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I studied her face, etching it into my memory, haunting me with its familiarity. Where had I seen her before? I gasped as recognition hit me like a ton of bricks.
"I know who she is," I said, my voice shrill with surprise. "I know exactly who that woman is. That's Emily Matthew—the mother of Christopher Matthew from Alex's grade. What on earth is she doing there? Why is she trying to visit John Baker?"
Matt spun around to me, eyes wide and mouth agape. "You're right," he whispered, his voice heavy with disbelief. He leaned in for a better view, slowly nodding in agreement. His face darkened as he murmured, "Yeah, that's definitely her. I remember seeing her when dropping off the kids—and that time we had a multicultural night at the school, and she brought in those soggy nachos."
I couldn't shake off the feeling that there was more to the story than just a concerned mother trying to visit a patient in the hospital or a fellow parent she knew from school. Emily Matthew had always been a strange woman, but this was a whole new level of odd behavior. I turned to Matt, my mind racing with possibilities.
"We need to talk to her," I said firmly. "We need to find out what she was doing there and what connection she has to John Baker."
Matt nodded in agreement, and we quickly gathered our things, ready to leave for Emily's house.
As we drove down A1A, I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease settle in the pit of my stomach. Something about the whole situation just didn't feel right.
Chapter48
Parker nursed his drink at the Beach Shack while Ivy cheerfully regaled him with stories. It was a small, shady place where he didn't fear anyone would recognize him, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care enough to call the cops on him.
They had been living in the car for days now, and he needed to get out. He had been keeping an eye on John Baker's house and knew they had found another body there. He had watched from a distance as they went through the house, combing it for evidence. But he didn't know where John Baker was. Anger boiled inside him when he thought of what had been done to his daughter. Parker wasn't close to Rachel by any means, but that wasn't his fault. He had tried all through her upbringing to be there, to have a relationship with her, sending her endless letters from prison but without success. And now she was gone. It broke his heart.
Ivy's high-pitched voice filled the small room, and he couldn't make out what she was saying as her words blended together into a single rushed stream. He nodded along, half-listening until something on the TV mounted on the wall caught his eye—it was tuned to the local news channel.
"What's this about?" he murmured, leaning forward slightly and squinting to make out the headlines scrolling across the bottom of the screen.
Ivy's voice was a constant chatter, and her words seemed to echo in his ears each time she spoke. It felt like he was trying to listen through a thick fog and struggled to make out what she was saying.
"Can you please be quiet for a second?" Parker interrupted Ivy.
She stopped mid-sentence, looking at him quizzically. He gestured toward the TV, where the volume had been turned down low. Parker motioned to the bartender, signaling for him to turn up the sound.
The reporter's voice filled the bar, talking about a suspect who had been apprehended in connection with the murder of Rachel Baker. Parker's heart rate quickened as he listened to the details. The suspect had been in a coma for a few days but was now waking up.
John Baker.
Parker slammed back the rest of his beer, tossed a few bills on the bar, and made a beeline for the door. Ivy followed him outside, her heels clicking loudly on the pavement.
"What's going on, Parker?" she asked as he fished the car keys out of his pocket.
"John Baker's been caught," he said, his voice low and tense with barely contained rage. "And I'm going to pay him a little visit."
Ivy looked at him with a mix of concern and fear. "Parker, please don't do anything stupid. You'll just end up back in jail or worse."
Parker didn't respond; he just got into the car's driver's seat and started the engine. Ivy jumped in the passenger's seat, barely making it inside before he took off. Her eyes were fixed on Parker as he sped away from the Beach Shack.
As they drove toward the hospital where John Baker was being treated, Parker's mind was consumed with thoughts of revenge. He knew that he shouldn't take matters into his own hands—that it was foolish and dangerous. But Rachel had been taken from him just as she had come back into his life. There was no way he could just watch while this murderer got away with it. Having been in jail for years, he knew it was far from punishment enough.
Chapter49
Emily Matthews opened the door, her eyes widening in surprise as she took in Matt and me on her doorstep. Her lips were pursed slightly, and one hand was gripping the edge of the door handle tightly, the other reaching up to touch her forehead where a furrow of worry had formed.
"Eva Rae? Matt? What's going on? Is something wrong with Alex?" she asked. "Has something happened? Did he and Christopher get into another fight at school?"
I could feel Emily's eyes on me as I replied, my voice calm but not quite reassuring. “No, it’s not about Alex,” I said. “We’re here on police business. Can we come in?”
The confusion that crossed her face was clear—her lips parted slightly, and her eyebrows furrowed. Her whole body seemed to shake as she asked, “Police business? What’s going on?”
"Let's talk inside, shall we?" I said.
Emily stood still for a few seconds, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed. She slowly grabbed her purse off a nearby table and held it tight against her chest. Her gaze darted between me and the door as if calculating her escape route. She opened her mouth to say something but hesitated, pressing her lips together in an awkward silence before finally muttering, "I was just leaving."
