Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.

Unable to sleep, I listened to my owl. I’d gone to Vincennes to see if I could get Jenny to come home with me tonight. There’d been no visits from my ghost while Jenny slept in my arms, and I selfishly wanted her with me every night.

Instead I’d left without asking her. Christine was my problem to deal with. When Jenny was in this bed with me, it would be because it was what we both wanted, not for her to stand sentry while I slept.

Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.

Was he out hunting? I hoped he had success finding a mouse. As I drifted off, I imagined I was flying through the night with him. When I was a kid, I used to have flying dreams but hadn’t had one as an adult. They were fun, and I wished I still had them. After having one, I’d wake up exhilarated, as if I were on top of the world. I hadn’t felt like that in a long time. A few times with Jenny I’d come close to believing I could be happy again.

The owl swiveled his head, studying me with big round eyes. “Hoo,” he said.

I looked down at the ground, far below. Even asleep, I knew I was dreaming, but I held on to the illusion. “I just want to fly with you for a few minutes.”

The owl blinked, and I took that as acceptance. We flew over the tops of trees, down into the valley, and then traveled up the side of the mountain looking for mice.

“There,” I said, pointing to the ground in a clearing where a mouse scurried across the grass. The owl swooped down as I hovered above, excited about his catch.

“You can’t fly, Dylan. Silly man.”

“Yet I am. Go away, Christine.”

She yanked on my arm, bringing me back to the bed. “I can’t go away. We have unfinished business.”

Maybe we did. “I’m sorry for not being there for you when you needed me. I live with that regret every day.”

She smiled the way she used to when everything was right between us. “That means everything to me, but can you ever forgive me for what I did?”

I hadn’t thought I ever could, but a woman with red hair and laughter dancing in her green eyes crystalized in my mind. The truth settled in my heart. If I couldn’t forgive Christine, I’d never let her go, and I didn’t want her standing between Jenny and me. For the first time, I was ready to let go of my wife.

“I loved you with everything I was, Christine. You know that. I never gave us a chance to find our way back to what we’d had together. For that, I’m sorry. I don’t hate you anymore. You’ll always own a piece of my heart, but we need to let each other go.”

“But can you forgive me?”

If she’d asked me that one day ago, my answer would have been no. I’m not sure what changed. Maybe that I was tired of holding on to my misery. Maybe because I’d flown with an owl, reminding me that I liked being happy. Or maybe it was because I wanted that green-eyed girl in my bed without a ghost between us.

“I forgive you, Christine. I do.”

She disappeared. I knew she’d never come back.

The clock said it was 3:00 a.m. when I eyed it. As I sat there in the middle of my bed, I made a mental rundown of my vitals. My breathing was calm, my heart softly beat, and my mind was blessedly free of the guilt that had lived with me for the past two years.

My therapist had told me that her visits were a creation of my mind and that this would happen when I could both forgive her and myself. He turned out to be a smarter man than I’d given him credit for.

“Be at peace, Christine,” I whispered, sitting there alone in the dark.

Hoo. Hoo, the owl said, sounding as if he were right outside my window.

I smiled, wondering if he knew I’d flown with him tonight. Christine would always be a part of me, would always own a piece of my heart. That I hadn’t lied about. But she was finally resting in peace. I punched my pillow back into the shape I wanted, then went back to sleep, dream-free.

“So you’re just going to let her go free after she murdered Billy?”

I came close to telling Moody that he needed a good mouthwash and get the hell out of my face. Since I was in my new Zen state, I just shrugged. “I’m not her judge or jury, Moody. She made bail and she has an attorney.”

He fisted his hands as if he planned to plant one on my face. I could look mean when the situation called for it, which this did. Narrowing my eyes, letting them go cold, I poked him in the chest. “Back off. That’s an order.”

“You son of—”

“I don’t think you want to finish that sentence, Captain”—emphasis on the Captain because his ability to use that title was limited to how soon I could fire him—“because if you do…”

Okay, I’d lost my cool, which wasn’t at all cool. I took a deep breath. We were in the bull pen with my other cops looking on, and I’d almost told my captain that I was going to knock him on his damn ass. Every single one of them looked ready to start placing bets on the outcome of a fight between Moody and me.

“In my office,” I said to Moody. “The rest of you, find something constructive to do.” Apparently they knew I meant business because they scurried off like rats. I stalked Moody down the hall, closing the door behind me after we’d both stepped into my office.

