Page 105 of Glimmer in the Darkness

She turned to Cote and said, “We’ll let you know if we need you.”

Cote glanced between them, then closed the door, leaving them alone.

“What’s going on?” James asked.

“I need to tell you what happened.”

James’s heart thumped as he pulled the detective’s chair around so Cassidy could sit beside him.

He took her hands. “I know you didn’t kidnap my sister.”

“I didn’t. Everything happened just like I said. We ran into that… Vince person. Your friend?”

“I think he must have befriended me in hopes that I’d lead him to you.” James had been thinking about it for days, ever since the thought first occurred to him that Vince could be the kidnapper. “That’s my best guess, anyway. Those first few years, he used to ask about you a lot. Ask if I’d heard from you—always prefaced with, ’I’m asking as a friend, not as a cop.’ Maybe he thought I’d give him a clue as to where you were.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “And then…?”

James shrugged. “At first, he was more of a mentor, since he’s so much older, but by the time I graduated college, we were just… friends.”

She nodded slowly. “I never saw his face back then. Today, I’d crept closer when I saw where you were. I was going to ask if you thought she was there. When he joined you, I hid. And then I heard his voice.”

James couldn’t imagine how that must have frightened her.

“He hadn’t had all the supplies up there like now.” Cassy’s eyes looked beyond James, her voice lowered to a whisper. “The first time he left, he came back with blankets, but nothing like what we saw today.

“When he got back the second day in the cave, he untied us so we could use the bathroom. Like he had the day before, he let us move around in the cave when he was there.” She faced James again, took a quick breath as if for courage. “I’d found the passageway the day before, but not in time to get us out. This time, the second he stepped out of the cave, I grabbed Hallie, and we crawled away.”

Just like Vince had claimed. They were alive when they escaped.

“I was so scared he would see us. I was so scared.” Tears dripped from Cassidy’s eyes, but he couldn’t comfort her, not until he knew the rest. He waited while she pulled a tissue from her jeans’ pocket and wiped her eyes. The tissue looked as if it had already seen its share of tears.

“I thought he would see us if I went to the path. Today, when I looked at it… He might not have. We might’ve gotten away. But I didn’t know. I just… I went down the first way I saw. The fastest way I could find.”

His stomach dropped as he considered what she was saying. He leaned closer to her, tried to infuse her with courage, with confidence. “You were trying to save her.”

“I was.” Her voice cracked, and she wiped her eyes again. “I told her to hang on, and I started down the cliff. We were almost there, no more than ten feet from the bottom, when… She slipped off. She just… she fell. I rushed down behind her, but…”

Her voice broke, and Cassidy’s sobs filled the room. “A million times, I’ve seen her there, her lifeless body on the rocks. She was gone. I knew it. But I just… I grabbed her and carried her. When we were safely away, I tried to revive her. But her head …” She blinked, as if trying to rid herself of the sight. “And there was so much blood…”

When Cassidy’s voice trailed, James tugged her close, and she rested her head on his shoulder. He couldn’t speak for the emotion clogging his throat. His sweet sister, gone so tragically.

So suddenly.

“I’m sorry,” Cassidy said. “I’m so sorry. I tried to save her. I did everything I could. It was my fault. I should have gone down a different way. I should have—”

“No.” He leaned back in his chair so he could look into her eyes. “You did your best. You could have escaped with your own life and left her with Vince. You stayed to save her.”

“I failed.” She glanced at the door. “This was the part that bothered Cote the most. He said the coroner said she’d only been dead two hours when they found her body. She’d been dead longer than that, but…” She sniffed, blinked a few times. “I wrapped her in my jacket, and I held her close. I think my body heat messed up the coroner’s… calculations or whatever. I don’t know how it works. I just… I couldn’t leave her. I thought… It was irrational. I thought if I could just keep her warm… I’m sorry, James. I’m so sorry. To you, your parents…”

“Cassy, sweetheart.”

Her gaze held somewhere around his chest, so he tipped her chin up with his finger. “Sweetheart, you tried to save her life. What happened was tragic, but it wasn’t your fault. It was Vince’s fault. All of it.”

She looked at him with those mesmerizing eyes, red-rimmed, tear-filled. But hope shone there. Hope in him. Hope in love. Her voice was small when she said, “You forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive.”

James had always known Cassidy was no killer. He stood and pulled her into his arms, needing to be closer to her. Needing her to feel his comfort, his love. “God numbers our days, Cassy.” He paused, let the emotion roll away, tried to keep his voice strong and steady. “For whatever reason, God took Hallie home that day. I can’t tell you the comfort it brings to know she wasn’t beaten to death. That her death was sudden. That, at the end, she was with you, someone she loved dearly. And she had hope.”