CHAPTER 19

"Marco, I barely recognized you out of your suit! What are you doing delivering packages for Lance?"

Marco gave a grin. "This is a special occasion and Lance wanted to make sure that Mr. Radley got his belongings back." He gestured to the van on the road. "Do you remember the storage unit that had some stuff auctioned off? Lance hired a private investigator and was able to track down and recover some of it. I've been on the road for the last couple of days bringing them right over." He looked over her shoulder in disbelief. "I've come out here a couple times over the years and always seem to forget just how big the property is. Want me to help you take them inside?"

"Um, no, Mr. Radley isn't home right now and he's doing a remodel in the front hall." The lie slid right off her tongue. "But we can stack them next to the door, and when he gets home, he'll let me know where they can go."

"Yeah, sure thing." Marco went back to the van and slid open the door. "So you seriously moved in with this guy? Seems like a strange career move."

"He has a lot of assets and needed someone full time. The house is bigger than it looks. I've got my own room and everything. I hardly even see him some days."

Marco twisted his face in disbelief, but kept his thoughts to himself. Beth had heard through the rumor mill that some of her former coworkers thought she had become a gold digger. While it stung a bit, she was too busy living the dream in a monster house to worry about what others thought of her.

There were six medium-sized boxes in the van, so Beth had Marco pull up the driveway first. The freshly poured pavement went all the way around the maze, passing near the porch, and she was able to help him stack everything up by the door.

"Sorry Lance made you drive out here for this. I'm surprised that he didn't just have it Fed-Exed or something."

"Yeah, well, he didn't trust anyone else to do it. You see, this stuff has been bouncing around ever since the sale."

"What do you mean?"

Marco grinned and pointed to a thick stack of shipping labels on one of the boxes. "When the lot got auctioned off through New Castle, all of it got shipped to some place in Colorado. All of it except for a small batch of items that ended up in Seattle. And then Atlanta. And then San Diego. For whatever reason, it keeps getting lost in the system. Must be some sort of major glitch with the barcodes or something. It would eventually get found waiting in some warehouse, and then shipped off again. I don't know how, but Lance got ahead of the game and made a call to the guy who bought the stuff and offered to buy it back. Guy was happy to have the money, since his shipment never came, so here we are."

"That's really weird. All of these boxes kept getting lost? Why not just one or two?" Beth eyed the shipment with curiosity.

"Yeah, well..." Marco stared at the boxes for a few seconds, an odd look in his eyes.

"Something up?" Beth asked.

"I'm just tired. Been driving for the last few days and sleeping in the van. Lance didn't want me taking my eyes off of them, not even for a second. Nothing but fast food and all that, and long hours on the road."

"That all?"

Marco twisted his lips up, then let out a sigh. "Just exhausted, frankly. I'm that kind of tired where you get a little jumpy, maybe even feel like you're being watched. A couple of times when I was trying to sleep, I swear I heard something moving around back there. Like boxes moving, that kind of thing. Freaked me out is all."

"Yeah, I bet it's exhaustion. When I get really tired, I see shadows sometimes. Happened all the time in college, actually. Tell Lance thanks for me, will you?" Beth walked Marco back to the van. "And thanks for bringing these by. I really do appreciate it, and it was nice to see a familiar face."

"Yeah, no problem. Lance is paying me mileage and overtime, so I was happy to go on a road trip, make some bank, and... see a familiar face as well." Marco opened the door of the van, his cheeks red. "Take care, Beth."

"You, too." She waved at him as he backed down the driveway, which passed between the lions. Once he was gone, she turned her attention back to the boxes.

"Seemed a decent chap," Sulyvahn said, reappearing next to her. "What was that about?"

"When Mike inherited this house, some of the objects inside were mistakenly sold at an auction. I spent weeks trying to track everything down, but it was all bought by a thrift store, so it had been sold already. Now, apparently, some of the stuff has come back." She shrugged at him. "So that's a surprise."

"Providence is a fickle—"Sulyvahn froze, then leaned to the left to look around Beth. "Well, now. You don't see that everyday."

"See what?" Beth turned around to see that the six boxes were no longer stacked. Instead, they were now scattered across the front porch, and the one closest to the door was balanced perfectly on one of its corners, rotating in place. Beth took a step toward it and jumped when it tipped over and slammed against the wood of the porch, the contents rustling inside.

"Looks like you've some unpacking to do." Sulyvahn winked, then vanished once more into an inky mist, leaving Beth alone on the porch.