Forest of Shadows by Hunter Shea Page A

heavy gray mustache was stained umber at the tips from his coffee. He flashed Judas a wink and continued out the door. John’s heart pounded in his chest. For an irrational moment, he thought the man was going to lean in close and threaten him to leave town by sunset. 
    “That was Sheriff High Bear’s way of introducing himself to you.” Judas’s eyes shifted as he watched the sheriff slide into his truck and pull away. 
    “Seems like an amiable guy,” John said with a great exhalation. 
    “Oh yeah, a real peach. Me and him go way back.” Judas lit up with a mischievous smile. “I’ll tell you more about him when you fly back.” 
    “Looking forward to it,” John said, though he would rather not know. His anxiety levels were high enough without adding run-ins with the law to them. 
    “I’m going to make it an early night. This day has just beat me up and I have to do it again tomorrow. Tell me again what you know about the house and the people who lived in it.”
    Judas wiped the syrup from the corners of his mouth and balled his napkin onto his plate. The people in the booths around them had since cleared out. Waving at the waitress for another hit of coffee, he reviewed the scant details as he knew them. 

Chapter Fifteen
    John groggily walked off the plane into the connecting tube to the terminal. It was nearly ten o’clock at night, but Kennedy Airport seemed as busy as ever. He trekked to baggage claim, waited almost twenty minutes to find his bag as it bounced along the conveyor belt and went in search of a taxi. It was close to midnight by the time he walked in his front door. Eve was still awake, sitting in the living room watching television. Liam lay asleep on her lap. 
    “Welcome home, stranger,” she whispered. 
    John tiptoed across the linoleum of the foyer and hooked the handle of his bag on the closet doorknob. The house still smelled like sausages and tomato sauce. If he was lucky, there would be leftovers in the refrigerator.
    “Hey you,” he said and kissed the top of her and Liam’s heads. “Am I imagining things or do I smell Eve’s famous sauce?”
    “I couldn’t have a homecoming without preparing your favorite meal, now could I?” she said smiling. “Don’t wait for me. Go ahead and heat yourself up a plate. It’s on the top shelf in the fridge. I’ll put Liam to bed.”
    John went to the kitchen while Eve walked upstairs to place Liam in his playpen. He removed the plastic wrap from the heaping plate of pasta and sausages, crumpled it into a ball and placed the plate in the microwave. There were a couple of cold sodas hiding on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator calling out to him. He popped them open, sat at the table and downed half a bottle on the first pull. 
    Eve came back and took the seat next to him. She was wearing one of his T-shirts and short pajama bottoms that looked a little like men’s boxer shorts. 
    She saw him looking at the shirt and said, “Liam spit up on my pajama top. I promise I’ll clean it before I give it back.”
    He laughed. “Don’t be crazy. You can keep it if you want. You look better in it than I do anyway.”
    She slapped his arm. “Look at this, you go away for a couple of days and you come back mister suave compliment guy. I should put you on a plane more often.”
    Looking at her in his shirt reminded him of Anne. She had never owned her own nightshirt. When she wasn’t sleeping in the nude, she would ransack his drawers for sleepwear. He used to tell her, “You know, you shouldn’t wear my shirts. Your boobs will stretch them all out.” Then she’d laugh and stick out her chest as far as she could and say, “That’s what you get for marrying a girl with D cups.” He tried buying her pajamas but they just sat in the bottom of her drawers untouched until she did her annual clearing out for the Salvation Army clothing drive.
    “You look tired,” Eve said as he gulped down his last bite. 
    “I am.”
    “Why