone since Leah had died, I hadn’t let anyone even get close to me--to touch my feelings--since I’d lost the woman I loved.

  I got to my feet and went upstairs, to the bedroom I used to share with Leah, the one I’d let Aspen use.

  It might have been a little creepy to go into my guest’s room without her permission, but I needed to connect with the woman whose ghost had been haunting me every time I went upstairs.

  I found Leah’s picture and sat down on the edge of the bed, and stared at it. “I loved you, and I still love you,” I told her smiling face. “But I can’t just...be alone forever. I thought I could, I thought I’d gotten it as well as I ever was going to get it, but I have to take a chance, don’t I? Isn’t that how we ended up together in the first place?”

  Of course, Leah didn’t answer me, but I stared at her image for a while longer anyway. There was a part of me that kept insisting that Aspen was just going to leave the island, anyway; what was the point in getting so invested in what she wanted to do? If she didn’t want to scatter her ashes where dogs might do their business, she could pick another spot--couldn’t she?

  But then I thought about what I’d felt like when Leah had died, and how I’d scattered her ashes: I’d sprinkled them on the ocean, at the spot where we’d made anchor for dinner the first night of our honeymoon. If someone had managed to somehow wreck that spot for me, I’d hate it. I wouldn’t have been able to convince myself to put her ashes anywhere else--and I couldn’t expect Aspen to do that, either. She was here on a mission, and even if she did end up leaving, if I cared about her at all, I owed it to her to give her the same understanding I would want for myself.

  “Well it isn’t like we’ve broken ground or anything,” I muttered. “Plans can change.”

  I set Leah’s picture aside and decided that I had some work to do.

  Chapter Twenty

  Aspen

  I didn’t know why I went back to the spot where I’d been not-quite-arrested about an hour and a half before; but when I started walking Roscoe, leaving Gage’s house with no real idea of where I wanted to go apart from “away,” I found myself just kind of heading in that direction, and then all at once I was there.

  Was I overreacting? Roscoe panted happily next to me as I looked around at the area that Gage had just bought. What did it really matter what Gage did with his property after I scattered the ashes over it? They were just ashes. It was her journals that were really important. Her ashes weren’t really her.

  But even as I tried to make myself think that, I knew it wasn’t true. If it had been just another patch of land, and I didn’t have to know the possibilities of what would happen there after I moved on, then it would be one thing. But the fact that I knew Gage was going to turn this into a small, private dog park meant that I knew there was almost nowhere I could scatter my grandmother’s ashes that wouldn’t, eventually, come into contact with dog shit.

  I looked down at Roscoe. “You know, it probably shouldn’t matter to me as much as it does, but I definitely don’t want you peeing on my grandma’s remains.”

  He looked up at me adoringly, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, tail wagging.

  I paced the property Gage had bought, trying to imagine what it had been like when my grandparents had met. I wasn’t too far away from the ocean--then again, few places on the island were really that far from the ocean--and I tried to tell myself that I could just scatter grandma’s ashes into the water and call it done, couldn’t I? I’d complete my mission here, and then I could move on to...wherever else I wanted to go.

  Except that I didn’t have any idea where I wanted to go after the Keys. I didn’t want to go back home; technically I didn’t even have a home to go back to, since the sale of Grandma’s house was finalized and I’d have the money within days. I had my degree to finish, but I wasn’t even sure any longer that I wanted to do that. Besides, going back home would just increase the risk that I would run into Brad again.

  I sat down and Roscoe joined me, settling his haunches on my right foot and looking up at me with his big puppy eyes. “I don’t know what to do,” I told him.

  “You should come back after dark and scatter your grandmother’s ashes,” a deep voice said.

  I started and looked up to see Gage standing on the edge of his new property, looking at me.

  “I told you the problem with that,” I said, bristling a bit.

  He smiled slightly. “It won’t be a problem,” he said. “Are you willing to hear me out?”

  I raised an eyebrow at that question.

  “That depends on what you have to say,” I told him cautiously.

  He smiled a little more broadly and stepped closer to me, and I saw that he had some kind of folder in his hands.

  “I’ve decided not to make this a dog park, for one,” he said. “So, no matter what else happens here, your grandmother’s remains will not be coming into contact with any animal waste.”

  I smiled a bit at that. “Okay, so what are you going to put here?”

  Gage walked closer and handed me the folder, taking Roscoe’s leash from me. For a moment or two, Roscoe couldn’t decide which one of us he wanted to pay attention to.

  “I’m going to build a memorial,” he explained. “Not specifically to your grandmoth
er--that might be a little creepy--but to the old Key West that used to belong to this spot.”

  I opened the folder and looked at the paperwork in it: there was documentation of the different old school cruise lines and other ships that used to debark at that particular stretch of the seaport, and some information on historical buildings. It really looked like in the time since I’d left his house, Gage had done a good bit of quick research on the topic.

  “And how would you make it a memorial?” I asked.

  He sat down next to me and flipped through the pages until he came to one with a list of different builders and contractors who worked in the Keys.

  “I’m going to have someone design a building like what would have been here around the time the seaport was opening up,” he explained. “And then we’re going to build it. It’ll be like a mini-museum. Privately owned, but still honoring your grandparents and the island.”

  I was stunned. He’d come to that decision so quickly, abandoning what he’d planned, all for my sake.

  “Why are you doing this for me?” I closed the folder and looked at him.

  “I want you to stay,” he said, his eyes earnest as he looked into mine. “I don’t have any call to ask you to stay beyond finishing your mission for your grandmother, and if you have somewhere you already want to go after this, then I won’t even try to talk you out of it. But I want you to stay, if you don’t have any other plans.”

  “You want me to stay, so you’re building a museum?”

  “One of my biggest regrets with Leah was that it took me ten years to marry her,” he explained. “I don’t know for certain whether you and I will last longer than a few weeks or months, but I know…” he exhaled gustily. “If someone had trashed the spot where I wanted to scatter Leah’s ashes, it would have broken me. And I know that letting this place get ruined would break you, too.”

  “You want me to stay,” I said again, trying to work my mind around the idea.

  “I do,” Gage said. “You’re the first woman I’ve let in since Leah...the first woman I’ve wanted to let in since she passed away. I can’t--I won’t--try and make you stay, but I really want you to. And if this gives you a reason, then I guess I’m not above spending the money to make that happen.”