“He was in my room. He—”
“He made a pass at you?” Chelsea asked in horror.
“No,” Scully said. “He’s searching for something but we don’t know what. We covered for you on the shed, but he’s not interested in it. His wife died and—”
“No, she didn’t,” Chelsea said with a glance at Eli. “I think you two should tell us from the beginning everything that’s happened.”
Abby started to speak but Scully put his hand on her arm. “We want to know why you two stole everything that was in the shed.”
“If you saw us there,” Eli said, “why didn’t you call the police?”
Scully looked at Abby for a moment, then back at Eli. “We didn’t want to upset Abby’s mom. She’s afraid of what’s inside that shed. But we know there’s nothing of importance in those boxes.”
“You two went through them?” Eli asked.
“Every page,” Scully said with pride.
“What does that man want from us?” Abby said, and there were tears in her eyes.
“What does he say he wants?” Eli asked.
“I think we need to go somewhere private so we can consolidate information,” Scully said, sounding like an adult.
“There’s a restaurant—” Eli began.
But Scully cut him off. “Take us back to Edilean.”
“We’re strangers to you,” Chelsea said primly. “You can’t just ride off with us.”
“I took photos of you two and sent them to Shamus. He says you’re okay, so let’s go.”
Eli looked at Chelsea, his eyebrows raised.
“Robin and Marian Les Jeunes the Next Generation seem to be alive and well,” she mumbled as Eli started the car.
“We’ll go to my house, a place where Shamus has been,” Eli said.
Scully nodded as he took Abby’s hand in his.
Thirty minutes later they were all seated at the breakfast table at the house in Edilean, with lemonade and cookies before them. Abby, with Scully’s help, began telling her story.
Two nights before, Orin Peterson had shown up at their house with a cheap suitcase—and he was crying. He said his beloved wife had just died and he had nowhere else to go. The next morning, after Grace left for work, Orin had asked Abby about the combination to the lock on the shed. He said he just wanted to make sure it was in a safe place.
“That’s when I put everything together,” Abby said. She looked at Chelsea. “First horrible ol’ Orin showed up and asked about what’s in the shed. Then you did a ballet step over the fence, and you guys took everything.”
“What did you tell him?” Eli asked.
“Nothing at first. I said I had to go, then I called Scully.”
“And he had a plan,” Chelsea said. “Eli was like that. Still is. He always has a plan.”
“You?” Scully said in contempt. “I bet in high school you were on the football team. Or did you go in for basketball?” There was venom in his voice. “Do you even know how to turn on a computer?”
“Scully!” Abby said.
“I manage,” Eli said with a bit of a smile. “What did you do about Peterson?”
“It was Scully’s idea to tell him that we’d taken everything out of the shed and put it in a neighbor’s big dumpster,” Abby said proudly.