“What’s your name?” Finn asked.
“What business is it of yours?” The man challenged.
“If you tell us your name, we’ll probably let you go,” James said.
“You have no authority to stop me,” the man challenged. “I’m a United States citizen – and you guys are rent-a-cops or something.”
James quirked an eyebrow in his brother’s direction, causing Finn to sigh, but he reached into the man’s back pocket and hauled out his wallet anyway. The man squealed, clasping his hands over his rear and firing a hateful glare in Finn’s direction.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Finn ignored the question, pulling the man’s driver’s license out of the wallet and studying it. “His name is Charles Evans. It says he’s a resident of Harper Woods.”
Charles reached over, snatching his license out of Finn’s hand and fixing him with a set of angry green eyes. “That’s private.”
“You’ll live.”
Charles tilted his head, shooting a look in James’ direction. “Can I go now? Or do you want to manhandle me some more?”
“You can go,” James said. “Just be aware, we’re going to be running a background check on you. If there’s something in your past I don’t like, I’ll be in touch.”
Charles furrowed his brow, raising the middle finger on his right hand in a single-digit salute as he trudged off. Once he was gone, James turned to his brother. “Well, that was … .”
“Stupid?” Finn supplied.
“After yesterday, I can understand why you overreacted,” James said. “It’s not a big deal. Most people didn’t even notice.”
Finn didn’t say the words, but James could practically read them in his mind: Emma had seen him overreact. Emma had seen everything.
“She seemed to handle it really well,” James said. “In fact, I was impressed with how well she handled it.”
“I’m guessing it happens all the time,” Finn said. “How else does someone get good at handling a situation like that?”
“I don’t know,” James said. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
Finn didn’t have any answers either.
WHEN James arrived home a little after six, he found Mandy sitting at the dining room table staring at her laptop. She was dressed in comfy pajama pants and a tank top.
“I thought I was taking you out to dinner?” James said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head as he stripped off his shoes and coat. They obviously weren’t going anywhere.
“I ordered Chinese,” Mandy replied, never moving her eyes from the screen. “It should be here in about five minutes.”
“I thought you wanted an expensive dinner to make up for me ogling boat models all day,” James teased.
“I’m willing to settle for Chinese, the new episode of The Walking Dead, and a massage,” Mandy replied. “Not necessarily in that order.”
“I can live with that,” James said, sliding into one of the open chairs next to her. “What are you looking at? I haven’t seen you this focused since they put that real-life shark attack video up.”
“I ran the name you texted me,” Mandy said.
James leaned forward, his interested piqued. “Charles Evans?”
“Yeah. I’m glad you thought to get his street address,” she replied. “You have no idea how many Charles Evans live in Macomb County.”
“I didn’t think about that,” James said. “What did you find?”
“Well, I can’t double-check the files at work until tomorrow,” she said. “I did find that the Charles Evans who lives on Privet Street in Harper Woods also lived on the same street as the Pritchard family in Eastpointe about twelve years ago.”
“Which would seem to confirm his story,” James mused.
Mandy finally glanced in his direction. “Did you doubt his story?”
James shook his head. “No. I think Finn wanted to, though. It’s hard to be mad at a guy who was abused as a child.”
“You said he just wanted to give Emma a letter,” Mandy said. “Did you get to see the letter?”
“No. Emma took it and left. When she came back, the letter was gone.”
“Maybe she burned it.”
“She doesn’t seem like the type who would burn something like that,” James said. “She seems like the type who will go home, take the onus of the message to heart, and then spend the next week hating herself because of what her father did.”
Mandy’s eyes were soft as she reached over and squeezed his hand. “You feel bad for her.”