by Jill Sanders
He had snuck out the front door while she debated whether to head down to the kitchen.
Before entering the kitchen, she had taken a call from Julie, who filled her in quickly on how successful the art show had been. Apparently, they had sold every last piece of hers and there were some high-end art dealers wanting to get their hands on more of her work. Julie made her promise she’d ship the rest of what she had to her as soon as she could.
“You’ve hit the big time, girlfriend,” Julie had gushed. “Just promise me you’ll remember us little people when you reach the top.”
When Rose entered the kitchen, her sister walked over and gave her a half hug as she kept her eyes glued to the stairs. “Mom says you have a man up there.”
“Sawyer had a few errands to run.” She took over making pancakes from her mother, nudging her aside by bumping hips. Her mother gladly handed over the spatula.
“I thought his name was Royce?” her mother asked.
“It is, but everyone at the police station calls him Sawyer.”
“Oh, he’s a cop?” Jenny asked.
Rose glanced back at her sister. “Seriously? Where have you two been? It’s been all over the news for the past month.”
“What has? Royce?” her mother asked, sitting down at the bar and taking a sip of her coffee.
“Everything…” Rose swung the spatula in the air as she motioned around. “Everything, all of… well, everything. Sawyer, Owens, Isaac…” She shook her head.
She’d talked to both her sister and mother several times after they had discovered Isaac’s body. They had even come for a short visit, but Jenny’s job didn’t allow much time off, and Rose was shocked that her sister and the kids had come along with her mother this time around.
“Why aren’t you at work?” Rose asked, changing conversations.
Jenny smiled. “I quit.”
“What?” Rose turned and looked at her sister. “Why?”
“She’s pregnant again,” her mother chimed in.
“What?” Rose felt her heart sink to her stomach.
Jenny covered her stomach as her smile grew. Jenny’s youngest, McKenna, was six years old.
“I thought you and Bill were done with kids,” she said.
“So did we.” Jenny giggled. “Still, we’re thrilled.”
“Four kids?” Rose felt her heart burst. She’d just wanted one, now her sister was having her fourth.
Setting the spatula down, she walked over and hugged Jenny. “Congrats.” She held onto her sister.
“Your day will come,” Jenny said softly in her ear. “Maybe even with this Royce guy.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Rose thought about Sawyer and turned back to the stove. They hadn’t talked about their future together yet. But he’d confessed in his own way that he loved her, even if he hadn’t said the words yet. Then again, neither had she, she realized as she continued to cook breakfast for her family.
“How long are you guys staying?” she asked as they all ate breakfast.
“Only tonight. The kids have to be back at school Thursday. I could only take them out for a few days. But there are a few weeks left until winter break.” Jenny sighed. “I’m thinking of homeschooling them.”
“Oh?” Rose asked, trying to imagine her sister teaching. She laughed. “If my memory serves me correctly, you had a hard time passing algebra.”
Jenny narrowed her eyes at her.
“Mom?” Regan, the oldest broke in. “If you didn’t pass algebra, why do I have to take it?” Regan was ten going on thirty. The boy had more life skills than both Rose’s mother and sister put together.
“Smart kid.” Rose chuckled and handed her nephew another pancake.
“Thanks, Aunt Rose,” Jenny said sarcastically. “Maybe I’ll just bring them here and you can help them with all the math problems.”
Rose smiled. “I’d be happy to. If you remember correctly, I passed the class.”
“Can we paint?” McKenna broke in. The girl was wiggling her loose front lower tooth and swinging her legs back and forth as they dangled from the chair.
“Sure, sweetie.” Rose smiled across the table. “After breakfast.”
“I want to see where they found Uncle Isaac,” Cole, the eight-year-old, said, earning him a slug from his brother, Regan.
She sighed, knowing the boys didn’t mean anything by it. But she could see the interest in both of their eyes.
“The basement.” She nodded to the door. “You know where it is. Don’t go outside.”
“Outside?” her mother asked.
“The workers put in a sliding glass door where…” She swallowed. “Instead of closing the wall all the way again.”
“A light in the darkness,” her sister said sadly, reaching for her hand. “Fitting.”
She hadn’t thought of it like that, but it was a beautiful analogy. Where Isaac had been locked for a year in darkness now stood a large pane of glass that let in the light of each new day.
“Rose?” Her mother took her other hand. “Is everything alright?”
“Regan, could you take your brother and sister up to my studio? You know where the art supplies that I have set aside for you guys are.” The boys looked a little let down about not going into the basement yet, but Regan nodded.
The boy stood up and took his little sister by the hand. “We’ll draw you a pretty picture.” He smiled up at her. “To make you happy again.”
She hadn’t realized she was crying until McKenna asked Regan, “Why is Aunt Rose crying?”
Hearing the boys answer caused her to chuckle.
“Dad always says, ‘It’s a great mystery as to why a woman cries.’” The boy opened the doorway to the back stairs and helped his brother and sister up to her art studio on the third floor.
“I needed that.” She wiped her eyes dry. “I needed you guys.” She looked to both her mother and sister.
“We’ve tried being here for you, but every time we call, you say you’re fine and not to come,” Jenny answered.
