Sadie felt a strange warmth in her stomach, a kind of embarrassment, but also a pull to believe what he said. He had such confidence.
“When I read your profile,” he continued, smiling slyly, “I felt very strongly that you were an important part of this case and that God had led you to it.”
Sadie swallowed, that warmth growing as it traveled through her chest and arms, seeming to confirm what he’d said. God wanted her to work this case? Officer Nielson knew it? She was supposed to acknowledge that?
“But I’m not here to preach to you, despite all that God-talk,” he waved his hands in the air as though giving her permission to move past the questions he’d planted. “I just need your help with this case for the next few days. I don’t want to miss anything, and I believe you’re just the net we need to keep anything from getting away from us.”
“I’m humbled by the request,” Sadie said. “And I am happy to help you with this case. Um, thank you for asking.”
“Thank you for accepting,” he said, extending his hand across the desk. When they finished shaking on the deal, he pulled his hand back, and then he handed her a business card. “That’s my cell phone number—call it any time. I will do my very best to answer your call, any time night or day—and if I don’t answer, I will call you back as soon as I can. Call me with anything you might have—questions, updates, whatever you need.”
It was a surreal drive back to the hotel, where Sadie sat on the bed and processed the entire conversation again. Unbelievable. Then she hurried to her computer and updated her notes before going through them and revising them, with the understanding that they very well could be part of an official police file. She’d never worked with the police on purpose before—they’d never wanted her. It was a heady mental shift to make.
She lost track of time until Caro let herself into the room. “We’re late,” she said after the door shut behind her. She went straight to the closet where most of her clothes were hanging. “The memorial service starts in just forty-five minutes. We’re still going, right?”
Sadie turned in the desk chair to face Caro. “We’re definitely going,” she said as she stood up and went toward the dresser. The only skirt she’d brought was a cotton maxi skirt she could pair with a white tunic top and silver ballet flats. It wasn’t as dressy as she would normally wear for a memorial service, but she hadn’t planned to attend one when she’d packed for the trip. “You will not believe what happened while you were gone. I’ll tell you about it while we get ready.”
Chapter 12
Caro called Tess on their way to the memorial service and explained what had happened with Officer Nielson. Tess was surprised but also excited. Sadie couldn’t say she was looking forward to working with Tess. She didn’t like to think she held many grudges, but she was certainly hesitant to believe that everything would be good between them simply because they had the green light to continue forward.
They met outside the foundation building, which was located on the first floor of the same building Dr. Hendricks’s clinic was in. The first thing Sadie noticed when she saw Tess was the pin she wore on the collar of her purple dress. For one thing, the pastel pink of the pin and eggplant color of the dress didn’t match, but Sadie recognized the pin from the Pink Posy Boutique website she’d surfed last night.
“Is that the Posy Pin from the boutique?” Sadie asked as she pulled open the glass doors at the entrance of the building. There was a foyer area with an elevator and a staircase leading to the second floor, where the clinic was. The double glass doors that led into the foundation offices on the first floor were propped open, extending the space for the memorial service into the marble-floored foyer.
A warm smile spread across Tess’s face as she touched a finger to the pin. They walked through the doors, and Sadie patted herself on the back for getting a good response. Maybe the relationship between them could be repaired after all. “Isn’t it beautiful? Paul got it for me after my three-month-cancer-free check.”
“It is beautiful,” Caro said, leaning in to see it more closely once they were inside.
“Thanks,” Tess said.
“So it’s like a badge for survivors?” Sadie asked, following Caro and Tess.
“It’s not a badge. It’s a symbol of support for breast cancer awareness and increased research toward a cure. Anyone who wants to beat cancer wears it to show their desire for change, and all of the money for the pin is donated directly to breast cancer research.”
Sadie smiled politely, subdued by the somewhat snippy tone of Tess’s response.
“It’s lovely,” Caro said again. She looked at Sadie. “Maybe we should go to the boutique later and get one for ourselves to show our support.”
