by Lisa Harris
“So you think he killed both girls?”
“We’ll see, but the crime scenes are too similar for there not to be a connection.” Avery stopped in the doorway of the dining room where Mama, Emily, and Tess were putting the food on the table. “What about you, though? How are you doing with your retirement?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yes.”
“Two weeks, five days, and three hours, give or take.”
“Don’t tell me it’s that bad.”
“Your mom has me working on the guest bathroom. Tomorrow we’re hanging wallpaper. It’s gold with a white swirly pattern. You’ll love it.”
Avery laughed. Her dad always made her laugh. “Sounds like fun.”
“On the good side, my golf swing has never been better.”
“We’ll have to play a few holes one of these days.”
“Since when do you play golf?”
“Since when do you hang wallpaper?”
“Touché.”
In the dining room, the table was set to perfection with Mama’s favorite dishes—the ones that included a reproduction of some famous eighteenth-century flowery design. No doubt the spaghetti, garlic bread, vegetables, and green salad would be just as perfect. Avery slid into her chair next to Tess, then placed the cloth napkin onto her lap. Dinner had always been a formal affair.
As soon as the prayer ended, the questions began.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Avery.” Her mother took a spoonful of buttery green beans, then passed the bowl to Tess. “When are you going to bring that boy over I hear you’ve been going out with?”
Avery silenced a groan. “You sound as if I’m in high school, Mama.”
“You know that’s not at all how I meant it. I’m just curious, because your father and I haven’t met him.”
Avery poured some vinaigrette onto her salad and took a bite. It was so easy for her mother to make her feel as if she were transported back to seventeen, when her father had to meet and approve of every boy who looked at her with even the slightest glint of interest in his eyes.
She rested her fork on the edge of the salad plate. “It’s only been two dates, Mama. It’s not as if we’re getting married. And it’s certainly not time to meet the family.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing’s wrong with him.” Avery looked at Emily, then at Tess, wondering which one was the traitor. Both looked completely absorbed in their piles of spaghetti.
“Then when’s your next date?”
“I’m not sure there’s going to be another date.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s . . . complicated. We both have busy jobs, family, responsibilities . . .”
“When your father and I got married, he was a rookie officer working nights and weekends most of the time. And there were times when his forty-hour week turned into fifty or sixty hours if it was a particularly tough case.”
“Mama—”
“The point is that we loved each other and made it work. Is it easy? Of course not. But when you love someone, it’s worth the extra work.”
“I agree, but like I said, it’s been two dates. Relationships take time to develop.”
“Is your hesitation because of losing Ethan?”
Avery shoved a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth to avoid answering the question. Apparently no subject was off limits in this family.
“I just want you to be happy again.”
Avery managed to swallow her bite. “Who says I’m not happy?”
“You’re my daughter, and I can see the loneliness in your eyes.”
Avery bit back a snarky response. “You know I’ll always miss Ethan, but I have Tess, you, Daddy, and Emily, a career I love, friends, and a church family. I don’t have to have a man in my life to make me happy. Isn’t that right, Emily?”
“Of course.” Emily coughed and pressed her napkin against her lips. “Sorry, I—”
“You don’t sound very convinced.” Mama turned to Emily. “Does that have anything to do with a certain new schoolteacher I’ve heard about?”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Tess!”
Tess’s cheeks turned red. “I just mentioned that there was a new math teacher who was extremely good looking. I never mentioned that you agreed to go out with him, or—”
“Tess!”
Tess dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Avery pressed her lips together and tried not to smile. While she hated seeing Emily on the hotspot, it did help her own case.
“What about you, Tess? Any cute boys in your classes this year?”
“Grandma!”
“Why don’t we change the subject for now, ladies?” Her father helped himself to the garlic bread.
Avery decided to follow her father’s lead and took another slice of bread. The one thing no one could fault Mama with was her cooking. Even Avery had to agree that it was worth the extra workout the calories required.
“I saw a segment about your Jane Doe murder on the news,” Emily threw out.
“Word travels quickly in the media.” Avery glanced at Tess. Discussing cases was something she didn’t like to do, especially at the dinner table and in front of her daughter.
Tess twirled her spaghetti with her fork. “It’s all right, Mom. It’s not like I’ve never seen a murder victim or I don’t know what you do at work. Besides, I’m twelve now.”
“You’ve seen a murder victim?”
“Just on TV. Not a real one. All I’m saying is that I’m growing up.”
“When did that happen? The growing up part, I mean.” Avery tugged off a piece of the garlic bread, dipped it into her spaghetti sauce, and grinned at her daughter. Twelve years old and all grown up. She really wasn’t ready for this.
“And who knows. I might even decide to follow after the family profession and become a police officer . . . or a captain.”
Avery grinned at her father. “She’d make a great captain, wouldn’t she, Dad?”
“Or a teacher,” Emily said.
