They were surrounded by a heart, drawn in their own blood. Kate had been fifteen. It was a year before that day—she and Beth hadn’t yet seen the worst of life, still trusted the world. She remembered pressing her fingertip to the page, swooshing the shape, squeezing an extra drop of blood to make a complete heart. Her sister and friends had done the same, tracing over the marks she had left.
“Blood sisters,” they’d said, one by one, forming a circle and facing each other, pressing their palms together and clasping fingers.
“My secrets are your secrets,” Beth said.
“No secrets between us,” Scotty said.
“May our circle be free of secrets,” Lulu said.
“Forevermore,” Kate said.
“Promise, promise, promise, promise,” each of them said.
And with a kiss they’d sealed the promise of sisterhood, friendship, secrets, and blood, bonds that would never break.
But there had been lies, and hurts, and secrets, and broken bonds and promises.
Kate stared at the smudged heart. This was what she had come here to see. It looked exactly like the one drawn on the back ofMoonlight: a blood heart, the symbol of the Compass Rose. She closed the book. Instead of putting it back on the shelf, she walked to the long mahogany table. Her family had a tradition of leaving books they wanted to return to later, but soon, stacked here instead of reshelving them. She wanted to leave this one out so she could find it again easily.
As she was about to place it on the table, the book at the top of the pile caught her attention. An exquisite volume with green paper-covered boards over a green cloth spine, the title and author’s name stamped in gilt:West-Running Brook, by Robert Frost.
Where Beth had clearly left it, intending to read it again soon.
43
“Hey, Conor,” Winifred Sibley said, walking into Reid’s office. Tall and thin, with short white hair and bright-blue eyes, she gave him a huge smile, and he beamed back. She was the state’s chief accountant and a Reid family friend, and he had asked her to come to the Major Crime Squad to go over the Lathrops’ financials with him.
“Hi, Winnie,” he said, hugging her. “I’m really glad to see you.”
“And I you, as always. You’ve got a lot going on, kid,” she said, lifting her black briefcase.
“Hope you have something good for me in there,” he said.
“That depends on how you definegood,” she said, giving him a wry smile.
“Why don’t we go into the conference room? It will be more comfortable there. Can I get you a coffee?”
“Yes, please,” she said.
“I remember,” he said.
He went to the break room and filled two mugs. It had been a busy, frustrating week. Judge Caroline Walker granted the warrants for Pete’s electronics, and the marshals executed them. They seized his computers and mobile phone. Analysts examined the hard drives, documenting his search history. Jennifer Miano had had her knee surgery; she had come through with flying colors, but it would be a long recuperation, so Reid had scoured the reports alone. And he’d found no evidence that Pete had searched for instructions on how to beat a polygraph exam.
After entering the conference room, he handed Winnie her coffee and sat down on the other side of the long walnut table. She was about Reid’s dad’s age, and they had met when they were both young cops. Over the years his dad had decided he was happiest patrolling the streets of New London, and Winnie had used her business degree to rise through the ranks of the state police.
“How’s your brother?” Winnie asked.
“Tom’s great,” Reid said. “Other than giving me grief every chance he gets.”
“Ah, the two Reid boys. Still the same.”
Winnie started to unpack her briefcase. Reid watched her place two black vinyl three-ring binders on the table. Then she looked up and gazed at him with those clear, intelligent blue eyes.
“What, Winnie?” he asked.
“I recognized the connection right away. Beth Woodward. I know how much she and her sister mean to you. I remember everything about the gallery crime—I had just gotten my master’s in accounting, and I was assigned to go through the books.”
“Yeah, I know,” Reid said. “I remember that.”
