“Hey, Coal,” Aspen said cheerfully. “This is my stepfather, Luke. Luke, this is my friend and neighbor, Coal. Would you like to join us?”
“Your stepfather?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Aspen said slowly, confused by my reaction.
I turned my attention to the man sitting across from her. “Care to explain, Uncle Luke?”
“Uncle?” Aspen blurted.
Luke sighed and gestured to an empty chair at their table. “Have a seat.” Then, he turned to Aspen. “I’m sorry I never told you about my family. Not talking about them is part of the job. I don’t like it, but it’s necessary for their safety.”
“For what it’s worth, I never asked,” Aspen admitted.
I cleared my throat, anxious for him to explain how he had a stepdaughter none of us knew about.
“Right. So, technically, Aspen isn’t my stepdaughter. I was in a relationship with her mother years ago, but we were never married.”
“And you still have a relationship with her even though you don’t have one with her mother?” I asked.
“It’s a long story. Do you have time to hear it now?”
“I’ll make time,” I told him.
“I’m familiar with this story and don’t need to hear it again,” Aspen said and looked at the time on her phone. “And I need to get back to work,” she said and all but ran for the door.
Luke exhaled slowly. “She doesn’t have a good relationship with her mother. Actually, she doesn’t have a relationship with her at all. It’s a touchy subject for her.”
“I’m starting to see that. So, what happened?”
“I met Aspen’s mother, Pamela, years ago while I was working on a case. She actively pursued me, and our relationship progressed rather quickly. We’d been seeing each other for a few months when the lease on my rental house was up for renewal. She asked me to move in with her, saying it’d really help her out since things were tough for her as a single mother. Since my job kept me away more often than not, I didn’t think living together would change much, so I agreed. I didn’t know until two years later that the whole thing was a ruse. Pamela was working for the man I was investigating. By eavesdropping on my conversations, snooping through my phone and emails, and having access to my schedule, she was able to give him all the information he needed to stay one step ahead of us.”
“How did you find out?”
Luke smiled sadly. “Aspen. Pamela and I didn’t have a great relationship, nor did Pamela and Aspen, but Aspen and I did. She was a great kid, and it was impossible not to love her. She thought her mother was cheating on me and didn’t know how to tell me. So, one night, she pretended to lock her keys in her car at work. She called me and asked if I could go by the house and bring her spare keys to her. I was in town on overnight surveillance with my partner but was able to leave long enough to get her keys. When I got to the house, I noticed the car parked in the driveway was the same one I’d been watching for months. Then, I saw the man himself in my living room having a heated conversation with Pamela. I listened outside the window until I heard enough to call for backup. We arrested both of them when my partner arrived. Then, as soon as I had a chance, I took the spare keys to Aspen. When I told her what happened, that her mother had been arrested, she confessed to lying about locking her keys in her car. Since I knew Pamela would be facing prison time, I bought the house we were living in and negotiated a shorter sentence for Pamela in exchange for custody of Aspen.”
“So you own the house she lives in now?” I asked.
“Yes. I kept it after she moved out so she’d always have a place to live if she needed one.”
“That explains why we’ve never seen anyone there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Game and I live in the house directly behind her. Our backyards share a fence. You’d know that if you ever bothered to visit me.”
“I would have if you’d bothered to invite me,” he countered.
“Fine,” I grumbled. “We both suck.”
“I feel a little better knowing you and Game are close by.”
“Why? Is there a reason to be worried?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Pamela’s in the wind, but I doubt she knows Aspen’s back in town. Even if she did, there’s no reason for her to bother her.”
“I wondered how she got a job at the bookstore.”
Luke shrugged. “She needed a job, and we needed the help. Being able to keep an eye on her was an added bonus.”