Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Why would that freak me out?”
“Because not everyone believes in the tarot.”
“No, but my mother does. Didn’t she come to you for a reading once?”
“I can’t tell you that. Anyone who comes to me gets full confidentiality.”
I smile. Ava is a woman of integrity. I like that. “I don’t know enough about it to say whether I believe in it or not. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“The card I drew didn’t make a lot of sense for me,” she continues. “But when I thought about it more deeply, maybe it did. There’s secret knowledge somewhere.”
Does she know? About the documents Dale and Donny found at my place?
Maybe. She is a Steel, after all. But I got the impression that Dale and Donny weren’t going to blab everything to their whole family until they could research further.
“What kind of secret knowledge?” I ask her.
“If I knew that, Brendan, it wouldn’t be secret.”
I can’t help but chuckle. Ava Steel is something else.
“Did you call anybody when you got this text?”
“The only others I told were Brock and Dave, last night at the bar. Brock’s going to trace the number for me, but I haven’t heard anything from him yet.”
“Should we call him?” I ask.
“Yeah, I can give him a call. Excuse me for a minute.”
While Ava’s on the phone, my father walks into the station. His own strawberry-blond hair, lighter than mine, is turning silver. “What’s going on, Brendan?”
“Honestly, Dad, I have no idea. Hardy?”
Hardy prints another copy of the document and hands it to Dad. “You and your wife are the only other Murphys in town.”
“Not exactly,” he says. “There’s Ciara and Carmen.”
“That’s right,” Hardy says. “I guess if you and the missus don’t know what this is about, we’ll ask them.”
Dad scans the document. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?”
“That’s what we’re supposed to ask you,” Hardy says.
“I’m at a loss. And Brendan, you don’t know?”
I shake my head. “I’m flummoxed, Dad.”
“I wish I could help you, Hardy,” Dad says. “But I don’t have a clue what any of this means.”
“We’re going to have another look at Brendan’s place,” Hardy says.
“Sounds like I’m staying with you and Mom for a while longer,” I say.
“Now that’s ridiculous,” Dad says. “Brendan needs his own place. There’s not any reason to believe this has anything to do with whoever trashed his apartment.”
“There’s the Murphy reference,” Hardy says.
“Yeah, whatever. You guys have already combed the place. What the hell else do you think you’re going to find there?”
Hardy sighs. “All right. Go ahead with your contractor, Brendan.”
“Thank God,” I say under my breath.
Ava returns and taps me on the shoulder.
“Any news?” I ask.
“No. I mean, no good news anyway. Brock says the number was untraceable. Probably a burner phone.”
“Can I tell him?” I gesture to my father.
Ava darts her gaze from me to my father and then to Hardy, who has turned away for a moment.
“Can we go outside?”
“Sure.”
“Come on, Dad.”
We walk outside the station and stand on the sidewalk.
“I’m sorry,” Ava says. “I’m just not sure if my family would want Hardy involved.”
“Involved in what?” my father asks.
“That Darth Morgen reference,” Ava says. “I got the same text. Yesterday.” She hands my father her phone.
He glances at it. “And this number?”
“Untraceable,” Ava says. “Brock checked it out.”
Dad sighs, runs his fingers through his graying hair. “There never seems to be any answers.”
“Any answers about what?” Ava asks.
“There’s a mystery. A mystery that’s never been solved. And it involves your family, Ava.”
“You talking about your uncle?” I ask Dad.
“I am.”
“And you think this has something to do with it?”
“No. But I’m not going to rule out the possibility. When I came to Snow Creek looking for answers thirty-five years ago, all I came up with was dead end after dead end. No one knew what happened to my uncle. There was the party line of him getting drugged at Bradford Steel’s wedding, but I couldn’t find out who drugged him. Or why.”
“I don’t see how this could be related,” Ava says.
“It probably isn’t,” Dad says. “But it’s strange that the sheriff got an email telling him to ask us about the reference. And you got the same reference.”
“It is bizarre,” Ava agrees.
“Yes, but think about how it’s bizarre.” Dad runs a hand over his face. “You’re part of the Steel family.”
“Yeah…” Ava says.
“So for some reason, this phrase has to do with us and the Steel family,” Dad says.
“Sure you’re not stretching that a bit?” I ask.
“Brendan, maybe I am,” Dad says. “But I’ve been trying to solve the mystery of my uncle for over three decades. And now, we have something here—other than my uncle’s death—that seems to link us with the Steels.”
“But it’s some peculiar kind of Star Wars reference,” I say.
Ava shakes her head. “I asked Dave about that. He knows all things Star Wars, and he’s pretty sure this is not a Star Wars reference.”