(You’ll only find this here!) Here’s the first chapter of the latest book in The Atticus McLaren Mysteries series by Spring Horton. It’ll be published by us, and available on Amazon and Smashwords (others to follow!) on January 1st.
Chapter One
Scout McLaren glanced at his watch for the hundredth time. It was mid-autumn in Edinburgh and heavy drops of rain slid down the windows as he looked out at the airport runway. Mercifully, Atticus’ plane from Shetland hadn’t been delayed and was just pulling up to the jetway. Scout didn’t think he could take any more waiting, though he was nervous at the same time.
Since setting up a liaison job with the Shetland museum, Atticus had been back to the islands twice since his first visit that summer on an archaeological dig. It had been going smoothly so far as had…other things, apparently. He’d phoned up a few days before he was scheduled to come home and announced that he wouldn’t be coming alone. He’d be bringing a friend.
Scout had heard all about Drake Mallard after Atticus’ first trip and had been happy that his brother was expanding his friendship circle. However, by the time he came home from the second trip, it had become clear that there was more to it than that. What exactly that meant wasn’t clear to Scout, and maybe not even to Atticus, but the idea of meeting this man still made him nervous.
“I think that’s their plane,” Freddy Spinner said, casually. She was more curious than nervous, though she had to admit that Drake had felt like a rival at first. She was used to being Atticus’ only real friend.
“Yeah,” Scout answered, even more absently and rocked on the balls of his feet as the passengers started to disembark. He caught himself and chuckled. He was starting to pick up some of his brother’s habits. He sensed Freddy scooting closer to him and he could swear she was holding her breath too. It seemed to take forever and he started to worry that they’d missed the flight. Eventually, though, he saw a bag through the crowd that was definitely his brother’s. He couldn’t see Atticus, but walking beside him was a man at least six inches taller with fuzz short hair and a vibrant smile. Scout felt his mouth open a little and he looked over at Freddy, whose jaw had dropped completely.
When the crowd cleared a little, Atticus spotted his brother and best friend. “That’s them,” he said to Drake and then made a beeline over to them.
Drake noticed the pair looking a little surprised, but he didn’t think much of it. Instead, he simply stepped up next to Atticus and gave them a happy go lucky grin. He nodded at Freddy, who was still staring.
Atticus gave Scout and Freddy short, slightly awkward hugs and then said, “This is Drake. That’s my brother, Scout.” He waited while the two men shook hands a little tentatively and then said, “And this is my friend, Freddy.”
“Well, how do?” Freddy said with a slight southern American accent and gave him a flirty look. When he blushed, she shook his hand, laughing.
Atticus, on the other hand, frowned at her in confusion. This only caused her to laugh harder. She stepped closer so she could lean into his ear.
“You forgot to tell us your boyfriend was so handsome,” she whispered.
Atticus sputtered and he spun around to see if anyone else had heard. Freddy only winked at him and then at Drake, who shook his head and chuckled.
“So, um, Drake, Atticus tells me you’re a police officer,” Scout ventured as they made their way to the luggage racks.
“Yeah,” he answered with an emphatic nod. “You too, right.”
A small smile touched Scout’s lips. He knew his brother’s attention to detail wouldn’t have let him leave out the fact that he wasn’t one anymore. Apparently, Drake was being polite and trying to build camaraderie. He appreciated it, but it sparked a little worry in him again. He and Atticus must have been getting very close indeed if he was worried about what Scout thought.
Finally, he shrugged and said, “I retired a few years ago.”
“And now you help Atticus solve all these mysteries he stumbles into?”
Scout snorted. “Among other things. He does get in over his head with these things, sometimes.”
“I noticed,” Drake commented, laughing himself. He noticed that the man seemed a bit nervous and protective, which he could understand, so he hoped he could put him at ease.
Behind them, Atticus trailed behind with Freddy. He looked a little nervous himself, which Freddy picked up on right away. She put an arm around his shoulder and smiled when he looked up at her.
“It’ll be alright, you know. I bet they get along just fine.” When Atticus only frowned, she said, “What is it?”
“I haven’t told him yet.”
“Told him what?”
Scout picked up Atticus’ bags from the conveyer belt and said, “He hasn’t told you yet, has he?”
“Told me what?” Drake asked.
“My brother lives in a garden shed. There’s barely room for him so we decided it would be…easier if you stayed at my place,” Scout finished with a sigh.
Drake’s mouth fell open, but after a moment, he nodded. “Yeah, okay, that makes sense.” He grabbed his bag from the conveyor and then noticed Scout was smiling a bit like the Cheshire Cat. “What is it?”
“The more you get to know my brother, the more you’ll find that a lot of things don’t make sense.”
