The Boy from the Woods(78)

Decked out in his cop uniform, Oren sat in a booth toward the back. He stood the moment he spotted her, which seemed very formal in this place.

“Hey,” Oren said.

He kissed her cheek and took her hand. Hester gave his hand a squeeze and slid into the booth.

“I bet you’ve been here a million times,” Oren said.

Tony’s was a town mainstay and less than a mile from her old house. It also purportedly had the best pizza within a ten-mile radius.

“No,” Hester said. “In fact, this is the first time I’ve been here in more than thirty years.”

“Seriously?”

Hester nodded. “On the first night we moved into town, Ira and I brought the boys here for dinner. We were exhausted and starved—it’d been a long day. Anyway, there was only one open table, but they wouldn’t let us sit there unless we promised to order full dinners and no pizza. I don’t remember the details, but whatever, they were rude to us. So Ira got furious. He was slow to anger, Ira, but when he did…anyway, we left without eating. Ira wrote the owner a letter, if you can believe it. Typed it up. But he never heard back. So Ira forbade us from going or ordering from them. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars they lost over the years from that incident. The boys, they were so loyal to Ira that even if they were invited to a birthday party here or their Little League team came after a game, they’d refuse to eat.” Hester looked up. “Why am I telling you this story?”

“Because it’s interesting,” Oren said. “Do you want to go someplace else? The Heritage Diner maybe?”

“Can I tell you a funny thing?”

“Sure.”

“I had my assistant check. Tony’s was sold four years ago. If the old ownership was still here, I wouldn’t have come.”

Oren smiled. “So we’re safe to stay?”

“Yes.” Hester shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“Bringing up Ira like that. First date I bring up Cheryl. Second date I bring up Ira.”

“Getting all the elephants out of the room,” Oren said. “I like that. Why are you in town anyway? Visiting Matthew and Laila?”

Hester shook her head. “Doing work for clients.”

“In our little hamlet?”

“I can’t say more.”

He got it. The waitress dropped off a slice of margherita pizza for each of them. Hester took a bite and closed her eyes. It tasted like nirvana.

“Good, right?” Oren asked.

“I’m hating Ira right about now.”

He chuckled and picked up his slice. “I’m guessing the Maynards.”

“What?”

“Your clients. The Maynards. I would have guessed just Dash Maynard, but you said you were visiting clients. With an S.”

“I can’t confirm or deny—”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

“Why do you think it’s the Maynards?”

“The helicopter. When they fly in, they have to clear the airspace with us. So I know it flew out of Manhattan this morning. Then you pulled up in an Uber, not your black Escalade driven by Tim.”

“I’m impressed,” Hester said.

Oren shrugged. “I’m a trained detective.”

“I can’t talk about it though.”

“I don’t want you to talk about it,” he said. “I’m just really glad you’re here with me.”

Despite everything—the ghosts, the ransom, this place—Hester could feel her face blush to the color of the pizza’s tomato sauce.

“I’m glad I’m here too,” Hester said.

For a few minutes, the world shrunk down to the size of the gorgeous man across the table from her and the ambrosia-like pizza on the table between them. She relished the escapism. It wasn’t something Hester often craved. She liked being in the mix. She found it stressful to be out of the loop.

A few people stopped by the table, mostly to see Oren, but some of the faces were familiar to her too. The Gromans, who used to play tennis with Ira on Saturday mornings. Jennifer Tallow, that super-nice librarian whose son had been friendly with Jeff. Everyone knew Oren, of course. When you’re a cop that long in a town this size, it’s its own form of celebrity. She couldn’t tell whether Oren enjoyed the attention or was polite to a fault out of obligation.

“When exactly do you retire?” she asked him.

“Three months from now.”

“And your plans?”

Oren shrugged. “They’re fluid.”

“Do you think you’ll stay in town?”

“For right now.”

“You’ve lived out here a long time,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Ever think about living in a city instead?”

“Yes,” he said. “I think about it.”

When his phone sounded, the expression on his face hardened. “That’s my work ring. I have to take it.”

Hester gestured for him to go ahead. It was interesting, she thought, the echo between him having a “work ring” and her last night with her various phone vibrations. Oren picked up the phone and said, “Yep.” A few seconds passed. “Okay, who is closest to Tony’s? Good, okay, have him swing around and pick me up.” He hung up the phone.