"And the telltale silence." Mack laughed so hard, he started coughing. "You still care."
"I don't know what I feel," he admitted quietly. "I've barely seen her since that weekend."
"And that means nothing, as you well know. Your life together stopped – waiting for you to solve the crime."
"Only she went on with her life." And he knew it wasn't fair, but there was a smidgeon of jealousy, almost anger, underneath his acceptance. Of course, he wouldn't have wanted her to be alone for all these years. She was a beautiful person. She deserved to be happy. No, he wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"And so did you."
Chad started at Mick's dry comment. "Yes, but not quite like she did."
"What? So you're mad she made a better go of doing without you than you did doing without her?"
That sounded so wrong when put like that. Juvenile. "Stupid, huh?"
"Ya think? Sounds like perfect timing now. Don't waste this opportunity."
"I thought you said she might be our perp?" Chad hated that about Mack. He always twisted things around and forced Chad to look at life in a different way.
"I said she might be. You're the one who is so gung ho that she's innocent." Mack's derisive tone sent Chad's back up.
"She is innocent."
"Good. I'm still trying to figure out why the hell you aren't at my desk so we can haul all the evidence back out and take another look." And he rang off.
Chad shook his head and stared at his dead phone. Typical Mack. And yet different. There was a hint of excitement in Mack's voice. And that was good.
Maybe this time they could find the answers they both needed.
***
Wow. And double wow. Mags and Chad back together again. Well, not together-together, but still close together. Who'd have thought this could happen? Then he hadn't foreseen this happening at all. Life was like that for him. He looked forward but only a day or two at a time. Certainly, not seventeen years down the road. What a waste. Life was for living, not worrying about what might happen too far down the road to see.
He shook his head. What a joke.
Still, this was an interesting turn of events. Not one that required action on his part. He was happy to observe and to see where it led. To see what Chad did and to see what Mags did.
She was the center to all of this anyway. At the time, he'd been dumbfounded, waiting for the fumbling, idiot police to lock onto the truth – and lock him up for the rest of his life. Then, after realizing they'd missed it altogether, he'd found it as funny as hell.
Everyone had focused on Cia; as if to say, this whole mess revolved around her. She'd have liked that. They'd missed the salient points and therefore had missed the center of the whole issue. From a point way off to the left, the authorities had fumbled around blindly. Of course they had never found anything. What was there to find? Well, Cia of course, but she was nothing but a whiney whore anyway.
No. No one had thought to look closer at Meg back then.
He smiled. Well, they would now, wouldn't they?
CHAPTER 10
Janelle barrelled into the kitchen and skidded to a stop. "Meg? What's wrong?"
Meg frowned, trying to pull her thoughts back to the moment. "Why do you think something is wrong?"
Walking toward her slowly, Janelle appeared to search Meg's face. "You're baking. Mom only baked when she was upset."
And what did one say to that? When would she stop feeling like she was stepping on ghosts? Meg stared down at the batch of brownies ready to pour into the pan. She instinctively headed to chocolate when she was upset, and baking brownies had seemed like a good answer.
Now...not so much.
"I'm sorry, honey. I was craving chocolate."
She watched as Janelle took several slow steps forward, her face a mixture of confusion and hope. "So, you are okay?"
She had to laugh. "I'm much better now. Just seeing you puts a smile on my face."
A beautiful smile lit up Janelle's face. And Meg realized how little time she'd taken to say something nice. God, she sucked as a mother. Her brother should've chosen better.
"Meg?" Uncertainty threaded through Janelle's voice. "Now something else is wrong."
Meg schooled her features, hating that Janelle was so sensitive. "No. Honey, I was just realizing how poor a job I've been doing looking after you." Meg walked closer and enfolded her in a gentle hug. "This is such a learning curve for me. I'm sorry, but you need to have patience with me."
Janelle's arms crept around Meg's back and then she hung on tight. Tears came to Meg's eyes and she cuddled her. There was such love here. And Pete wanted nothing to do with it.
How sad.
"Where is Pete?" Janelle pulled back slightly to look up at Meg. "Is he here?"
"No." Meg gave her a bright, but shaky smile. "He's gone for a day or two."
It took a moment, then Janelle's face brightened. "Really?" She stepped away. "That is great."
"It is?" Meg asked curiously. "Don't you like Pete?"
A shadow whispered across Janelle's face as she danced away from Meg. "He's okay."
"But only okay?" Meg pressed gently. Did Janelle really not like Pete? And if not, why not? Maybe separating would be a good idea, if only for Janelle's sake.
Janelle's dancing slowed and she stared down at the floor.
Meg caught her breath. "Janelle, can you tell me what you don't like?"
She caught a glimpse of Janelle's uncertain look before she hid her face behind her hair. Meg took a step closer. "Janelle, please tell me. It's important."
Her niece stilled, her shoulders hunched. Inside, Meg's stomach clenched. "Honey?"
So soft and gently, Meg had to lean closer to hear Janelle say, "He scares me."
"When he's angry?" Meg asked gently.
Janelle nodded, and then added, "And he's always angry."
