Read Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) for Free Online

child so it would be nice to visit the
quaint town with its promenade, crashing waves, and old timey
shops. I hoped I could avoid the enormous candy stores where I used
to spend hours picking out saltwater taffy.
    An hour later we rolled into
town, wrestling with early-season tourists for a parking spot. We
grabbed a quick bite to eat at a chowder place that Dex swore on
the bible was the best he ever had, and he wasn’t far off. We still
had a bit of time before we headed down the coast again, so I
suggested we go for a walk on the beach. It was sunny and warm,
with just a light breeze, and on the Oregon Coast you had to take
advantage of that when you could. I guess Rebecca thought we wanted
some privacy because she told us to go ahead; she wanted to do some
shopping in town. I didn’t know what she could possibly buy aside
from chocolate-covered bacon and clothing with tacky seagulls
printed all over them, but we left her to her own devices and
headed out to the sand.
    “ Fuck me, this
feels good,” Dex said as we stood at the top of the steps before
heading down onto the beach. The ocean was blue and glittering from
the sun, the sand glowing golden white. Kids ran up and down with
their kites, making sandcastles and running back from the cold
surf.
    Dex took in a deep breath.
“Feel that sea air. That’s got to be good for you.”
    I gave him a funny look,
shielding my eyes with my hand. “We live by the ocean, Dex.”
    “ Bah. Puget
Sound doesn’t count,” he said. “I mean the real ocean. This.
There’s nothing between us right now and Japan. Just water and
waves. Makes you feel free.”
    “ You don’t
feel free otherwise?”
    He gave me a lopsided grin and
took my hand in his. “Come on.”
    He led me down through the
dunes, my boots slipping awkwardly as I walked, until we came to
the hard-packed sand near the pounding surf. We walked side by
side, not saying anything to each other, just watching the people
around us, the miles of flawless beach, the sand dollars that
crunched under our feet.
    We stopped where the
pine-dotted bluffs of Ecola State Park jutted out into the water
and the beach curved inward, and sat down on a washed up log. Out
on the waves, surfers vied for the perfect set, looking like
vertical seals in their shiny black wetsuits.
    The light wind tossed my hair
into my mouth, already tasting like salt, my vision blurred by the
strands. I felt Dex’s fingers on my face, tucking my hair behind my
ears.
    “ Feels
familiar,” he said in a low voice. “Doesn’t it?”
    I thought about it for a second
and realized it did. Even though the cameras were back in the car
and we were just sitting here looking at the coast, the smell of
sea spray, the sound of surf and the feel of sand under my feet
brought me back to when we first met each other, just an hour south
of where we were.
    I looked him over, remembering
how he was when I first met him. He still had on the same newsboy
cap, though now his eyes were dark and shiny instead of dark and
manic. There was no cigarette dangling from his crooked smile and
his mustache was trimmed beyond rapist standards. It was still Dex
but now he was my Dex. It was kinda hard to wrap my head around it
now that we were back at the beginning.
    “ It feels
good,” I told him. “Weird. But good.”
    “ Just like
me,” he said before sucking in his lower lip and turning his gaze
to the shore.
    “ You’re better
than good,” I said.
    He nodded with a smile. “And
weirder than weird?”
    “ I think we
both are, when you think about it. You’re the only person I know
that knows what I’m talking about when I say I saw the creepy lady
in black at the convenience store.”
    He pulled the brim of his cap
down, shielding his eyes from the glaring sun, and stared at the
grains of sand that danced at his boots, whipped around by the
wind. “I’m starting to think the douche magoose who works there
thinks we’re both a bit nuts.”
    “ His name is
Paul,”