Page 52 of Fire Harbor
So much for breaking free of her self-imposed limitations, Lake thought. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she finally spoke up, her voice filled with genuine remorse. “I know I messed up. I should have listened to you. I promise I’ll make it right somehow. I’ll apologize to Derrick in person.”
Linus stared at her for a long moment before heaving a sigh. “You could’ve lost your job over this.”
“I realize that. Do you think he’ll press charges?”
“No. Why do you think I’m the one who showed up?”
“What if I offer to pay for a real marker, like the ones at the cemetery?”
“From what Derrick told me, he wants to make Bella one himself.”
“Oh. Okay. I should go apologize and get it over with. I don’t have my car. Will you drive me to his job site?”
Derrick’s job site was the old post office on the east side of town, a once-proud cornerstone of any community that had gone the way of most relics, sitting between an outdated video rental store and a long-forgotten record shop. The entire block needed renovation. The plan was to one day revitalize this section of town, one building at a time, and bring it back to its glory days, attracting more businesses to the area.
Construction crews had torn down the walls and gutted the insides, reshaping the good bones into something that could be repurposed as a commercial enterprise to be named later.
Sitting on the tailgate of his pickup eating his sandwich, taking an early lunch break, Derrick listened to her side of the story. After describing why she had focused on him, she found the guy to be a forgiving soul who found the incident funny.
“I’m sorry about Bella. The meeting on Sunday urged everyone to get involved. I let my imagination run wild,” Lake went on to explain. “It wasn’t until I saw Linus standing in your backyard with a look of absolute embarrassment and, let’s be honest, anger on his face that I realized how out of hand things had gotten. I’m truly sorry, Derrick. Bella is…I covered her up…again.”
Derrick took the information in stride and chuckled, shook his head. “It’s definitely a first for me, having someone think I’m a serial killer, believing it enough to dig up my yard looking for a body. But hey, at least it livened up an otherwise dull Wednesday morning around here.”
Lake felt a rush of relief at Derrick’s good-natured response. She knew she had been lucky this time and vowed never to let her impulsive nature get the best of her again. “Thank you for understanding.”
“No problem. But you know who you should be looking at instead of me? For the serial killer?”
Lake looked over at Linus, who suddenly got curious. He shifted his feet. “Who should we be looking at?”
“Ivan Bassett. He goes out late at night. Every night.”
Linus frowned. “Doesn’t Ivan work the night shift at a San Sebastian manufacturing plant?”
“Ah. I didn’t know Ivan got a full-time job. Huh?” Derrick murmured, scratching his chin. “That might explain him leaving the house every night at eight.”
Linus glanced at Lake. “See how things are so easily taken out of context.”
They said their goodbyes and returned to the truck, but Linus noticed something still bothering Lake. “What’s wrong?”
“You go on back to work. I think I’ll walk.”
“You’re not thinking about questioning Ivan, are you?”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “See? That right there is getting old, and it’s only been a couple of hours. I’ll take care of Farley today, but after that, he should probably return to doggie daycare.”
“What? You’re breaking up with me? Why? Because you dug up a guy’s backyard and I got mad about it?”
“Looking for a serial killer,” Lake corrected. “Which you said you wanted to do the first conversation we had over dinner. I apparently took you at your word. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“I didn’t suggest you dig up anyone’s backyard,” Linus fired back. “You did that on your own.”
“Guilty as charged. But may I point out that you went back to the beach and waded through sand and muck, only to find a necklace? It’s okay that you stuck your nose into the case because you found something, and I didn’t. Fine. Let’s leave it at that.”
She left Linus standing by his pickup and headed toward Pacific Street, getting angrier with every step. She needed to calm down. She could take the ribbing well enough, even see the humor in digging up a pet rabbit, but Linus couldn’t seem to let it go.
After taking several calming breaths, she switched focus and let her positive nature take over. The good news was that Derrick didn’t plan to press charges. She couldn’t help but feel grateful that she wouldn’t lose her job. She could only hope this embarrassing incident would serve as a reminder—nothing good ever came from getting carried away when overreacting to wild theories.
As she walked, Scott materialized next to her and moved in step with her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this mad before.”