Meg wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders. How could you explain that the anger was because he didn't want her? She couldn't say that. It would devastate her. "He's going through a lot right now. That's why he's left. To rest and relax and sort some stuff out."
There was silence and then Janelle whispered, "Is it wrong to hope he doesn't come back?"
The breath gusted out of Meg's chest. Here was another difficult question. "No. It's not wrong. Let's just hope that if he does come back that he comes back happy and wanting to be here." She wasn't ready to share her own plans until she had arrangements in place. Too many questions and no answers would only increase Janelle's insecurities. Better to wait until tomorrow. "In the meantime, I have some decisions to make. Just know that you will be with me no matter what. Okay?"
Janelle smiled. "Okay."
"Now, how about I get these brownies in the oven so we can have one after dinner?"
And now Janelle beamed.
For the first time in months, Meg enjoyed the evening with Janelle. There were no tantrums, no whining and no sign of tears. All because Pete had left.
Later that evening, after Janelle had gone to bed, Meg knew a corner had been turned.
Pete may have chosen a few days away, but that time and distance had also given Meg the clarity to see what she needed to do.
She wanted to move out – before Pete came back. Even if it was only a temporary move, she could see tonight just how much improved Janelle was without being in that constant negative atmosphere.
But moving out wasn't so simple. She had a house to go to, so that was a gift. But she'd have to contact the real estate agent and pull it off the market, at least for the moment. It was only a few miles away so Janelle could at least stay at the same school.
Only she'd have to deal with Janelle's emotional state if she moved her back into her old home, the home where she'd lived with her father. Meg probably should never have removed her in the first place. At the time, it seemed that staying with all those memories wouldn't be a good idea.
She set about making plans.
The mor
e plans formulated in her mind, the clearer became her understanding. The emotions settled inside.
This was the right thing to do.
With a notepad, she started on a list: pack up, contact the realtor, grocery shop for the house.
The house would be clean in the sense that it was good enough for house buyers to come by and look, but she'd have to go and change out the bedding. Janelle hadn't brought much with her to the condo, just a couple of suitcases. The rest was in the fully furnished house that Meg had pushed off as a problem to solve into some distant future when the house was sold. Instead, this was looking like a Godsend.
She studied her bedroom. She'd never been a clothes horse and being ready to travel at the drop of a phone call hadn't given her much time to accrue much. What she did have was boxes of treasures she'd brought home from her travels. They were in storage until she and Pete could buy a bigger house. They were well past that point now. Meg had a healthy bank account and although she needed to sort out her professional future in town, she had the qualifications, experience and the references to find something, somewhere, to make her happy
After Janelle's school year finished they could talk about changing locations. Maybe by then, Janelle would have settled in.
Either way, they'd have started a new life together.
***
Late that night, Chad walked into his bedroom, turning on the television as he headed toward the shower. He stripped down, dumping his clothes in the hamper, before stepping under the hot water. The water sluiced down his back, easing the tension that he'd been unable to get rid of all day. He needed answers.
Hell, he'd needed answers for a long time...
He stayed under the water for a few minutes longer, and then shut the soothing heat off. Drying quickly, he wrapped the towel around his hips and headed back to his bedroom.
He made it to the doorway of his bedroom and stopped short.
"Breaking news tonight. There may finally be a break in the Cia Barnes case. A set of female remains has been found in the area she disappeared seventeen years ago—"
"Shit."
"We'll have more of this latest news in a few minutes from our own Mike Clifford who is outside the apartment of Stephanie Thornton. She was one of the girls who was camping with Cia on that fateful weekend when Cia went missing."
"God damn it. Not Stephanie. She can't handle this." He reached for his phone and called her. Stephanie had been through so much. She didn't handle stress well.
Or anything else, for that matter.
He texted her immediately. Don't go outside. Don't answer the door. Media. The news is out.
After sending the message, he tried to call her again.
Still no answer. He tried several more times as he stood in front of the television and half watched the news coverage. The reporter was going on about the mess that had happened, but so far there was no sign of Stephanie showing up. They didn't appear to be saying anything they hadn't said dozens of times already over the years.
Thank God.
If they found out about that damn necklace, that would be seriously bad for the case, bad for everyone and really bad for Meg.
The public would convict her in a heartbeat.
***
Stephanie whimpered. She tucked deeper into her closet, hating the lights from outside that flashed into her ground floor bedroom, with the headlights and camera crews outside.
Damn it. Bruce should be here with her and protecting her from them.
She wanted to go back to the way things had been before when Bruce had still been her best friend and lover. She'd tried to resume a normal life after Cia, but their relationship hadn't been strong enough to handle her slide into alcohol. When she'd added the drugs, Bruce had walked.
She'd gone on an all-out bender then. She'd woken up years later, hating who she was and what she'd become. She'd hated Bruce for giving up on her.
She couldn't do this again, not alone anyway.
It had damn near killed her last time and at least she'd had Bruce then. She should have been the one to die, not Cia. It would have been so much easier than this long, slow torture. Tears burned in the back of her eyes. She'd shed so many over the years that they never fell anymore.