“Um, I’d love to go to the boutique,” Sadie said, sidestepping the fact that she wasn’t sure she wanted to spent two hundred dollars on the pin. She felt sure Caro would agree once she knew the price, but she didn’t want to bring it up in front of Tess.
“Now, just to clarify,” Tess said. “I’ll talk to Lori since I’m the one she canceled with this morning, right?”
Sadie had expected to be the one to talk to Lori.
“That’s a good idea,” Caro said before Sadie could say anything.
Sadie looked away, not wanting to argue with them. She’d just make sure she was close by so she could overhear the discussion and break in if necessary.
They continued across the foyer and into the foundation suite, where four easels held bulletin boards filled with pictures of Dr. Hendricks from his childhood through recent years. Sadie stepped up to the first one, eager to immerse herself in the life of this man who was becoming increasingly interesting to her.
The photos with his children made her especially sad, and she was reminded that, investigation aside, this memorial service was a tribute to a man’s life. She wanted to make sure she didn’t forget that. The walls of the foyer were covered with plaques of achievement, a billboard of community events, and a wall of photographs taken at various fund-raising events the foundation had sponsored. There were several photos from past Red Rock Cancer walks, most of them featuring Anita, Dr. Hendricks, Dr. Waters, and Nikki.
Caro soon joined Sadie in looking at the photos, while Tess visited with people she knew. They entered the Gathering Room, where the service would be held, about ten minutes before the memorial service was to start. It was a wide room with accordion dividers so the room could be divided into three sections when necessary. Sadie assumed this was where the support groups met that she’d read about on the foundation’s website. It was fitting for the memorial service to be held in the foundation offices, but it looked as though it would seat only about a hundred people. Sadie expected more people to attend than that.
An expectant hush was wrapped around the whispers being exchanged between attendees. Sadie scanned the room for Lori. It didn’t look as though she and her children had arrived yet. Anita Hendricks—Sadie recognized her from the pictures she’d seen—stood at the front of the room, welcoming people, exchanging quick hugs with acquaintances, and thanking them for coming. Sadie remembered doing the same thing at Neil’s funeral even though she’d felt on the brink of collapse with all the emotion she was holding back. It had been such a miserable day, and she felt for Anita and what this was likely costing her. A few feet away from where Anita stood was a large portrait of Dr. Hendricks. It tugged at Sadie’s heart that all they had left of this man were pictures.
An older couple Sadie assumed were Dr. Hendricks’s parents stood a few feet away from Anita, also exchanging greetings with attendees. Sadie’s heart broke for them, too. Though Sadie had struggled through the loss of many people she’d loved during her life, the idea of saying goodbye to one of her children made her chest tighten. Not to know what had happened to take him from them must make that pain even more excruciating.
“How well do you know Anita?” Caro asked Tess after they met back together to find seats.
“She and I t
alked on the phone a few times when she was helping coordinate my treatment plan, and I’ve seen her in the clinic when I’ve gone in for appointments with Dr. H, but I haven’t really talked with her. I don’t think she knows me.”
“What’s she like?” Caro asked. “I’m sure people have talked about her reputation and things.”
“She’s a business woman through and through, so I’ve heard people say she’s a little cold sometimes and no-nonsense, but at the same time she’s very generous, too. Nikki gets along with her really well, and I’ve always trusted Nikki’s judgment about people. She said since Dr. H’s disappearance, Anita divides her time between the clinic, the foundation, and the boutique to the point where she’s putting in fourteen-hour days six days a week. She told Nikki it keeps her from having to go to an empty house.” Tess stopped at the head of a row about halfway to the front and turned to look at Caro with sorrowful eyes. “Isn’t that sad?”
Sadie and Caro nodded while they moved to the center of the row. Sadie settled into her seat, with Caro on her right and Tess to Caro’s right. Without any pockets in her skirt, Sadie’d had to bring her purse, and she stowed it under her chair. She hoped she wouldn’t forget it when they left.
