One Hundred Candles [2] by Mara Purnhagen Page B

yelling. The loaded silence was harder to take.
    “I wanted to run an idea by you,” said Shane. “What would you think if Trish was our assistant? Would that be cool with you?”
    I knelt on the floor next to him. “Well, yeah, I guess. Why are you asking me, though?”
    He set aside his checklist and smiled. “Because, Charlotte, we haven’t had a new member on the team in seventeen years.” He winked. “You were the last one to join.”
    I felt a rush of affection for Shane. We may not have been related by blood, but he was as much a family member to me as Annalise. I knew what he was really asking. He wanted Trish to become a permanent member of the Silver team.
    “Are you sure?” I asked him. “Don’t get me wrong, I really like her, but you’ve only been dating for a couple months.”
    “Which is why this is important to me.” He shifted his weight. “If Trish and I have a real future, I need to know if she can be part of what I do, you know? Let’s face it—this job is my life. It’s a huge piece of who I am. If she can appreciate that and be a part of that, then I think we have a shot at forever.” He blushed. “That was too much, I know.”
    I gave him a playful punch on the arm. “I’m happy for you, I really am.”
    “Thanks, kid.”
    It was nice to see Shane so giddy in love, but his happiness reminded me how different he and Trisha were when compared with my parents. I hoped that collaborating on a routine investigation together would remind them of how well they worked together and how, as Shane had put it, we were still a team. Of course, if Trisha ended up joining our team, it would mean seeing more of Noah, as well.
    “You realize you still need to pass the scrutiny of Noah and his two older brothers,” I said.
    “I’m working on it. They’re a tough crowd, though. Noah especially.”
    “He’s very protective of his mom.”
    “Yeah, well, so am I.”
    The owner of the house emerged from the sitting room, clutching a tissue. “I can’t sleep,” she sniffed.
    My parents followed her to the front door. “We’ll do a thorough investigation,” Dad promised. “We’ll be here all weekend.”
    I looked up at this last statement. No one had said anything to me about spending the entire weekend in a moldy old mansion. I had given up plans with Harris for this. And if my parents thought I was going to spend the night somewhere without a change of clothes, my own pillow and a toothbrush, they were so, so wrong.
    After the owner left, I went up to Dad. “What did you mean about staying here all weekend?”
    Dad was checking his cell phone. “You know it takes at least forty-eight hours to do a decent job.”
    “No one told me we’d be here that long! I have homework to do.”
    Dad closed his phone. “I never said you were staying all weekend. Shane and I are conducting this one with help from a local paranormal group.” He looked over me toward the front window. “They should be here any minute now.”
    “Well, how am I getting home?” Were my parents actually going to let me drive their car? I started to get excited.
    Mom walked up behind me. “You’re coming back with me. We’ll leave in half an hour.”
    This was absolutely unheard of. My parents always worked together. One might film upstairs while one stayed downstairs, but never, ever had only one of them worked on a project without the other. Dad read the confusion in my face.
    “Your mother did the interview, and we’ll get some footage of her later,” he said. “We don’t expect to find anything, and we thought we’d give this local group a shot at it.”
    He walked away and I returned to Shane, who was pretending to study his completed checklist.
    “You knew about this, didn’t you?”
    He folded his list. “Sorry, kid.”
    “How long is this going to last?”
    “I wish I knew.”
    And I wished Annalise was with us. I had tried repeatedly to get ahold of her, but we were playing a perpetual game of