Page 53 of One Night Years Ago

Hunter shook his head. He kept his arms down, not bothering to protect himself. “I’ll tell you what I do know. I know you’re Natalie’s friends. I know you’re looking out for her. I can’t argue against any of that.”

For a moment nobody said anything. Hunter held the giant’s stare. Finally, the giant laughed.

“Damn, but I like you.” He offered Hunter his hand. Hunter took it, surprised. It’d been a while since anybody had offered to shake his hand. “My name’s Adrian. I own the only decent bar in Sharp’s Cove. I also run the volunteer fire brigade.”

That’s why I don’t remember him.

“I’m Tommy,” the smallest man said, coming up behind Adrian. “I’m Helen’s cousin. I’ve known Natalie since she was a little girl.”

The other two men introduced themselves as Ray and Joe.

“We’re all Natalie’s friends,” Adrian said. “She claims you didn’t do anything, that you shouldn’t even have been in prison. I just want to make sure we’re clear on what’s going to happen if we find out you did hurt her or any of those other girls.”

“It wasn’t me. You need to be looking elsewhere.” Hunter was tired of explaining himself, but these men seemed to be Natalie’s friends.

“If you hurt her, we will hurt you,” Tommy said, his voice a low growl.

“I think I got the message, thanks.” The jury was still out whether they were planning on beating him up, so Hunter took his time, looking around the shed, giving them time to make up their minds.

The last owners of the house must have been really organized. Tools and gardening materials lined an entire wall. Each one had its shape drawn in bright yellow paint so it was easy to figure out where each one went. The far corner was dedicated to stacks of wood for the winter. And then, peeking from behind one of the wood stacks, Hunter saw something he never would have had the chance to see had he been standing up. It was a wrench. He looked again at the tools. There were three wrenches, each in their appointed space. No wrenches missing.

“What the hell are you looking at? Are you even listening to us?” Adrian said.

“There’s something there.”

“What—”

Hunter strode to the corner and kneeled down, trying to get a closer look at the wrench. The men followed.

“Jesus. Is that—"

“Don’t touch it,” Tommy said. “We need gloves.”

“We need Natalie,” Hunter said.

Hunter heard somebody run out of the shed and start calling for Natalie, but he didn’t even look up to see which of the men it was.

Adrian kneeled down beside him. His jaw was clenched tight. “Is that blood—"

And then Natalie was there.

“Are you okay, Hunter?” she asked suspiciously. “What were you doing here?”

“We were just looking around,” Hunter said. “But there’s something there.”

Natalie went down on her hands and knees beside him. Hunter tried not to think of how amazing her butt looked as she did so.

“It’s a wrench. It might just be a misplaced tool, though.”

“Maybe. But check out the other tools. These people look like big proponents of a place for everything and everything in its place.”

“That looks like blood, Natalie,” Adrian interrupted.

Natalie brought out a pair of gloves from her tiny handbag and put them on in one easy move.

“What?” she said, arching her eyebrows. “I never leave home without them. You never know when they’re going to come in handy. Before I move it, can one of you take a picture?” she asked.

Tommy nodded and brought out his smart phone, taking pictures from two or three angles.