Anita had a handkerchief—not tissues—in her hand, and she kept dabbing at the corners of her eyes as she listened to people’s comments. She must have chosen waterproof mascara today because her makeup was perfect. Sadie wondered if Anita were counting to ten in her head over and over again, like Sadie had done at Neil’s funeral. It had distracted her just enough, and she didn’t break down until she got back home and stared at the fourth chair at the dinner table.
Tess turned in her seat to say hi to someone in the row behind them. Sadie focused on the portrait that stood in place of a coffin or urn. She’d seen the head shot before, though it was smaller and grainier in the newspaper articles. Dr. Hendricks had a receding hairline and short hair, nearly shaved, a round face, and a wide smile complete with parentheses lines on either side of his mouth. His teeth were too white to be naturally so. She’d seen photos of him online that had shown a rather non-athletic physique, on the thick side, if not a little bit chubby, but the head shot didn’t really show that. He didn’t look like Sadie’s idea of an outdoorsman, but it was easy to see him as Lori had described: good, kind, hard-working, and without a secret life. She turned to look toward the back of the room, surprised that Lori, or at least her children, weren’t part of the informal receiving line. Lori wouldn’t have changed her mind about coming to the service, would she?
“There’s Dr. Waters, Nikki’s husband,” Caro whispered, prompting Sadie to turn and look in the direction Caro was nodding. Dr. Waters was an attractive man, tall and lean with hair greying at the temples in that distinguished way men could pull off so well. He wore a grey suit with a blue tie. Nikki walked beside him, with three teenage children following behind.
Sadie watched the family file into the second row. Another man, looking equally prestigious, came in behind them and shook hands with Dr. Waters before sitting a few seats away from the family. Were they colleagues?
Anita came forward to shake hands with Dr. Waters and Nikki across the row of chairs between them. Was it Sadie’s imagination that Dr. Waters seemed to stiffen slightly when Anita spoke to him? Nikki Waters, on the other hand, seemed genuinely warm as she hugged Anita over the top of the chairs and shared some consoling thoughts—at least that’s what Sadie assumed she was sharing. Unfortunately, Sadie was too far away to overhear. She was close enough, however, to notice the Pink Posy Pin on the lapel of Anita’s jacket. When Nikki turned her way, Sadie could see that she also was wearing the pin.
Sadie began scanning the room, and from where she sat she could see at least a dozen women with the same pin and a few men who used it as a lapel pin or tie tack. It really did seem to be a thread that was woven into this community. Sadie admired the fact that the foundation had created a way for people to come together in such an important cause. At the same time, however, Sadie was watching Anita Hendricks dab her eyes, and she wondered if the handkerchief were even wet. There was something rote in Anita’s movements, though Sadie felt bad for thinking it. Still, it seemed like Anita was a little bit too composed and was trying to cover up her composure.
Tess saw someone at the back of the room and got up to say hello. The two women must not have seen each other in a while. They embraced and then moved to the side so they wouldn’t be in the way of people getting to their seats. Sadie scanned the room again—still no Lori—and noted that the seats were filling fast. They should have chosen a larger venue.
“There’s Lori,” Caro said, elbowing Sadie lightly. Sadie looked over her shoulder and watched as Lori hurried two children to the front row, a teenage girl and a boy the same age as Tess’s son. From the obituary Sadie knew their names were Kenzie and Joseph, though the son went by Joey. Lori looked nice in a brick-red dress with matching jacket that was almost as long as her knee-length skirt and nearly the same shade as her hair. Her gold pumps shouldn’t have matched, but they did somehow. Perhaps because she also wore a chunky gold necklace. And no Pink Posy Pin.
Lori had a polite but stiff smile on her face as she sat at the far end of the first row. Her children sat on either side of her, but they quickly got up and greeted their grandparents, who hugged them both and smiled through their grief. Anita approached the children as well. There didn’t seem to be any strain between them and their stepmother as she hugged each of them in turn. Sadie glanced at Lori and saw that she was looking at her phone. The woman Sadie assumed was Dr. Hendricks’s mother approached Lori, and Lori slid her phone into the pocket of her jacket and shook the older woman’s hand. Lori smiled, but she didn’t stand or talk to her ex-mother-in-law for very long. As soon as Mama Hendricks walked back to the children, Lori checked her phone again.
