Carnival by Kory M. Shrum

Author:Kory M. Shrum [Shrum, Kory M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kory M. Shrum

19

King opened the fridge and considered his dinner options. It was after eleven at night, but he was hungry. The shelves weren’t entirely bare, but nothing screamed eat me. There were the usual suspects, half-used condiments and a gallon of milk. There were two wrapped steaks that he’d planned to grill for tonight’s dinner before he’d decided on takeout—drunken noodles with chicken.

He decided on the noodles, vowing to do some proper grocery shopping tomorrow.

Takeout box in hand, he closed the fridge.

Piper and Lou stepped forward.

He squeezed the box so hard the lid popped off. “Christ.”

Lady barked in response. The short yap came from Mel’s apartment across the walkway.

“I’m fine!” King called, turning his chin toward the door. “It’s just Lou.”

Piper threw up her hands. “Who the hell am I?”

Since there was no follow-up bark or scratching at his door, he assumed that Mel had shushed the dog.

He regarded the two of them. “Is there not enough shadow in front of my door for you to knock?”

“On the balcony there is,” Lou admitted, shrugging in her leather coat. King noted his tired face in her reflective sunglasses. He grimaced. “We wanted to see if you were awake.”

“And it’s cold out there.” Piper tossed an empty Styrofoam cup into King’s trash.

“Where have you been?” he asked, frowning at the cup. He didn’t recognize the logo stamped in red lettering across the compressed material.

Lou pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head. “Fish.”

“But plot twist!” Piper pulled her phone from her pocket and pushed buttons wildly. After a moment of delighted humming, she turned the phone so King could see the screen. “Someone is already following him.”

King accepted the phone, setting the carton of drunken noodles on the counter. “Are you sure?”

“Totally.” Piper pointed at the face, grinning triumphantly. “She was doing what we did. But she had salsa and chips.”

King looked up, frowning.

“We found him in the grocery store,” Lou clarified.

Piper bounced on her heels. “We had a cart and everything. We were like real detectives. It was so cool.”

King couldn’t help but smile. Piper’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“And you found her following him too?” he asked, frowning at the grainy photo. He tried to enlarge it, but that made it worse.

“Yeah,” Piper said, coming around to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. “She followed him in the store and then out into the parking lot. Then she got in a red Honda and followed him out of the lot.”

“We don’t know she was following him.” Lou took the carton of drunken noodles and sniffed it. “We stopped tracking them in the parking lot. They could’ve been heading in the same direction. Or not.”

King squinted at the phone. There was something familiar about the face, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen it before. He forwarded himself the picture, and heard his own phone buzz on the coffee table in the other room.

“So can you do it?” Piper asked.

King looked up from the photo and found them both looking at him expectantly. He felt like he’d missed something.

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