A Hero's Secret

seven

..

"It's a tiny town." Dray paced back and forth. "How can you not know who has gotten married?" She added to her list of nonsense she developed as soon as they got back to Wells' place.

Wells lounged on the couch in his living room. His arms stretched out along the back cushions. "I'm sorry, let me go grab my book on relationships in Hero."

"Well, maybe if you were on social media, you'd at least have a lead."

His eyes widened in slight surprise, but a silly smile landed on his lips.

Dray groaned and sunk into the couch next to him. She may have creeped on every platform to find him and she may be frustrated at the lack of Wells Walden content on the internet. "Look," she continued, choosing to ignore her slip, "how are we supposed to figure this out? It's not like we can go around asking. That's a sure fire way to get caught.

Wells shook his hair out. "We're not even sure the ring has anything to do with it."

She slowly turned her head, looking to the typically much more paranoid man. "That ring was found at the same exact spot as the body and the bones you found!"

He laughed. "Just kidding, suspicious until proven coincidence." He patted her knee, an action that went not at all unnoticed, though her heart still pounded from his humorless joke. "I have a plan, anyway."

"Wells!" She jerked her body to the side so she faced him entirely. His hand fell off the back cushions as hers flew into the air. "Why didn't you say something?"

He remained sprawled out on the couch and wore his crooked smile. "I was getting to know you and your detective tendencies."

Dray pulled her knees to her chest and dropped her head on top. "You mean me freaking out," she muttered, but Wells just chuckled again. She peeked over at him with a smile she couldn't hide.

They sat in that moment for only a few seconds, but it felt much longer to Dray. She laughed to herself and pushed down the stereotypical feeling of frozen time. This new distraction made her stomach twist and turn.

She shook the thoughts from her head and sat up straighter. "What's the plan?"

Wells raked his fingers over his hair before looking at Dray. "Because Hero is so small, there is a literal dedicated lost and found room at the police station. If you find something, that's where you check. If it's not in the log book, you leave it in the room."

Dray snorted and cocked her head to the side. "I should have expected that."

"Someone will most likely see you in there and we will just assume that they'll tell the sheriff, so you can't say anything about the ring."

"I can just say I found a watch or something in my backyard." She shrugged. "Easy peasy."

Wells nodded with his placid expression with focused on her.