She'd used drugs, alcohol and men to dull the pain, to hide the fear, hoping that one of them would finish her off. Instead she'd survived. It had been two years since she'd made the decision to live, forget, move on and acknowledge that she'd suffered enough. Two years of feeling like maybe life was worth living; two years of thinking she could do this; two years since dumping the bad habits – all of them.
And she had finally started talking to Bruce again. It was only texting so far, but that door had been opened. For that she was grateful.
And then they had found Cia and everything had come rushing back; the pain, the terror, the endless nightmares, the what ifs and the constant looking over her shoulder. She didn't even know what she was looking for, she just had that incessant sense of being watched.
A cry escaped before she could suppress it by shoving the bottom of her shirt into her mouth. Shudders wracked her body. She tightened her grip on her knees and rocked back and forth.
Now – as if those years recovering from the trauma had never happened – she couldn't stop looking over her shoulder again. She remembered the sly looks, accusing stares, uncomfortable silences. The cops had been bad and the whispering from friends and family had been even worse. But the media...they had been horrible.
And now the media had found out about Cia's remains.
And worse – the media had found her.
***
Meg collapsed on the bed exhausted with too much thinking. She was exhausted to from the turmoil in her head. This was way too much stress. She pulled a blanket over her legs. Sleep couldn't be further away.
Just then her cell phone rang.
Chad said, "Cia's case was on the 11 o'clock news."
"So it's started." She took a deep breath. "They haven't found me yet."
"They found Stephanie," Chad's voice lit up the room, "She thinks she's being watched and she's getting hang-up phone calls." He took a deep breath, exhaling noisily. "Lots of them."
Med winced at that last bit. She asked cautiously, "Watched? Like stalker type of watching?"
"Yes, to the first question." He sounded distracted. "And although it could be nothing, she's pretty scared right now."
"Has she actually seen anyone following her?" Meg sat up, brushing her hair back over her head, hating the thought.
"No." He cleared his throat. "That's part of the problem. Since Cia's remains have been found, she's become very emotional. She went off the rails when Cia first disappeared. You may not have seen it as you left for college as soon as you could. I don't know what you know about her history through the years, but she lived pretty rough for a while."
Meg had been under such emotional stress for so long she had no trouble relating to Stephanie's problems – or her method of handling them. She murmured, "I'd heard."
"Yeah, well, it's hard to tell at this point if this is something serious or not. I figured I'd better check and see if you'd had any similar problems."
"No." Thank God, but then she had to wonder if she'd have even noticed with everything else going on in her life.
"I'm not trying to panic you." Chad's voice soothed her nerves. "Obviously, you both need to take extra precautions right now."
She pulled her knees up to her chest and tightened the blanket. "Great, just what I don't need right now."
"Why?" He backed up. "What's wrong?"
"It's just Pete's not here right now." She waited a moment, and then said quietly, "He's moved out temporarily."
He sighed. "I'm sorry."
Inexplicably, her eyes burned as she fought back the tears. She mumbled, "Thanks."
"Does that mean you're alone?"
"I have my twelve-year-old niece here."
"And you have a safe, s
ecure place, right? Locks, alarms and a security system?"
"Yes. At least, I think it's decent." She thought about it, "But as we know, there's always a way to get in." Moodily, she played with the fringe on the blanket, hating the thought, the necessity of having to re-examine the issue. "Are you expecting trouble?"
"No. But we have to consider that finding Cia may have blown something wide open." His voice sharpened. "And this may have alerted her killer."
Meg caught her breath? "Are you thinking Steph's hang-up caller was Cia's killer?" She shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. This guy kills a girl and then seventeen years later, he's stalking another one? It's more likely the media checking to see if she's at home."
"How do we know that Cia wasn't stalked in the first place? There were other campers at the lake and another campground on the other side." He added thoughtfully, "Not to mention the dozens of cabin owners there over that weekend."
"It's possible, I suppose." Thoughts twisted in Meg's head. "Is there any reason for Stephanie to be nervous now?"
"What do you mean?" Chad asked curiously. "You mean nervous about Cia's death? That would only be if she had something to do with it. And we ruled her out a long time ago."
"Maybe she knows something? Or is protecting someone?" Meg sighed. "Sorry, I'm grasping at straws trying to reach for an explanation, the same as I have done for the last seventeen years." She stared across her bedroom, wishing Pete was there. At least, she wouldn't have had to worry so much about an intruder. "I know Stephanie didn't have anything to do with Cia's death. I was there with her the whole time."
"The whole time?"
"Yes, except for the trip to the outhouse. But Stephanie was in the same place where I'd left her. She wouldn't have had time to kill Cia and move her."
Silence. Meg chewed on her bottom lip. "Chad? What are you thinking?"
"I'm just wondering at the concept of more than one killer. It's not something we'd – I'd – given much thought to before."
"Two people working together killed her?" Meg fell silent as she thought about it. "That's pretty awful to contemplate. I kept myself sane all these years by convincing myself that it had to be someone I didn't know who killed her."
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