“Someone looks a little uncomfortable,” Caro whispered. Sadie glanced at her and saw that she was watching Lori, too.
Sadie nodded her agreement and considered going over to say hello to Lori. It would be a reasonable thing for Sadie to do after their talk last night, right? But Tess had already said she wanted to talk to Lori. A quick glance found Tess still in deep conversation with the woman she’d been talking to for several minutes now. Sadie hoped Tess would hurry and take advantage of this opportunity. The service would start soon.
“When you said something must have changed Lori’s mind about meeting with us,” Caro said, “did you think someone could have told her not to come to this? She looks like she’s ... nervous or something.”
Sadie shrugged and nodded at the same time. “Something significant has changed since last night. I sure wish I knew what.” It was killing her to just sit here and do nothing. Had Tess even noticed Lori’s arrival? “Should we go get Tess? She’s going to miss her chance to talk to Lori if she doesn’t hurry.”
“I’ll get her,” Caro said. She stood up to make her way out of the row they were sitting on at the same time Nikki tapped Lori on the shoulder from behind. Lori turned in her chair and her expression softened as they talked quietly with each other. Nikki seemed concerned about her, but Lori seemed to be insisting that she was fine. Caro and Tess were a few rows from the front of the room when a loud male voice brought them up short.
“Hey, everybody.”
Sadie’s gaze shifted to a man who’d come to the front of the room. He looked enough like the portrait of Dr. Hendricks for Sadie to assume they were brothers.
“If everyone could please take their seats.” He waited until the rustle of people obeying his request began to settle. Tess and Caro slid back into their seats. Tess smoothed her skirt over her thighs. She leaned in front of Caro and whispered, “Sorry, guys. I guess I didn’t see Lori come in.”
Sadie smiled her forgiveness but wished she’d taken the chance to talk to Lori herself. Now they would have to try to catch her at the end of the service instead, which narrowed their window and, therefore, their ch
ances of talking to her at all. The Hendricks kids returned to their seats, and Lori pulled her phone halfway out of the wide pocket of her jacket, glanced at it, and returned it to her pocket so she could put her arms around the shoulders of her kids. Was she expecting a call? Now?
Sadie thought back to the idea that someone might have told Lori not to be involved in today’s events, which may be the reason for her current mood. But Dr. Hendricks’s mother had spoken to her, albeit briefly—and why would anyone tell Lori to stay away when that might mean the kids would stay away with her?
Chapter 13
The man at the front of the room welcomed the guests, introduced himself as Josh, one of Dr. Hendricks’s brothers, and explained that he would conduct the service.
“We’ll have an opening prayer by my father, Eugene, and then my brother, Richard Hendricks, will read the obituary,” he said. “After that, Anita and my mother, Ruthie, will speak to us. There will then be a musical number and a closing prayer.” He looked toward the back of the room. “I’m sorry there aren’t enough seats for everyone,” he said, prompting the entire audience who did have seats to look around. There were at least forty people standing against the walls and in the limited space at the back of the room. The doors were open, and Sadie could see that the waiting area was also quite full. “But we’re very glad to have you all here in attendance.”
“I’m surprised that Anita’s giving a talk,” Caro said quietly, leaning toward Sadie as Josh Hendricks sat down.
Sadie nodded her agreement. Spouses usually didn’t speak, but, as Tess had said, Anita was a business women. A type A personality, Sadie assumed. Reliant on logic more than emotion. Sadie wondered what Anita would think about the discrepancy of Dr. Hendricks’s Cherokee not being at the trailhead when it should have been. In the next moment, Sadie wondered if she already knew. Not to view Anita with some suspicion was just stupid. There was a reason spouses were often the first person of interest in an official police investigation.
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