He still felt guilty about digging up his neighbor’s dead pet and remorse about invading his privacy. Staring at the tin box sitting on the dining-room table didn’t help matters. If anything, it only reinforced the lesson he had learned next door—that some things were meant to stay buried. “Are we really doing the right thing here?” he asked. Kat sat next to him, nodding gently. “Isn’t this what your mother wanted?” Eric’s mother wanted him to find Charlie. He wasn’t sure she ever imagined that digging up things she had once buried would be a part of that. But apparently it was. Now he had to decide whether to go through with it or not. To her credit, Kat remained patient as he thought through his dilemma. She had sent James home with Carl Bauersox, asking the deputy to keep an eye on him until she returned. Eric was certain she wanted to do that sooner rather than later. He was also pretty sure that, having been the one to unearth the box, she wanted to see what it contained.
