Change of Heart p.25 Read online

  It was a moment before he sat back down, and Chelsea saw that Abby and Scully were sitting in the backseat.

  Abby spoke first. “It was the ballet slippers. When I saw some really cute pink ones in the store, they made me remember where I saw you. You went over my fence, and both of you cleaned out the shed.”

  Eli and Chelsea were so stunned that they just looked between the seats at the two kids in silence.

  “Who are you?” Scully asked. “You don’t look like thieves.”

  Eli nodded toward the glove box and Chelsea opened it. She knew that his firearm was hidden at the top, but she didn’t think that’s what he wanted. Instead, she reached in and pulled out a leather case and handed it to Eli.

  He held up an FBI badge.

  Scully took it, examined it, then looked at Abby. “Told you so.” He looked back at Eli. “Is this about Orin Peterson?”

  “I can’t talk about a case. It’s—” Eli began.

  “It has to be!” Abby said vehemently. “You have to get rid of him, get him out of our house!”

  “What’s that slimeball doing in your house?” Chelsea asked.

  “Chelsea!” Eli said in warning. “You can’t—”

  “Yes, I can!” she said and looked at Abby. “Tell us what’s going on.”

  “He was in my room. He—”

  “He made a pass at you?” Chelsea asked in horror.

  “No,” Scully said. “He’s searching for something but we don’t know what. We covered for you on the shed, but he’s not interested in it. His wife died and—”

  “No, she didn’t,” Chelsea said with a glance at Eli. “I think you two should tell us from the beginning everything that’s happened.”

  Abby started to speak but Scully put his hand on her arm. “We want to know why you two stole everything that was in the shed.”

  “If you saw us there,” Eli said, “why didn’t you call the police?”

  Scully looked at Abby for a moment, then back at Eli. “We didn’t want to upset Abby’s mom. She’s afraid of what’s inside that shed. But we know there’s nothing of importance in those boxes.”

  “You two went through them?” Eli asked.

  “Every page,” Scully said with pride.

  “What does that man want from us?” Abby said, and there were tears in her eyes.

  “What does he say he wants?” Eli asked.

  “I think we need to go somewhere private so we can consolidate information,” Scully said, sounding like an adult.

  “There’s a restaurant—” Eli began.

  But Scully cut him off. “Take us back to Edilean.”

  “We’re strangers to you,” Chelsea said primly. “You can’t just ride off with us.”

  “I took photos of you two and sent them to Shamus. He says you’re okay, so let’s go.”

  Eli looked at Chelsea, his eyebrows raised.

  “Robin and Marian Les Jeunes the Next Generation seem to be alive and well,” she mumbled as Eli started the car.

  “We’ll go to my house, a place where Shamus has been,” Eli said.

  Scully nodded as he took Abby’s hand in his.

  Thirty minutes later they were all seated at the breakfast table at the house in Edilean, with lemonade and cookies before them. Abby, with Scully’s help, began telling her story.

  Two nights before, Orin Peterson had shown up at their house with a cheap suitcase—and he was crying. He said his beloved wife had just died and he had nowhere else to go. The next morning, after Grace left for work, Orin had asked Abby about the combination to the lock on the shed. He said he just wanted to make sure it was in a safe place.

  “That’s when I put everything together,” Abby said. She looked at Chelsea. “First horrible ol’ Orin showed up and asked about what’s in the shed. Then you did a ballet step over the fence, and you guys took everything.”

  “What did you tell him?” Eli asked.

  “Nothing at first. I said I had to go, then I called Scully.”

  “And he had a plan,” Chelsea said. “Eli was like that. Still is. He always has a plan.”

  “You?” Scully said in contempt. “I bet in high school you were on the football team. Or did you go in for basketball?” There was venom in his voice. “Do you even know how to turn on a computer?”

  “Scully!” Abby said.

  “I manage,” Eli said with a bit of a smile. “What did you do about Peterson?”

  “It was Scully’s idea to tell him that we’d taken everything out of the shed and put it in a neighbor’s big dumpster,” Abby said proudly.

  “How did he react?” Chelsea asked.

  Abby shrugged. “He was glad, I think, but I’m not sure. He’d spent the day searching. Everything in my room had been moved. Not a lot, but enough that I knew it was different. What does he want from us?”

  “And what do you two want?” Scully asked, his eyes narrowed at the adults.

  “Honestly,” Eli said, “we don’t know what the man is after. We don’t know anything about him for sure.”

  “Except that he steals money from Abby’s mom,” Scully said. “Have you ever seen a man do that?”

  “Yes,” Eli said. “When I was a kid, I had to watch my biological father come up with lie after lie to get my mother to give him money. He didn’t need it; he just wanted to win the game.”

  “Orin needs it,” Abby said. “He’s poor.” She looked at her hands.

  Scully spoke up. “Abby’s mom said they have to be nice because of what Abby’s dad did to him.”

  “He did not do that!” Abby said. “I’ll never believe it!”

  “I know,” Scully said softly, “but—”

  “I don’t think your dad did anything bad, either,” Chelsea said, “and I have some photos you should see.” She got her camera and quickly flipped through to the ones she’d taken of Orin and his healthy wife at their big house beside a lake.

  “This is his house?” Abby asked, sounding confused. “Who is that woman?”

  Now it was Chelsea and Eli’s turn to tell how everything had come about. Chelsea did most of the talking, starting with the overnight camping that she’d hated so much. “It was all dirt and mosquitoes,” she said, “but Eli wanted to do it, so of course I followed him. Here, I’ll show you.”

  Getting up, she got the box where she knew Eli kept photos of the two of them as kids. There was astonishment from the teenagers as they saw how pretty Chelsea was, and how thin and geeky Eli was.

  Throughout the story, Scully kept his eyes on Eli, watching him and seeming to be puzzled.

  When Chelsea finished her story, she showed Abby a photo she’d just received from her mother. “It’s a dress I wore when I was younger. My mother keeps everything. I thought it might fit you.”

  The dress in the picture was pale pink, floor length, strapless, and covered with thousands of tiny crystals. They were most dense at the waist, then gradually lessened top and bottom.

  “Wow,” Abby said. “That’s beautiful.”

  “My mom can send it if you’d like, and you can wear it to the dance.”

  “Could I?” Abby said in wonder. “But I don’t have shoes.”

  “I have some Manolos that might fit you.”

  “Oh.” Abby seemed to be incapable of speech.

  “Let’s go upstairs and see what we can find,” Chelsea said.

  Eli stood up. “Want to see my new game?” he asked Scully. They went into the living room and turned on the TV. In seconds, the game box was on. They sat side by side, their hands filled with the controllers.

  “How did you get the new Trafalgar Warriors game?” Scully asked. “No! Don’t go that way. There’s always a trap there.”

  “I know,” Eli said. “It was too predictable so I changed it. Go left, but avoid tha