Check out this fall-ish excerpt from The Murder Lawyer.
The temperature dropped fast as gusty northwest winds developed in the early afternoon. What started out as a crisp autumn day turned into a downright chilly evening. The wind picks up the fallen leaves on the sidewalks, and they move in a circular motion, floating up in a tiny leaf tornado. Ian, riding in a vintage, red Radio Flyer wagon, another flea market gift from her dad, reaches out his little hands to catch the leaves as they rise. Last year, they dressed Ian up for Halloween as a pumpkin and stayed home passing out candy. This is the first year they’ve joined in on the craziness of neighborhood trick-or-treating. Luna had been looking forward to the evening, but after a long day in court listening to Janie’s testimony, she realizes she’s simply going through the motions.
“Here. It will warm you up,” Mark says, handing her a plastic tumbler.
She takes it from him, sips the hot liquid, and smiles. “What’s in here?”
“That’s called an adult hot chocolate.”
“Brandy?”
“You know it. Your mom made it.”
Mark pulls the wagon, navigating around the mobs of people standing around talking and watching their children run up and down the street collecting candy from the houses. Luna wonders how many years they get to do this with Ian before he doesn’t want them holding his hand and walking him to the doors. She knows he’s only two and that time is way off in the future, but she also knows that time moves fast, and kids grow up way too soon.
“You ready, buddy?” Mark asks as he stops the wagon.
Ian grins at him and untangles himself from the blankets on his lap. Luna didn’t want him to get cold, but as she watches him try to free himself from the four fleece blankets she piled on him, she realizes maybe she went a tad overboard.
“Here, sweetie, let me help,” she says.
Ian puts up his hands and pushes her away. “Me do, Mommy.”
She steps back and lets her son extricate himself from the blankets. Once he’s free, he scrambles over the side of the wagon and gets down on all fours, crawling across the sidewalk.
Mark laughs. “Let’s stand, buddy. This puppy uses two legs, not four.”
“Wait!” Luna says. “I need a picture.”
Mark turns Ian around, whispers in his ear, and then they both deliver big, toothy smiles for the camera. Luna smiles too and watches them walk up the steps to the house.
“Cute kid,” says a woman’s voice behind her. Luna turns around. A woman wearing a Mardi Gras mask and a black bodysuit is also watching Ian and Mark walk up the stairs.
“Thanks. Nice costume,” Luna says. She’s noticed a few of the other parents dressed up and wonders if that is the thing now, dressing up with your kid. God, she hopes not. Does she really want to start that tradition? It’s hard enough finding a costume for Ian. She can’t imagine trying to come up with clever family costumes each year.
“Which one’s your child?” Luna asks.
The woman waves her off. “Oh, I don’t have kids.”
Luna frowns. The woman smiles, but the mask makes the gesture look sinister rather than inviting.
“Mommy! Looky what I got!” Ian’s tugging on her jeans. He’s clutching a fruit roll-up in his tiny fist.
“Sorry to bother you,” the masked woman says as she slips away.
“We’ll try for something better like a full-size Hershey bar at the next house,” Mark tells Luna. He winks at her and helps Ian back in the wagon. “Who was that?”
“I have no idea. Just some random woman with no kids dressed up for Halloween.”
“Huh,” Mark says. “That’s weird. She didn’t tell you her name?”
“Nope.” Luna puts her phone in her pocket. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“You do, huh?” Mark raises an eyebrow.
“You’re thinking that you’d like for me to pull this wagon for a while.” Luna smiles, takes the wagon’s handle from him, stands on her tiptoes, and kisses his chin. He gives her a half-smile.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asks.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?”
“What? That woman? I don’t know. Maybe, but it is Halloween. Lots of strange on this day. On the way to court this morning, I saw two clowns and a Care Bear squeezed into one of those tiny microcars. I wouldn’t worry about that woman.”
“Luna—” Mark walks toward her with an unfamiliar look on his face that makes Luna’s stomach lurch.
“Mark,” she says firmly, “nothing is wrong. You’re being paranoid. Let’s just have fun trick-or-treating with our son.”
She moves ahead of him, pulling the wagon behind her, and lets the crowd of people swallow them. She’s not going to let some strange woman ruin her night, but when she looks back and sees Mark standing among the crowd straining his neck to find the woman, she wonders if maybe she should be more concerned.
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