The only thing this man understood was brute force. I invaded his space, backing his fat ass against the wall. “You want to take me on, be at Valley Gym tonight at six. Otherwise, Captain, you need to keep your mouth shut. Don’t ever disrespect me like that again.”

He clamped down on his bottom lip so hard that a trickle of blood dripped down his chin, but he kept his mouth shut. Lucky for him I’d woken up in a good mood, willing to give him leeway that I wouldn’t have yesterday.

I stepped back. “Do we understand each other?” I didn’t doubt that there were a thousand words he wanted to spit at me, but he only nodded. “Good. See yourself out.”

Since I’d made the challenge, I was at Valley Gym at six, but Moody never showed. At least he wasn’t totally stupid. I worked out for an hour before going home. Christine didn’t visit that night, and I knew she wouldn’t be back again. Nor did I fly with my owl, which was disappointing.

Dressed in a dark gray pin-striped power suit, white shirt, and red tie, I walked into the town hall building Thursday night, taking a seat near the front. Two councilmen were already at the table, deep in conversation, one of whom I knew was Adam Hunter, since I’d studied up on the councilmen.

The meeting wouldn’t start for another five minutes, so I took out my phone, tapped the screen for a few seconds, then decided what the hell.

Thinking about you and fireworks

She would be busy at the bar and wouldn’t see my text until later. Would she answer? I switched the phone to vibrate, then dropped it into my coat pocket. Although I’d been tempted to stop by Vincennes for a quick bite before this meeting, just to see Jenny, I’d resisted. Absence made the heart grow fonder and all that. I was hoping she’d miss me between now and Saturday.

The mayor came in, gave me a curt nod as he passed to take his seat at the table. So Jim John was still annoyed with me for how I’d pushed my way into this meeting. He’d get over it soon enough. Buddy Ferguson and Freddie Barnes walked in together. I nodded to them both.

Peanut Man was a sly fox. I’d stopped by his stand—Friendly Freddie’s—this morning as promised, and he hadn’t said a word about tonight’s meeting even though he was aware I was on the agenda. I’d had Buddy make sure each councilman had a copy of my new budget to study. Although I knew Freddie was one of the three—having done my homework—I hadn’t mentioned it either.

As for boiled peanuts, they were just weird. Not bad tasting, but peanuts should be dry and crunchy, not wet and mushy. I’d sat on a barrel for an hour, eating the damn things while listening to Freddie tell me the story of his life.

According to him, forty years ago he’d been a highly successful stockbroker in New York, then one day for no reason that he could point to, he quit, loaded up his belongings, moved to Blue Ridge Valley, and opened his stand, selling boiled peanuts, molasses, honey, and cheap souvenirs. It was anyone’s guess how much of what he said was true.

An older woman was the last to come in, and she took a place at the end of the table, opened a stenographer’s notebook, and wrote something. They still had their meetings recorded in shorthand? Who did that anymore? I smiled to myself, charmed by my new town.

Jim John opened the meeting by pounding a gavel on a block of wood as if the room were full of people, getting another private smile from me.

“Record that the monthly town council review meeting began promptly at six in the evening and all members are present,” he said.

I glanced at the stenographer to see her nodding her head as her hand flew over the page.

“We have a guest tonight, our new chief of police, Dylan Conrad. He will review and answer questions on a revised budget. Mr. Conrad, you have the floor.”

“Gentlemen, thank you for adding me to your agenda tonight. I trust you’ve taken a look at the revised budget I’ve submitted.” I quickly reviewed the changes I wanted, then asked for questions.

“I told y’all when we renewed our contract with Ed’s Garage that the old cuss was a crook,” Adam said. “I vote we approve the new budget.”

“About time our officers got rid of those baby-puke green uniforms,” Steve Sutton, owner of three motels, said. “I approve it.”

Freddie Barns sat back in his chair, eyeing me. I braced for whatever trouble he was going to throw my way. After spending time with him this morning, I’d come to the conclusion that he liked stirring things up.

“The chief liked my peanuts. I vote aye.”

I choked on a laugh, covering it up with a cough. Looked like I needed to learn to love boiled peanuts if that was all it took to get Freddie’s vote on something I wanted.

Jim John banged his gavel three times. “I approve. Your revised budget is accepted, Chief. Anything else?”

“No.” I stood. “Thank you for making time for me.” As I left, the first thing I wanted to do was call Jenny and tell her of my success, but she still hadn’t answered my text, so I went home and celebrated with a glass of wine on my balcony with my owl hooing in the distance.