Bone Music (Burning Girl #1)(89)

As for Peter, his best quality, as far as Luke’s concerned, is how quickly he volunteers for crappy assignments, and Luke’s pretty sure that’s exactly what this random question of Mona’s is shaping up to be. One seriously crappy assignment.

Reach for the stars, Henricks. Come on. I’m rooting for ya!

It’s not like Luke’s silence is a lie. Boredom isn’t quite the word he’d use to describe his current mood, or any of the moods he’s suffered since he stormed out on Charley two days before. Defeat. Despair. Angst. Those are more appropriate. That said, the only real excitement in his life since then has been talking Stanley Morrison’s wife out of running over his skis with her truck because she caught him texting an old girlfriend. So if they’re being entirely truthful, maybe he should raise his hand, too.

But what does he know about things like honesty and truthfulness? He’s just an asshole who can’t make friends. According, at least, to a woman he was trying to keep from getting killed by a madman.

When nobody answers out loud, Mona appears in the doorway to her office. “Seriously, who wants to venture a guess as to why a pharmaceutical company’s buying the old resort?”

“What?” Luke shoots to his feet, all eyes on him suddenly.

Well, that was smooth, hotshot.

“You have strong feelings about this, I take it?” Mona asks.

“Which one?”

“There’s only one resort anywhere near here, and it’s not finished.”

“Which drug company?”

“Graydon. Ever heard of ’em?”

Don’t answer, and don’t mess yourself.

“That’s crazy,” he says. “I mean, why would a drug company want the resort?”

“I believe I just asked that question.”

“It’s still nuts.”

“And you’re jumping in your pants about this why? Did you have an offer in on the place?”

“How’d you find out about this?”

“Mayor’s office called. Says they’re working up a press release. Graydon’s paid off all of Silver Shore’s debt. They’re gonna partner with them on the whole deal, it looks like. They’re even going to retain the same lobbying firm that was trying to get the state to widen 293.”

“Well, that’s gonna suck.” Judy Lyle swivels back to her desk. “How many trees are gonna have to die for that?”

“Says the woman with a job and health insurance,” Peter Henricks grumbles.

“So I take it nobody’s got an answer,” Mona says. “Just a bunch of feelings, it sounds like.”

“I can try to find one for you if you like.”

The words are out of his mouth before he can think twice. It’s a strange offer, and Mona’s stare makes that clear.

“An answer, I mean,” Luke adds.

“I take it Stanley Morrison isn’t filing assault charges?”

“On behalf of his water skis? Give me a break.”

“Well, I gave you a job actually, so I figure we’re square in that department.”

“Sorry. That was out of line.”

He better cool it if this is going to work.

What he wants is an excuse to get out of the station.

What he wants is an excuse to talk to Charley again, and this is most certainly it.

Of course, he could always just apologize. Which he knows he’ll end up doing if he goes and talks to her. But he’d like to arrive with his hat on, and then remove it at the moment of his choosing. What’s the matter with feeling useful while you’re being forced to eat crow?

“You’re just going to talk to people around town?” Mona asks.

“Well, they’re not buying it sight unseen, so they must have been poking around before now. I’ll find out if anyone strange has been around recently.”

“Stranger than you, you mean?” Judy asks.

He gives her a frosty look, which she returns with a coy smile.

“Maybe I’ll check in with some of the folks who, uh, we thought might be paying visits to the old place. See if they’ve seen any other activity.”

“The social justice looters, you mean? You think they’d tell you if they had?”

“I think I can get you a pretty clear picture of what’s been going on out there.”

“All right. Just go. I can tell you’re antsy. When you’re done, finish up with some patrols; then radio in.”

He grabs his hat and windbreaker off his desk.

A thought strikes him at the door and he spins.

“Mona!”

“Sheriff,” she says quietly when she reappears at her office door.

“Sorry. Sheriff. What are they gonna do with it?”

“Apparently Graydon’s getting in to the leisure business. The company’s got a venture capital arm that stashes their money in different places. But this is the first time they’ve done anything with a hotel. So the plan’s the same as it ever was. Turn it into a resort. If it’s real, it could be great for the town. So find out if it is.”

He nods. As he turns to go, he hears Judy say, “Maybe they’ll leave an antidepressant on everybody’s pillow at turndown.”

Marty’s truck isn’t parked in front of his trailer, but he recognizes the guy sitting on Marty’s steps as one of the crew he threatened to run a few days before. With the surliness of a teenager whose parents have taken his smartphone away, the guy tells him Marty’s shuttling back and forth between job sites. When Luke asks him about Charley, he goes quiet.