The Detective(7)

He nodded.

Lara gasped. “Carter!”

I lowered my voice. “Your momma’s a little bit coo-koo.”

He giggled and covered his mouth with his hands. I kissed his temple before putting him down. He clung to my leg and sat down on my boot.

I looked at my sister. “Talkin’ shit, huh?”

“Nathan, watch your mouth!” she shrieked with mock horror.

Mom walked in the back door with a large jar of canned green beans. Her white hair was pulled back and she was wearing the maroon sweater I’d gotten her for Christmas. “Hi, son.” She came over and kissed my cheek.

“Hi, Mom.”

She pushed the jar against my chest. “I’m glad you’re here. Open this.”

I smirked as she walked to the stove. “It feels so good to be needed.”

She laughed. “Oh, shut up. I’m feeding you, aren’t I?”

The jar popped open and let out a soft hiss. “Yeah, yeah.” I handed her the jar.

“Shut up!” Carter repeated.

Lara shook her head. “Nice going, Nana.”

Mom put her hand over her mouth. “I forgot he was in here.”

“Carter, go play in the living room with your trucks. Nana has a potty mouth,” Lara said.

Carter obediently got up and ran out of the room.

Mom looked over at me. “How was your weekend in Asheville?”

I nodded and leaned against the counter, producing a pack of Skittles from my pocket. “It was all right. Not too productive though,” I said as I popped a few candies into my mouth.

“You’re going to ruin your dinner, Nathan!” my mother scolded.

I turned the bag up over my mouth and let several pour out onto my tongue. She reached over and smacked me on the stomach. I laughed as I chewed.

“Why wasn’t it productive?” she asked. “Was the missing girl’s case there not related?”

I twisted the candy closed and tucked it back into my pocket for later. “Oh, I still think it is. It’s just the family wasn’t interested in talking to me.”

She sighed. “Well, I guess I can understand how painful it must be for them.”

I kicked my heel back against the cabinet. “I know. You’d just think they’d be excited about someone working on the case again.”

She dumped the beans into a pot. “I’m sure they are, sweetheart.”

“What’s going on?” Lara asked.

I walked over and picked a crouton out of the salad she was making. “I think I’ve got eleven girls now that were all kidnapped by the same guy.”

She put her knife down. “Eleven? Seriously?”

“Yup.” I popped the crouton into my mouth.

“That sounds like a job for the FBI,” she said.

I nodded. “I’m hoping it will be soon. I’m trying to gather enough evidence that links all the cases together.”

She closed her eyes. “Eleven,” she said again.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked.

Mom put a pan of biscuits in the oven. “He’s off with Joe.”

I looked at Lara. “With Joe?”

Lara rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started.”

“Trouble in paradise?” I flashed her a grin. “Wake Forest?”

She slammed the tomatoes into the bowl hard enough to send some lettuce flying out. “I swear, next basketball season I’m canceling the credit card that those stupid season tickets are connected to.”

I laughed and crunched down on another crouton.

College basketball was a big deal in my family—and in most families in the state of North Carolina. My dad, an alumni of NC State, had raised us all as die-hard Wolfpack fans. But within the confines of the Raleigh-Durham lines, two other major schools rivaled us: UNC and Duke. Seventeen percent of all domestic violence crime in Wake County somehow involved the Wolfpack, the Tarheels, or the Blue Devils. And while our family had never been hauled off to the slammer over the NCAA season, basketball was serious family business. Joe—a graduate of Wake Forest, and the only outsider in our clan—was allowed to marry Lara on one condition: that he took Dad to all the Wake/State home games. No joke.

“Hey Noot, what are you doing on Friday after work?” Mom asked.

Lara rolled her eyes. “Mom, he’s thirty. Stop calling him Noot.”

Mom walked over and pinched my cheek. “My baby boy will always be my Noot-Noot.”

I pointed at my sister. “And I’m not thirty.” I quickly did the math in my head. “Not yet, anyway.”

“That’s right… Your birthday is in a few weeks,” Mom said. “What are we going to do for your birthday?”

I winked at Lara. “I was hoping to catch the State game with Joe.”