The Bone Orchard: A Novel

“Mike!” said Ora. She had the same high cheekbones as her daughter and the same jade-green eyes. She’d pulled her hair back from her beautiful face and secured it in a small ponytail. “It’s so nice to see you.”

“And in uniform,” said Stacey with enough of a barb to sting. “You look like a new man.”

I rubbed my hand over my buzz cut. “I was getting tired of combing my hair.”

“Charley told us you’d rejoined the Warden Service,” said Ora. “What good news.”

“I wasn’t sure they’d take me back.”

“After what you did for Kathy Frost? I don’t see how they could have said no. How is she doing? Have you seen her?”

“She’s recovering, but it’s going to take a while. She’s already thinking about coming back to work, but she’s worried they’ll put her behind a desk until she retires.”

“She shouldn’t hurry things,” said Ora in her most motherly tone.

“Have they given you your old district back?” Charley asked.

“They offered it to me,” I said. “But I said it belongs to Dani Tate now. For the time being, they’re moving me around to cover vacant districts. I’m not sure where I’ll end up.”

Stacey untied her apron from her neck, as if she’d suddenly gotten self-conscious about it. She was wearing a waffled long underwear shirt, which clung to her chest and shoulders, and her usual blue jeans. “So what brings you back Down East?”

“I thought I might take you to dinner.”

“What?”

“I have a reservation for us at Weatherby’s.”

“This is a joke, right?”

“We can drive around awhile, and I can show off the fancy new truck they gave me.”

Charley put his hand on his wife’s shoulder.

Stacey touched a loose strand of brown hair that had fallen onto her forehead. “You’re asking me out on a date? In front of my parents?”

I’d had misgivings about the timing because I didn’t want to put her on the spot. But I already knew I was rolling the dice. It would be a gamble however I played it.

“They’re welcome to join us. But I made the reservation for two.”

“That’s nice of you, but we have other plans,” said Ora.

Stacey glared down at her mother. “You do not!”

“So what’ll it be?” I said.

“This is too weird.” She gave that snorting sound she made when she was in disbelief. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I’ve got to take a shower.”

Without another word, she stepped around the wheelchair and me and pushed open the screen door. The three of us watched her cross the pine-needled yard to her cabin.

I turned to Charley with my eyebrows raised. “Was that a yes or a no?”

“It was a yes,” said Ora. Her husband’s big hand was still on her shoulders. She looked up at Charley with a smile. “A man in uniform is always hard to resist.”

“I always said you’d regret leaving the service,” Charley said.

“You were right, as usual.”

“What made you decide to come back?”

The question had been turning in my mind for weeks. Colonel Malcomb had asked me the same thing in his new office when I’d taken the oath again. I’d fumbled for an answer then, but now the words came to me clearly, as if someone else was whispering them into my ears.

“I realized it was the best job in the world.”