Read The Past Came Hunting for Free Online Page B

last night, that’s all.” Inhaling the exquisite scent, Mel wound a silver ribbon around a frosted vase containing a dozen hand-dyed blue roses.
    “Oh my God, Mel, those look incredible,” Aaron gushed.
    Smiling at the results as well, she said, “They’re for Jeff Kellerman. He’s proposing tonight and his fiancée loves blue.”
    “Mel,” Karlee called. “Line three. It’s your son’s school.”
    She glanced at the clock and the pleasant moment faded. Luke should be in the gym by now. She rushed to a nearby wall phone. “Hello, this is Melanie Norris.”
    “Mrs. Norris, Coach Hood. Sorry to disturb you at work, but Luke went down on his ankle. The good news, I don’t think it’s broken, the bad news, it’s the size of a grapefruit.”
    Mel’s gaze dropped to the scrap-strewn floor as she pictured a very despondent teenager. “Oh, no. What about tryouts?”
    “Luke’s on the team, Mrs. Norris. To be on the safe side, though, we should x-ray that ankle.”
    “I’m on my way.” She disconnected to discover all work had stopped and that her coworkers were staring. “Luke,” she explained. “He hurt his ankle. The coach wants it x-rayed.”
    Aaron approached her work area with her jacket. “Go. Call me if you need anything.”
    Mel gaped at the storeowner. How had she managed to find these people? Her boss and her coworkers were nothing short of generous. As she walked out the door, she cast a grateful glance back.
    At eight-thirty Matt bounded down the stairs and raced into the den, pulling Joe’s mind from the department performance reviews due tomorrow.
    “Dad, Luke’s home. My homework’s done. Is it cool if I check out his ankle?”
    Joe removed his reading glasses. “Now? Why not call him instead? It’s getting late.”
    Matt’s entire body went rigid as he screwed up his face. “Call? Luke lives next door, Dad. How lame is it to call him? Besides, it’s not late. Coach Hood’s over there, too.”
    Joe blew out a frustrated breath. “Thirty minutes, son. No longer. It’s a school night.”
    “Dad!”
    “You’re wasting time, aren’t you?”
    The kid demonstrated speed Joe hoped to see on the court.
    He resumed reading, but like with every other report he’d read today, had trouble focusing. From behind him an antique cuckoo clock tried to cluck, but the poor thing just managed a cough. Joe smiled, thinking of his mom in far away Germany and remarried to a master clockmaker. Somehow Joe suspected Herr Alfred Leidel endured the new Frau Madelyn Leidel’s novice tinkering for her companionship, rather than her skill.
    Joe might never get used to his mom living clear across the Atlantic, rather than in the States , but he relished that she was finally happy, and that he’d inadvertently had something to do with it.
    He stared at the fireplace mantle and walls lined with his mother’s new hobby. At first he’d found the ticking obnoxious. Now, it was a reminder to the cynic in Joe that occasionally good triumphed.
    Enveloped in the warmth of a gas-lit fireplace, and well aware of the correct time, his one regret was he’d let go of a Maya print of an Indian woman and a wolf in the divorce. He should have fought harder for it, he decided, and settled for staring into the leaping flames.
    So, Rick was over at Melanie’s. The coach wasn’t married, but had a longtime girlfriend. The boys are like glue. It could get awkward around your place if you get involved with the mom . Not that there was much chance of a friendship evolving between Joe and Melanie, but how much of the coach’s warning had been because Rick was interested himself?
    Concentrate, damn it . Jealousy over a woman Joe sent to prison? He shook his head. This was it. He’d finally snapped. Using a marker, he highlighted a supervisor’s negative feedback on a rookie patrolman.
    It was too bad about her kid’s ankle, though.
    Joe glanced out the window at the house next door. She’d done a lot to the place