Chasing Demons

Chapter Thirteen

Around midnight the team assembled in the SUVs and drove off to the hotel. They interviewed nearly everyone in the neighboring towns, all of Nathan's friends at school, and searched in all the wooded areas.

The only thing they found was that backpack.

Liam got to his hotel door when he heard a commotion coming from inside. He put his hand on his weapon, ready to draw if needed and quickly opened up the door.

"Woah, Woah!" Lennie said in alarm, "Baby it's me."

Liam relaxed his hand and pulled Lennie into a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Julian texted me saying that you were having a rough time, and I know how difficult these cases are for you, so I decided that I will be staying here with you till the case is over."

"How did you get in here?" Liam asked in shock.

"I told the hotel manager I was your husband," Lennie answered proudly with a sly smile.

"What about the kids?"

"They'll be coming tomorrow. My brother is going to bring them down. I figured while you are working me and the kids could go swimming in the hotel pool and look around the town. I heard that it is beautiful."

Liam grinned. "There's a pool?"

They both made eye contact and ran out the door and headed towards the pool.

"Pools closed," said a black man behind the booth with gray hair wearing tiny square glasses.

Liam held up his qualifications. "But I'm an FBI agent," giving the man the look of a begging puppy.

"Good for you," said the man completely monotone, "The pool is still closed."

Liam pulled out a 20 from his pocket. The man in the booth shook his head as he took the cash and opened the gate to the pool.

Lennie took off all of his clothes.

"What are you doing?" asked Liam, loudly whispering.

Lennie jumped in the pool. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Skinny dipping in a PUBLIC pool!" Liam looked around, making sure no one was around.

"Come on ain't no one gonna come out, it's past midnight."

Liam looked back to the booth then back at Lennie, shrugged, undressed, and jumped in the pool.

Lennie walked to Liam, held him by the waist, kissed him and smiled. "I thought we would make a good memory out of swimming in a pool."

At around three in the morning, Lennie and Liam headed back to the hotel room.

Liam set his alarm for 7:30 and got into bed next to Lennie who fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Liam gazed at the ceiling for a while before falling asleep. There was just so much going on inside his head all at once, and he barely understood any of it.

Monday, March 30, 2020

Liam woke up at 7:30 the following morning and got in the shower. When he came out of the bathroom, Lennie was awake and sitting on the side of the bed holding Charlie's baseball.

"Whose is this?" he asked.

"That's the boy's in the hospital," answered Liam, "His father wants me to give it to him."

Liam flopped his back onto the bed.

"Last night was pretty great," said Lennie smiling.

Liam grinned. "Indeed it was."