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“Bertie was a godsend. A truly wonderful, giving person. She didn’t just teach me about art. I mean, I had a natural talent, but my fundamentals were all over the place, especially my line work. She taught me about life, too. About who I was, or could become.”
“I heard you had been accepted at some great art schools. I know you have to present a portfolio of your work to be considered for admission.”
“Bertie helped me do all that, Travis. She was the reason I had the courage to apply to those schools in the first placeandhave artwork worthy enough to show them. It was therapy for what I was going through. She urged me to get it out on the drawings, the canvas, whatever I was working on. And it helped, it really did.”
“But then you didn’t go to any of the schools. Why?”
Alex stared out at the rain, which was starting to fall harder. And, mirroring what the weather was doing, tears started to slide from her eyes and curlicue down her trembling cheeks.
And as Devine watched this, it was like he had forgotten how to breathe. He reached out and gripped her hand once more, not only to reassure her, but to also do so for himself.
“Would you think it unbelievable if I told you I didn’t know why?” she said in a hushed voice.
“No, I wouldn’t. But there is a big world out there to explore. And capture in your art.”
She shifted her gaze to him. “I know,” she said in a low voice. But Devine knew the woman had no faith or belief in her own response. At this point, they were just words, expected ones, what she thought he wanted to hear.
He withdrew his hand. “So you stayed in the old homestead, where you grew up?”
“It was a happy time for us. Mostly. At least I remember it that way.” She glanced at him. “Did you have a happy place?”
He nodded. “It was called the United States Army.”
“So why aren’t you still in uniform?”
“Because life came at me fast and I didn’t duck in time. So now, here I am.”
“Here we both are,” she amended. “I...I better go.”
When she rose he said, “Whether those memories come back or not, Alex, they won’t define you if you don’t let them.”
“I used to think that.”
“You still can.”
“I used to think that, too, Travis.”
He watched her walk off because he could think of nothing to make her stay.
But he did have one thought.
If I find whoever took Alex’s life from her I will make them pay.
CHAPTER
36
THE NEXT MORNING, AFTER HISworkout and partaking of the inn’s continental breakfast, Devine drove to the police station, where he found Harper and Fuss in the chief’s small office. He eyed the pictures on the wall of tough-looking men in uniform.
Harper noted this and said, “Former chiefs of police here. Way back we had six full-time officers, if can you believe it. But then our population fell off a cliff.”
“It’s going back up, according to Dak Silkwell.”
“It is,” conceded Harper. “The ‘remoters,’ he calls them. Theyarecoming here in droves. I don’t know if it will last, but we’ll take it. Only good thing to come out of COVID, for us.”
“Any news on Jenny’s phone or laptop?”
“We don’t know that she had a laptop with her,” said Fuss.
