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“Absolutely.”
Jacquie reached for her notebook. “I’m going, too.”
“You haven't been released,” Chase blurted loudly. “You need to stay here and rest.”
Her eyes narrowed and a growl sounded deep in her throat. “I’m investigating your brother's involvement in this case. You can't search Sylvia’s house alone. That's a direct conflict of interest.”
“Your job should be investigating two missing women, who cut up Sylvia, and who tried to kill you. Twice!” he countered.
She shrugged. “That too. It's all connected.”
Chase dropped is gaze focusing on the gleaming white aggregate tile floor for a long moment, then looked back up at her. “If the doctor releases you, we will both follow this case where it leads us. Together. And by the way, I don't need your permission.”
She turned to Josh for help. This was ridiculous. “Who put Chase in charge?”
Josh shook his head apologetically. “Sorry, Jacquie. Like I said, we need all the help we can get with this one.”
“Coward,” she muttered under her breath, and stood off the bed, her knees giving a slight shake.
“You can't leave yet,” Josh and Chase said in unison.
“I can and I will.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Chase offered. “I need to visit my mother. That should give the doctor time to check you out and work up your discharge papers. I’ll come back and pick you up in an hour, and then we'll go to Sylvia’s. All right?”
She leaned back against the bed as a wave of dizziness swam through her. Maybe she could rest for a minute. “Fine. One hour, but you better not slow me down.” She picked up the phone and called the nurses’ station demanding her release.
Chase shook his head and rubbed his jaw as his eyes met Josh’s. “Some things never change.”
Jacquie pushed the handset away from her face. “I heard that!”
6
Chase leftthe hospital and drove through Granite Falls toward the neighborhood he grew up in. In the eight years since he and his brother left, he hadn’t returned once. He had put this town and everything that happened here out of his mind. No reason to dredge up the sludge. Some things were better left settled on the bottom.
Age showed on many of the houses on this side of town. Most of the yards were overgrown with leggy bushes and scraggly, thin grass. People didn’t seem to care about keeping up with their basic maintenance, let alone working to make their homes look nice.
Including his mother.
He parked at the curb and stared at the tattered and discolored shingles on the roof. The grass was dead; the porch sagged and was in desperate need of a paint job. Guilt needled him, poking holes in his image of himself as a good son, a good brother. Obviously, he wasn’t good at either of those things. He didn’t know his mother needed help, or have a clue where his brother was.
What he was, was clueless.
Why hadn’t his mom told him she needed him? The last time she visited him in Charlotte, she’d gone on and on about how good things were. She talked about the new baby blue paint she’d put on the house. The abundance of rose bushes she’d planted in front of the white-trimmed porch. How her property value was skyrocketing.
All lies. Her house was the same faded, chipped yellow it had been when he was a kid. No rose bushes or white trim in sight. What else had she been keeping from him? What about Aiden? Obviously, he hadn’t been living in Texas, with a great job and a fiancée. She’d made it all up.She’d gushed about wedding plans and playing with grandkids someday.Was it wishful, delusional thinking on her part?
He took a deep breath as he stared at the house. If he were honest with himself, he hadn’t listened closely to her ramblings because he hadn’t wanted to know. He’d flushed his own wedding plans with Jacquie away the day he joined the Army. Her engagement ring still sat in its box in the bottom drawer of his nightstand in his room in that old house.
He left Jacquie without an explanation, doing what he had to do for his family, his brother, all at the request of his mother and Sheriff Donovan. The fact that Aiden hadn’t cared, or appreciated the gesture was all the motivation he’d needed to put his family in his rearview for good. Only now it seemed all the sacrifices he’d made hadn’t helped. Aiden was still getting in trouble, and his mother was still lying for him.
He followed the cracked cement walk, climbed the warped steps, and rang the bell by the faded front door. His mind crawled with decayed memories. Try as he might, he could never convince his mom to leave Granite Falls. This was her home. She liked her job, her church, and her friends. She didn’t want to start over somewhere else, and he couldn’t blame her for that.
His mom opened the door, still in her robe, and looking ten years older than she had the last time he saw her. When was that exactly? He couldn’t remember.
Her eyes widened as she saw him. “Chase, oh my goodness, you’re here already.”
He gave her a hug and felt bones beneath his grasp. So frail. I came right after you called and got a room at the Granite Falls Inn.”