Avery’s phone rang. She slipped it out of her pocket, knowing how much her mom hated any kind of technology at the dinner table. To be honest, so did she, but with an open case, she didn’t have a choice.
She muted the volume and checked the caller ID.
Jackson.
Her heart flipped. While she knew she’d have to speak to him again eventually, she wasn’t sure she was ready.
“Go ahead and take the call,” Emily said. “If we get done eating before you’re done, I’ll help clear the dishes and leave the washing to you.”
“Thanks, sis.” Avery left the table and slipped into her dad’s study in the front of the house to take the call. “Jackson . . . Hi.”
“Avery. I hope I’m not calling at a bad time.”
“No, it’s fine.” She stared at the cherry wood desk and bookcases that gave her father’s office that cozy feel, and tried to ignore the tension between her head and her heart. “I’m having dinner with my parents. It’s a weekly—sometimes bi-weekly—tradition when I’m not working.”
“So it is a bad time.”
“In a family of police officers, this is the norm, not the exception.”
“Good, because I have some new information on your case.”
“After a day of dead ends, any news will help. What is it?”
“That’s part of the problem.” He hesitated. “What I have doesn’t back up the information you have so far.”
“Okay.” Avery rubbed her temple with her free hand. Wouldn’t you know, just when everything started to come together, evidence would arrive to blow it all apart. Maybe their latest break in the case was too good to be true after all. “We could meet somewhere. If you have time.”
“I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”
Avery forced herself to focus. They were both adults and letting this hang between them wasn’t going to work. “No, it’s okay. I . . . I need
to talk to you about something too.”
It wasn’t right for things to stay awkward between them. Whatever their personal relationship, they still had to work together. She pressed her lips together before suggesting a café near her parents’ house.
“I know the place,” Jackson said. “Will thirty minutes give you enough time? An hour?”
“I can head out there right now, actually.”
Her father appeared in the doorway as Avery flipped her phone shut a moment later. “You okay?”
“Yeah, it was Jackson.”
“So that’s why your face is rosier than normal.” He reached out and touched her wrist. “Just as I thought. Rapid pulse.”
“Daddy.”
“Why don’t you just admit that you’ve fallen head over heels for the guy?”
“Because I haven’t.”
“Really?”
Avery dropped the phone into her pocket and frowned. She’d never been able to fool her dad. She took a deep breath and tried to sort through her feelings. Just because her heart might want one thing didn’t really change anything. Dating him meant one more person to please. One more person who would demand her time. Even if she wanted to give it to him, she wasn’t sure she could.
You might be able to fool Tess, Mom, and even Jackson, but not me . . .
Avery winced at the reminder of her sister’s words. Maybe the person she was really trying to fool was herself.
“Avery?”
She looked up at her father. “Sorry.”
“Your mother would like to know if you want coffee with your peach cobbler.”
“Do you think she’ll forgive me if I skip dessert? Jackson has some new information on the case he needs to talk to me about. I’m going to meet him for coffee.”
“Hmm . . . skipping dessert for a date with Jackson Bryant? When I was on the force, a phone call typically worked just fine.” Her father smiled. “But I think you’re safe, though you might owe your sister for doing the dishes.”
She grabbed her purse and opened the front door. “It’s not a date, Daddy. It’s work.”
Her father followed her outside and onto the porch. “Call it what you want, but when two people meet for coffee, and they have feelings for each other, I call it a date.”
“You’re impossible, you know.” Avery took a step toward the stairs then stopped. “Can I ask you something before I leave?”
“Of course.”
“You spent the past forty years building a career, a marriage, raising a family, being active in church, and even volunteering at the shelter.” She leaned back against the white porch rail, trying to formulate her thoughts into words. “How did you balance everything you did without losing all of us in the process?”
Her father’s brow furrowed. “That was my worst fear, I think, that I’d make it to captain but lose my family because I was too busy. I don’t know, Avery. It was hard, and to be honest, more often than not, I felt as if I was failing.”
“Failing?” In spite of a stressful job and all his responsibilities, she’d always known her father was there for her.
“Because I was gone a lot, and even when I was home, there were phone calls, interruptions, officers stopping by. I worried constantly that you and your brother and sister would think you weren’t the most important people in my life. That anything I achieved career-wise wouldn’t be worth it in the end because I missed out on what was most important. Family, simply being together.”
“I always knew I was your princess.” Avery shook her head and smiled. “When you were working, I always imagined you out there saving the world, and I was so proud of that. We thought we were the luckiest kids alive.”
“I happen to know Tess feels the same way about you as well. I see you worry about her, though. Worry about being a single mom and the added responsibilities.”
“I love my job, but I don’t ever want Tess to lose out because of my decisions.” Expressing her feelings out loud helped to sort through the jumbled mess of emotions. “And now with Jackson . . . I know he wants to be a part of our lives, but I just don’t know if I’m ready to let someone else in.”
