What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2

than that if you don’t want. I’m not looking for anything serious right now, and I know you’re not.”
“Definitely not.” Feeling mischievous suddenly, Sam stuck his hand out and grinned. “So. Friends with privileges?”
“Hell yeah.” Dean grasped Sam’s hand and they shook. “Now let’s see what’s hiding in this courtyard, what about it?”
“Can’t wait.”
Sam kept a smile firmly fixed to his face as the group went to work finding where the pit lay. All the time, he felt Bo’s gaze on him, tickling the back of his neck, but refused to let himself think of what that might mean.
    When the group left the school an hour later, it was with a subdued air hanging over them. Although Dean had measured off the proper distance not once, but three times, they’d been unable to find anything. Every time it seemed they were getting close to the right spot, they seemed to lose their way. It was puzzling, and horribly frustrating.
    “I can’t believe we couldn’t find it,” Sam groused, tossing the hard hat into the plastic bin still sitting on the front steps. “We had an exact measurement, why’d we keep…” He fumbled for the right words. “I don’t know. Getting lost.”
    Yes, that’s right. We got lost on the way. It was an odd thought, but it felt right. Sam didn’t like that at all.
“Well the measurement wasn’t really exact.” Dropping his hard hat into the bin, Dean walked down the steps at Sam’s side. “Pretty close, but not one hundred percent. That’s probably what it was.”
“Even so, we should’ve been able to find the place.” Frowning, Sam shook his head. “It was weird, Dean.”
“Maybe we can come look again.”
“We can look around the courtyard again,” Bo chimed in, making Sam jump with his unexpected presence behind him. “But the police have asked that we stay out of the tunnels for now.”
Startled, Sam turned to look at Bo. “Why? I thought they were done gathering what evidence they could.”
“They are, but they want to investigate the tunnels themselves.” David sauntered down the steps and leaned with Dean and Sam against the side of the SUV. “I talked with the girl cop, Carrie—”
“Officer Wright,” Cecile corrected, giving him a narrow look. “Now who’s flirting, Casanova?”
David laughed. “You know you’re my one and only, baby.”
“Good thing for you.” Standing on tiptoe, Cecile brushed a kiss across David’s mouth. “You were saying?”
“Oh yeah.” Pulling Cecile against his chest, David resumed his story. “So Car—I mean, Officer Wright, sorry—said they’d probably be done by tomorrow evening sometime.”
“Too late to do anything much before the holiday,” Andre said as he walked up to join the others. “Bo, why don’t we plan on coming back here Friday to get EMF, EVPs and video? We have more research to do on this case, and there’s a couple of other cases we need to do preliminary research on, plus we have permission to interview a couple of students who saw the missing kids before they disappeared. That’ll keep us busy the rest of today and tomorrow.”
“Good idea.” Bo wound the end of his braid between his fingers, his gaze restless. Sam couldn’t help but think Bo was trying not to look at him. “Let’s get back to the office. We’ll grab some lunch and divide up the work.”
Sam watched Bo as the group dispersed, climbing into the two SUVs for the trip back to the BCPI office. Bo’s gaze remained downcast, stray locks escaping his braid to shield his face from prying eyes. It made Sam ache to see Bo hiding like that, and to no longer have any right to hold him and kiss away his pain. He knew Bo was hurting. Just because Bo had broken it off with Sam didn’t mean he felt nothing for him. In fact, Sam suspected Bo’s fear of his own feelings played a large part in the break-up.
Not that it mattered. It was over, and they’d both just have to live with that.
Turning resolutely away from Bo, Sam climbed behind the wheel of the first SUV and started the engine. Beside him, Dean reached over and patted Sam’s thigh. Sam returned the smile. Friends with privileges might be just what he needed.
The afternoon passed quietly. David, Dean and Andre finished reviewing the video they’d taken Saturday at the school, while Sam, Cecile and Bo made phone calls and did internet research related to other cases they were considering.
At four o’clock, Bo emerged from his office looking stressed and