It was true. Her sister and mother had called her more than a dozen times since they’d found Isaac in the basement.
Her mother had actually been packing once to make the drive, but Rose had talked her out of driving all the way over from Pittsburgh, thinking that dealing with her mother would be more harmful than helpful. Now that she had Sawyer to lean on if needed, dealing with her mother and sister for one night didn’t seem overwhelming.
“Is it true that Isaac had an affair with that actress?” her mother whispered, glancing towards the doorway through which the kids had just disappeared.
Jenny checked the stairs, shut the door, and sat down. “They’re upstairs.”
“It appears he did. What’s more hurtful is that Hunter knew,” Rose added.
“What?” Jenny and her mother gasped at the same time.
“Are you sure?” Jenny asked.
“I was approached by one of his ex-girlfriends, Melanie…” She shook her head remembering the photo of the four of them on the beach.
“Melanie Crown?” Rose’s mother asked. Both Rose and Jenny turned to her in surprise.
“What? He’s my stepson. I know almost everything about him.”
“I’m closer to Hunter than either of you, and I had never heard him mention any of his girlfriends’ names before,” Rose said.
Her mother shrugged. “Hunter and Bill talk, and Bill and I talk.”
“What did Melanie say that caused you to believe Hunter knew about Isaac’s affair?” Jenny asked.
“It wasn’t what she said, but what she showed me. A picture of the four of them on the beach. Isaac had his arms around Kristy Owens as if they were longtime lovers.” Just the thought of it made her stomach roll.
“Maybe it was taken when you were away at college. There were a few years back then that the two of you saw other people,” Jenny suggested.
Rose had thought of that herself and Sawyer had even suggested it when they t
alked about it on the long trip home.
“Still, when I asked him if he knew anything, he said no,” Rose explained. “Deceit by omission is still deceit.”
Everyone was silent for a moment. “Have you talked to Hunter about it?” her mother asked.
Rose shook her head. “We left New York and came home. Hunter’s been trying to call Sawyer, but…”
“Why hasn’t he called you?” Jenny asked.
“I lost my cell phone in the city.”
Her mother instantly went into her standard lecture about losing her vital data and hackers.
“Mom, I had a passcode on it,” Rose supplied.
“Still. Have you ordered a new one?”
“No, but Sawyer said he was going to take me tomorrow to get a new one. I called the phone company and filled them in. They say no one has used the phone since.” She shrugged. “I probably just lost it somewhere at the store and someone turned it in. It might be stuck in a lost and found box in a store somewhere. Anyway, I’ve avoided his calls.” She stood up and took the plates to the sink and started doing the dishes.
Her mother came up behind her. “He’s your brother.” She laid a hand on her shoulder. “Go, give him a call. We’ll deal with these.” She nudged her aside. “Go.” She handed Rose her own cell phone.
Rose took the new iPhone out onto the back deck. The snow was still falling but more slowly than it had the previous night when she’d talked to her mother out there.
This time, she remembered to grab her jacket. She stepped out and walked a few steps away from the house.
Her mother had always used a mixture of her and her sister’s birthdays as her passcode, so Rose punched it in and unlocked her mother’s phone.
Hunter’s cell phone rang three times before he answered, a little breathless and sounding like he was in a hallway.
“Hey, Mom, I’m just heading into—”
“It’s Rose,” she said, breaking in. The phone went silent and she heard the sounds change.
“Hi,” Hunter said finally when it was quiet on his end.
“If you’re busy…” she started.
“No,” he said quickly. “I have a few minutes.”
She was silent, wishing he’d start talking. Instead, she blurted out. “Why? Why did you tell me you didn’t know about Kristy Owens and Isaac?”
“Because I didn’t. Whatever picture Melanie showed you, it was from college. I was trying so hard to impress Melanie that I didn’t pay any attention to Isaac and the girl he was with. We drove to the beach together, but the rest of the day I spent with Melanie, alone. Isaac and that girl disappeared. I didn’t see them together again. I even gave him shit about being with someone when you two were supposed to be together. He told me you knew and that you had gotten together with someone else too.”
“I did,” she said softly, “but not like that.”
“I’m sorry, I should have…” Someone interrupted him, and he covered the phone. When he came back she could tell he was walking again. “I’ve got to head into court. Can I call you later?”
“Sure,” she said. “Mom, Jenny, and the kids are here.”
“Good, enjoy them. I wish I could make it, but I’m in the middle of a case.”
“Go.” She sighed. “Do lawyer stuff.”
“I love you,” he said. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“I love you too,” she said before hanging up.
Tucking her mother’s phone into her pocket, she looked back at the house. Sawyer was gone with the dogs, the kids were probably making a mess of her studio, and her mother and sister were no doubt already opening a bottle of wine instead of cleaning the kitchen. Wine after breakfast was their thing when they were both on ‘vacation’ mode.
Turning away from the manor, she looked down at the pathway towards the beach and sighed. She really needed some time to herself, so she started towards the stone steps that led down to the private sandy beach area. She wrapped her jacket around her as she walked down the stone pathway that she had cleared herself last summer.