“I’ve found that when you pray a lot, then fill your life with people you love and things you believe in, there’s often more room inside your heart than you realize. Say no to what you have to, but do what you were called to do. Follow God. Love family. Pursue justice. And maybe in the middle of all of that you’ll find that there’s some unexpected room for someone else in your life.”
“Thanks, Daddy.” She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed her father’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I’m not sure how much I helped—”
“You did. You always do. I still don’t have all the answers, and I don’t know about Jackson, but maybe that’s okay for today.”
“One day at a time. That’s all you have to worry about.”
“I guess I’d better go.” Avery stopped on the top step. “Just explain to Mama that I had to go out for a little bit, and you can leave out the word ‘date’ while you’re at it, please.”
Her father chuckled. “As long as I get your helping of peach cobbler.”
“It’s all yours—this time only. I’ll be back to pick up Tess in an hour or so.”
Her father’s smile widened. “Take your time, princess.”
14
Agreeing to meet Jackson in person had been her first mistake. Splurging on a dish of banana pudding with a thick layer of meringue on top had been her second. The only way she could justify the extra calories was knowing she’d missed Mama’s peach cobbler. There might be something therapeutic about eating comfort food, but even banana pudding—and her father’s earlier words of wisdom—wasn’t helping her sort out what she felt about the man sitting across the table from her.
Because Jackson Bryant always managed to do funny things to her heart. So far, she’d yet to convince herself this was all business—thus the mistake.
Ten minutes of small talk had proved that her heart had no intentions of letting go of the handsome forensics expert. He sat across from her, looking as awkward as she felt.
She took a deep breath as Jackson signaled the waitress for the spoon she’d forgotten to add to the ice cream sundae she’d just served him. Maybe they should just get down to business.
Avery took another sugary bite before plunging ahead. “You said you had something to tell me regarding the case.”
“Yes. I . . .” He looked up at her, his sundae apparently forgotten for the moment. She tried to read his expression. Longing? Desire? Disappointment? So much for her background as a behavioral specialist. Maybe she’d never know. “I found some discrepancies in one of the lab tests when compared to what you told me about the victim.”
Avery took another bite of her dessert. Maybe this was worth the extra splurge after all. She would concentrate on the business and hope her heart figured out how to handle being around Jackson. “I’m listening.”
“I told you that the internal exam revealed that the spleen was enlarged.”
“Yes.”
“While it may or may not be significant to the case, that fact has continued to bother me.”
She laid her spoon down. “Why would it bother you?”
“All the tests we’ve been running have so far come back negative. Mono, bacterial infection, leukemia, everything. I’m still waiting on a couple of other test results, but at this point, in looking at all the evidence combined, I’m not expecting any of them to come back positive.”
“So do you have any clue as to the significance?”
Jackson smiled. “I didn’t until I talked to my grandfather.”
“The Civil War buff I still need to meet.”
“Yes.” Jackson leaned forward, clearly in his element. “Something he said got me thinking. During the Civil War hundreds of people died from what they called ague or marsh fever. Today we call it malaria.”
“I vaguely remember reading about that in hist
ory class, but what does that have to do with my murder victim?”
“Think about it. What if the information you have from the Sourns isn’t correct? What if Tala had been out of the country within the past six months? That would mean I was looking for the source of the enlarged spleen in the wrong place.”
Avery tried to process the new information. “It’s possible, but why would they lie about her travels? It’s something I considered, but so far everything they said they’ve been able to back up. All of Tala’s documents—driver’s license, high school diploma—everything checks out.”
“I realize that, but think about it. First of all, malaria has been wiped out in the States.”
“Right.” She toyed with her spoon, trying to follow his train of thought. So far, she didn’t like where he was going.
“I went ahead and tested her blood for malaria and it came back positive. Which means that Tala had to have recently contracted the disease outside the United States.”
“How long ago?”
“Due to the incubation of the strain, which is longer than most, I’d say between six and twelve months.”
Avery paused.
“So Mrs. Sourn lied. Even with everything that they handed over to me.”
“There’s a good chance the documents are fake. Good fakes, if they got past you, but fakes. Either way, they’re clearly hiding something.”
A sick feeling spread over Avery. She’d been ready to place a possibly innocent man behind bars and wrap up her case when clearly all the pieces were not put together yet. “Tell me this. Why would they lie about her travels? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I just give you the facts, ma’am. You get to sort them out.” He dug his spoon into his sundae and smiled. “What now?”
“We’ll proceed carefully. Not only are we going to have to figure out what else they’re lying about, but we’re going to have to recheck all the documents and evidence, see if we can find Tala on any flight manifests over the past year, and dig a whole lot deeper into the Sourns.” She pushed aside her empty dessert dish. “I probably should go. Tess has school tomorrow morning, and I clearly haven’t solved my case.”