As they drove into the city, the rain continued to pour. They’d decided to drop off Atticus’ luggage before getting Drake settled in. The traffic slowed as they neared the city centre, Scout cursing under his breath.
Atticus shot him a sideways glance as if his brother might be insulting their guest. When Scout simply ignored him, he huffed and looked out the window. “You know, they have even more types of rain in Shetland.”
“Like what?” Freddy asked from her spot next to Drake in the backseat.
“Driving,” Atticus enthused. “If you stand outside in the wind, it’ll pelt you in the face.”
Drake nodded. “Feels like being slapped in the face with gravel too.”
“Sounds a bit like the Lake District that time,” Freddy commented.
“Yeah, it was a bit like that,” Scout agreed, remembering his night outside in it.
As they parked on a street near Arthur’s Seat, Drake leaned into the window and looked up at a large house on a hill. “That does not look like a garden shed,” he commented in awe.
Freddy giggled and pointed to the hedge at the bottom of the hill. “It’s in there.”
“Oh,” he mumbled and then got out to unload bags from Scout’s boot.
Freddy waited until Atticus had joined him and then said to Scout, “Do you think we should let them go alone?”
Scout frowned into the mirror and then looked away. “Yeah, why not?”
Atticus was both eager and nervous to show Drake his home. Even though the temperatures had turned cold at that point, and most of the flowers had quit blooming, the garden was still green and lush. He quickly opened the gate and started to go through. He stopped about half way, though, and then backed up and waved Drake through.
The detective chuckled and gave him a little nod as he brushed past. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. He’d heard Atticus talk about his home and garden many times before, but it hadn’t been an exaggeration. He stepped inside the hedge and his eyes widened as he took in every corner, from the oak tree to the rose garden. Right at the back, the small cottage grabbed his attention. It was covered in ivy and truly was tiny.
“You live in there?” he said, he voice a mixture of awe and disbelief.
“I told you it was a garden shed,” Atticus muttered, not sure how to read Drake’s reaction.
Drake, on the other hand, could sense the distress in the other’s voice. “It’s beautiful,” he quickly added. “Small, but beautiful.”
Slowly, a smile crept across Atticus’ face. “It’s great for one person. It has everything I need. Would you like to see it?”
“Yeah, definitely!”
They carried Atticus’ luggage inside and plopped it down on his little sofa. Drake started chuckling almost as soon as they walked through the door. Atticus was getting used to his happy go lucky mannerisms and assumed that it was a good thing.
“It took a lot of work to convert it,” he informed the detective. He looked over his terrariums. They weren’t in perfect shape but were none the worse for wear. “Freddy takes care of things while I’m away,” he added, absently and went about watering things here and there.
Drake was content to wander on his own, not that it took long to see the whole house. He blushed a bit as he found the bedroom, tucked behind its curtain, and then laughed at both his reaction and the ridiculous size of the bed.
“Are you sure you’re the only one who lives here? I thought you were single,” he teased and raised an eyebrow.
Atticus frowned and then watched as he cocked his head toward the bed. “Oh,” he blurted and then blushed too. “I like being comfortable.”
“I can see that.”
After a few more minutes, the two of them came walking back out to the car, neither of them noticing Scout and Freddy settling back into their seats from where they’d been watching from the windows.
“I told you he’d like it,” Atticus announced, almost defensively, as the two of them got back in the car.
“It’s a great little cottage,” Drake confirmed, wondering if there was always tension between the brothers. Then again, from what he knew of Atticus so far, the tension was a bit of a thing.
They made the short drive to the Portabello neighborhood and unloaded at Scout’s very different house. Drake had only managed a week off from the Shetland constabulary and had only brought one pack with a few clothes and some toiletries. He imagined he’d be out with Atticus or exploring on his own most of the time and didn’t need much.
Scout showed him to the spare bedroom and awkwardly went over the niceties. He was still reeling from the surprise Drake had been and the fact that he was still no closer to understanding what kind of relationship the man had with his brother. It felt it would be rude to ask, though, so instead, he whipped up dinner for everyone and tried to act like everything was normal. Not that their lives were anything remotely like normal.
To his and Atticus’ surprise, Freddy and Drake hit it off immediately. They sat next to each other and joked for most of the meal. Eventually, Atticus even got in on the act, seemingly more relaxed than his brother had ever seen him. Scout sat on what felt like the other end of the table and simply watched. Most of his emotions toward his brother had always been mixed, but more than anything, he’d always wanted Atticus to be OK, happy even, if he could find it. As he watched the three of them being silly, he had to smile at the thought that, just maybe, his brother had found it.
Divergence Productions 