She had hired a lawn and maintenance crew to clear a few dead trees along the pathway and they had also replaced a few of the larger broken stones, but she’d spent several back-breaking days in the sun herself, working on making the pathway beautiful.
She had even planted a few bushes and flowers along the way that would bloom every spring.
She had purchased wooden benches and beach chairs for several choice spots. Kids had come and carved their initials, surrounded by hearts, into the heavy wood. She wanted to be mad, but so far, no one else had vandalized the chairs. She had found herself tracing the initials and wondering what kind of future the lovers would have. So instead of having them sanded out of the wood, she kept them as a reminder that love can exist.
She was halfway down the steep pathway when she heard quick footsteps behind her.
She turned around just in time to see the butt of a long rifle slam into the side of her head just above her left ear. Pain blinded her as she cried out. She reached for something to steady herself. Then heavy hands fell on her shoulders and pushed. She fell back towards the steep stairs.
Her body connected with the next stair, her hip slamming into the corner of the stone. She continued to grasp for something to stop her from rolling all the way down the hillside to the bottom, but her nails hit only dirt as she rolled and twisted to the bottom. Her head hit several times on the way down and, each time, she cried out in pain.
When her body finally came to rest, she was breathless and disoriented. She tried to move, but there was too much pain. She blinked several times to clear her eyesight, but a grey fog settled in front of her eyes, and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Twenty-Four
Getting dirty…
Sawyer had dropped off the rental car and walked to the police station with Ozzy and Tsuna. He’d ended up carrying Tsuna, who had whined every time he took a step. He had zipped the little girl in his jacket, and she had fallen asleep.
When he walked into the chief’s office, the chief had taken one look at him and laughed. “Tell me you’re not pregnant?”
Sawyer frowned down at the bump in his jacket and smiled. “No, it’s Tsuna.” He unzipped the coat and chuckled when the dog tried to bury her head further into his armpit. “I guess I wore her out on the walk from the rental car place.” He sat down and let the dog lay in his lap. Ozzy lay at his feet, a little tired himself.
“Before you ask, I don’t know anything more yet about Owens’s death. The report out of the city is still showing she OD’d,” Deter jumped in.
“Can you give me any details?” he asked, feeling like he was wasting his time.
“Only that the place was locked, and she was the only one with the keys. That’s why it took so long to find her. Her friend showed up after Rose’s event and called security when Owens didn’t open up. They had to break in.”
“What friend?” he asked.
“The chief glanced down at the stack of notes on his desk. “Melinda Crown.”
“That’s the woman who verbally assaulted Rose at the gallery. She must have gone to Owens’s place after being tossed out of the showing by security. Was it a deadbolt or just a handle nob lock?”
The chief’s eyebrows rose. “I asked the same question. Both the door handle lock and a deadbolt were engaged. Which means no one could have gotten in there and made it look like suicide.”
Sawyer nodded. “But if we were to go with a theory that it wasn’t suicide, who on our list was in New York?”
“Three of the remaining suspects, plus Rose Clayton, if we still count her.” Deter held up his hand to stop him. “Yes, I know, she was with you.”
“Time of death is still shortly after the incident at the mall?” he asked.
“Yes. Just after noon on Friday.”
“Do we know where everyone was?”
“Sean Clayton was unaccounted for or so I’m being told. He was supposed to be in
a lunch meeting but never showed. When the police asked him, he claimed he had gotten the stomach flu and was home alone sick.” He glanced down at his notes again. “Boone Schneller claims he was home. We do know for a fact that he was in Twisted Rock, since he had a court date for that afternoon, so that leaves Ray Gardezi, who was in the middle of his niece’s birthday party, surrounded by more than two dozen of his family and friends.” Deter looked up at him. “You were with the stepbrother?”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “What did you find at Willis’s place?”
“Steel-toed boots. The lab is working on the blood found there, but chances are it’ll match yours.”
Sawyer nodded. “Yeah, I figured. The more I think about it… I’m sure it was Willis.” Then he remembered what Rose had discovered last night. “There’s a new angle we haven’t looked at yet.”
“Oh?” Deter’s eyebrows rose. “What would that be?”
“Isaac’s mother was the one who shot and killed Rose’s father.” He was still unable to believe the turn of events.
Deter slowly nodded. “Yes, I remember hearing about it. It was slightly before I took over. I was transferred in from Cleveland, like you.”
“Well? Did you know that Rick Brown was Glenn Browning’s partner that night?”
“Rose Clayton’s father?” he asked and by the look on the chief’s face, the man hadn’t known that detail.
“Do you happen to know if Brown has his pilot’s license?” Sawyer asked.
“You think he’s hiding something?” he asked.
“I know that after Clayton’s wife murdered a cop and committed suicide, he would have done anything to keep it out of the papers. He started his law firm in the city a few years later.”
The chief sighed heavily. “It’s worth a look. Brown was transferred to the city pretty quickly last week. I thought the entire ordeal stank of something.” The chief turned to his computer. “Get out of here and finish healing. We need you back at full capacity and soon.”
Sawyer picked up Tsuna and started to stand, but then stopped. “Chief, I’d keep this last bit between us. After all, a lot of people in the station liked Brown.”
