Braddock exhaled a lungful of frustration. Sleep would be impossible. But a shower was absolutely essential. He had to wash CJ off his skin. He couldn’t let anything, not even her, distract him from getting the job done.
And he damned sure didn’t want to be responsible for any more pain in her life.
He’d already caused more than enough.
Chapter Fourteen
3021 Appleton Street, 1:40 p.m.
CJ swiped the strands of hair that had fallen free of her ponytail from her damp face, then plunked her hands on her hips. Her T-shirt clung to her sweaty skin. She’d been at this for hours. First thing when she’d gotten up that morning, she’d taken Jenkins a cup of coffee and asked him if it would be okay to clean up Shelley’s room.
Jenkins had checked with Braddock, who’d given his okay. The forensic guy likely wouldn’t be back.
CJ had begged off breakfast with Edward. He’d been disappointed, but she had needed to do this. And, truthfully, she hadn’t been able to face him after last night. He’d always believed in her, trusted her to be smart and do the right thing.
Last night had been more than a mistake. It had been wrong on so many levels, she couldn’t begin to label them.
She had made the mistake of trusting Braddock once. That wasn’t happening again. Last night had been some kind of mental meltdown. Otherwise she would never have allowed him to touch her, not in a million years.
Focus, CJ. Clues. She needed clues. Where was her sister’s cell phone? Braddock had said that Shelley’s cell hadn’t been found at the scene. Where the hell was it? Shelley never went anywhere without it.
She blew out a disgusted breath.
First thing, she had opened every window to air the place out and to get some relief from the heat, then she’d gone through the entire house. Every shelf, every drawer, every hiding place they had used as kids. She’d basically turned the house upside down, then slowly put things back in a slightly more organized manner. Gloves and about a gallon of bleach had cleaned up the biggest part of the mess on the wall in Shelley’s room. CJ shuddered. It would take stain blocker and paint to finish the job.
If Banks and Nash thought they could scare her off that easily, they could think again. She wasn’t going to be run out of her own house.
So far her work had proven futile. The cell phone was nowhere in the house. She’d found no notes, noanythingrelevant to what had been going on in her sister’s life the past few days or weeks. All she’d discovered was the obvious indication that her sister was eating better than she had in the past. There had even been empty milk containers in the trash. Shelley never drank milk.
Had someone else been staying here? There were no clothes or toiletries that would point to that being so.
Frustration wound CJ a little tighter.
Why hadn’t Shelley talked to her about this change?
Regret and guilt tied big knots in CJ’s stomach. Because her sister knew that she wouldn’t believe her. She’d promised to get clean too many times.
Dammit. There had to be something here. This was Shelley’s home. Her haven. A scribbled note, anything, indicating what had turned her around. Made her want to give up the drugs and pull her act together. She’d been trying to get clean for years. What had suddenly made it happen? Even if only for a few days.
CJ turned to leave her sister’s bedroom but stalled at the door.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
The bathroom.
CJ hurried down the hall to the only bathroom in the house.
She stared a moment at the antiquated medicine cabinet that hung over the wall-mounted sink. How had they done this?
Open the door first or don’t open it? She couldn’t recall.
Screw it.
CJ grabbed hold of the glass door, a hand on either side, and pulled. She pulled so hard she stumbled back and hit the wall when the cabinet pulled free easily. The contents jangled around inside the cabinet.
“Damn.” Using her foot, she closed the toilet lid and placed the metal-and-glass cabinet on top of it. She’d already gone through the contents of the cabinet. Aspirin and miscellaneous store-bought pharmaceuticals. Nothing CJ didn’t know about already. Her sister kept an array of over-the-counter painkillers and sleep aids on hand at all times.
Holding her breath, CJ went up on her tiptoes, leaned over the sink, and peered into the wall cavity. A smile stretched across her lips. “Aha!”
