[2022 Wattys shortlisted story]
A missing family. A twenty year old murder. An old ghost story. And a private detective from London. But what do they all have in common? It's the job of DCI Neo Denzel to figure it all out.
In the quiet town of Mart...
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Neo groaned and turned carefully so he didn't end up sprawled over his living room floor. His back creaked with every movement as he pulled himself up. He flexed his arms, hearing the joints pop. He was too old to be sleeping on the settee. Sometimes being a gentleman was hard, he thought to himself.
But there was nothing that could have made him share a bed with a drunk Charlie. His emotions for her were already confused. He didn't need to make the waters even more muddied.
The sound of giggling had him dragging himself towards the kitchen. He licked his lips at the delicious smell wafting towards him.
'What's cooking?' But the words died in his throat when he saw Charlie flipping pancakes at his stove.
'The best pancakes ever!' Dante fangirled as he shoveled more into his mouth.
Charlie smiled at him over her shoulder and Neo made his way to an empty seat, not taking his eyes off her.
She'd changed out of the form fitting leather trousers into a pair of ripped skinny jeans, and her face was washed free of makeup. He was grateful for the change, knowing that he would have been tempted to ogle her perfect behind, something he would not want to do when his children sat a few feet away from him.
'Hey, Dad. Charlie fixed my computer. It's much faster now.' Willow beamed at him.
'That was nice of her,' Neo choked out. Despite clearing the air with her last night, he felt awkward. Somewhere inside of him he knew that the morning after was coming, but he'd been hoping to avoid her as much as possible. But, as usual, Charlie had her own ideas.
'It was easy really,' Charlie said, placing a plate piled high with pancakes in front of Neo. 'An olive branch. Thanks for last night.' Her eyes briefly connected with his before she turned to finish the rest of the pancakes.
Neo took one bite and moaned.
'They're that good, right?' Dante agreed. 'Where did you learn to make pancakes like this?
Charlie placed the last few pancakes on a plate and brought them to the table.
'When I was stationed at the Pentagon, you couldn't go to any diner before 11am and not have pancakes. I found when I came back, I missed the taste so I set about learning.'
Three pairs of eyes blinked back at her.
'You worked at the Pentagon? That's so cool,' Dante said wide eyed as his pancakes lay forgotten.
'I was on loan from MI6 for a few cases. The Americans needed someone good with electronics from time to time and it was good inter-country cooperation to loan agents out.'
'MI6? Were you a spy or something?' Willow's eyes were round as saucers.
Charlie laughed and shook her head. 'No. I was a cyber analyst.'
