Crowned and Moldering

“Are you kidding?” she shrieked. “With Chloe Hammer and Dirk Bodette, right? I love that show! Is Chloe your sister?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, wow. She’s so smart and fu

“Aren’t they?” Everyone loved Chloe and Dirk. Everyone except Dirk’s wife.

“Their show is a real public service,” Callie said earnestly. “I mean, they actually help people avert disaster.”

“That’s sort of the point of the show.” My sister, Chloe, had been trained by our father, just like me. Her television show was important to her. She felt as if it gave her the opportunity to really help people.

“But wait,” Callie said, frowning. “Chloe has blond hair. How come?”

I would’ve considered the question rude coming from anyone else. “Her hair was strawberry blond when she was young, but the red faded away and she’s been a blonde ever since.” I used to be really jealous of my sister’s hair, but I liked mine just fine now.

“She’s beautiful.”

I smiled. “I think so.”

“So are you.” Callie laced her arm through mine. “I’m so glad you’re my uncle’s girlfriend.”

“Oh.” I frowned, unsure of how to respond. What in the world was I to Mac? I was a friend, for sure, but what else? “I’m really not his—”

“We’re going to a fish restaurant, right, Uncle Mac?” she asked, completely ignoring my hesitation.

“Yeah.”

“I hope they have scallops.”

“They do.”

“I love scallops,” she confided happily, and squeezed my arm. “Isn’t this the best day ever?”

*   *   *

I offered to call Ms. Barney over the weekend to let her know that Callie would be enrolling in the high school temporarily on Monday. Mac was uncharacteristically nervous about the whole procedure and I couldn’t say I blamed him. So I agreed to go along with him and Callie on Monday morning. That’s how I found myself once again walking down the hall of Lighthouse Cove High toward the principal’s office.

Ms. Barney had already contacted Callie’s principal in Bel Air to let him know she would be attending here for the next two weeks or so. I had warned her that Callie had been suspended, so it wasn’t a surprise. We’d managed to squeeze the truth out of Callie over di

Once the shock and horror wore off, Mac and I both agreed that the world was a much different place than when we were in high school.

Ms. Barney gathered up all the forms Mac had filled out and stuck a big paper clip on them to keep them together. “Callie, I’m assigning you to Mr. Jones’s homeroom class. I’ll take you there now, if you’d like me to.”

“Yes, please, ma’am,” Callie said, clearly nervous. She shifted her backpack that I’d filled with various office supplies the night before.

“I guess we’ll be going,” Mac said, “unless you need anything else from me.”

“No,” the principal said. “I think we’ve got all the forms and information we require.”

She and Mac shook hands and Ms. Barney said, “Thank you so much for coming in with Callie. And if you ever want to be a guest lecturer, our creative writing students would love to hear all about the life of a thriller author.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Mac said. “Maybe when my next book comes out.”

“Wonderful,” she said, winking at me.

I gri

“And thank you so much for bringing Callie to Lighthouse Cove High,” she added. “We’re lucky to have her.”

Callie beamed, and I wanted to hug the older woman for making the teenager feel welcome.

“Behave yourself,” Mac said, giving Callie a tight hug. “Play well with the other kids.”

“Uncle Mac,” Callie said. “You’re so silly.”

“I love you, kiddo,” he whispered. “Call me for a ride home.”

“Okay.”

“See you later, Callie,” I said, giving her a hug.

She hugged me back. “Thanks, Sha

Mac grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the principal’s office before we both burst into tears. As we walked down the hall to the exit, he exhaled heavily. “Jeez, why do I feel like I’m deserting my five-year-old at her first kindergarten class?”

“I feel the same way.” He pushed open the door and I walked outside onto the steps. “But she’s in good hands with Ms. Barney and especially with Mr. Jones. I should warn you that she’ll be in love with him by the end of the day.”

“Oh, great.” We crossed to the quad and walked toward the parking lot. “I’m not having the birds-and-bees talk with her.”

I laughed out loud. “Something tells me she’s way ahead of you there.”

“Yeah. And that’s just sad.”

*   *   *

Mac had decided to let Callie stay in the second garage apartment, but, strangely enough, Callie wasn’t all that thrilled to have her own private space.

Earlier that evening, the three of us had spent an hour in my kitchen, talking about Callie’s first day at school. She could barely stop talking about Mr. Jones, just as I’d warned Mac. Then uncle and niece went off to di

My kitchen doorbell rang about nine o’clock. I was already in my pajamas and about to bundle up on the couch and watch a couple of shows before going to bed. I checked through the window to see who it was, then opened the door.

“Do you mind if I watch television with you?” Callie said. “I mean, unless you’re going to bed.”

“Not yet,” I said. “Come on in.”

“It weird,” she said as she curled up in the opposite corner of the couch from me. “I’m always alone at home and it doesn’t bother me. But here I’d rather be with other people.”

“That’s not weird. You’re in a strange place, and the garage apartment is basically set up to be a hotel room. It’s not the coziest place in the world.”

“Oh, it’s wonderful—I don’t mean that. I guess after going to all this trouble to be with Uncle Mac, I kind of want to . . . well.”

“You want to be with Uncle Mac.”

“Yeah. And you, too. Do I sound like a big baby?”

I felt bad for her. Callie was hungry for family and the kind of cozy home I had growing up. I didn’t know enough about Mac’s sister to make any judgments, but it sounded like her career was high pressure. With that stress and the traveling she had to do, it wasn’t surprising that she didn’t make it home often. And two bodyguards didn’t make for much of a warm family setting.

“Not at all,” I said. “You sound like you want your family around.”

“I guess so.”

The show began, and we were quiet until the commercial break. I muted the TV and turned to Callie. “So, tell me more about school. Did you like your classes?”

“Yeah. I did. And Mr. Jones is amazing, as I already mentioned.”

“More than once.”

She laughed. “And I had lunch with a couple of girls. Ms. Barney asked them to hang out with me, but they didn’t seem to mind. They were nice. Normal.”

I smiled. “We’re pretty normal around here.”

She pulled the blanket tighter around herself. “They told me something creepy, though.”

I frowned, hoping they hadn’t told Callie something that might have offended her. “What’d they say?”

“They said that there was some girl who died a bunch of years ago and that they just found her bones in my uncle’s new house.”

I couldn’t lie to her. “Yeah, that happened.”

“That’s so terrible.” She rubbed her arms as though she were cold, but I figured she was shivering from the story the girls had told her.

“It happened a long time ago. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“But it happened at Uncle Mac’s new house. Don’t you think that’s awful?”

“I do, Callie.” I made a quick judgment call and decided to tell her the truth about Lily. “I knew the girl who died. And I was there the other day when they found the bones. And, yeah, it was awful.”