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A smile lifted his lips. “I think I’ve found her. There are several Elizabeth Durhams around, but only one who’s the right age.”
“Gram will be so thrilled! She’ll want to go with us.”
“And we shouldn’t let her until we know the truth. We don’t know what we’ll find on the other end. Let’s go see Elizabeth ourselves first. If it goes well, we can arrange a meeting.”
“I hate to keep it from Gram. It feels like we’re juggling so many balls and I’m struggling to keep them all in the air. This should be a happy time. Can’t we let her have the joy of anticipation?”
His hazel eyes went thoughtful. “I wish we could, but I don’t think it’s wise, not just yet.”
“She’s nearly seventy—she knows how to temper hope withreality. Even if it ends up not being her sister, she can savor the anticipation for a while. But I’ll bow to your experience.”
“How’d you land on knowing it’s important?”
She smiled. “I’ve had disappointments in life too. Vacations that fell through because of Eric’s work schedule, the possibility of moving to a different town for a while, several things. After the disappointment was over, I told Eric I was glad for the chance to be excited about the possibility of those things happening. It gave us an opportunity to dream together, to plan. For every disappointment like that, there’s the flip side of hope. After Noah came along, I resolved to try to catch the joy in the small things. I want him to experience that too.”
“Joy. That’s a word we don’t use much.”
“I know. It’s not happiness, because that comes and goes. It’s that inner peace we have when we take every day God gives us and are thankful for it.”
“I never know how you’re going to surprise me next, Carly. You’re an amazing person. Eric didn’t know how lucky he was to have you.”
She warmed at the tender expression in his eyes. The feelings building between them were unspoken, but she felt them in every meaningful way. She didn’t know what the future held for them, but she could anticipate it and take joy from every moment.
***
Lucas placed a package of chicken breasts in the grocery cart as a shadow loomed behind him, and he turned to see Vinceholding a shopping basket. “Hey, you must have seen my truck in the lot.” He maneuvered the cart off to the side of the meat counter and turned to watch the aisles.
The fluorescent lights shimmered off Vince’s bald head as he nodded. “Sure did. I’ve been checking out Charlie Kostin. He seems okay, Lucas. I talked to the current workers at one of his old job sites, and they knew of him but had never seen him. He showed up here and started the job with Ryan right away. Ryan’s employees say he was quiet but pleasant. He didn’t share any personal details with them. His move here seemed purposeful, knowing what we know.”
“Married?”
“No.”
Lucas wasn’t surprised by that. Russian organized crime lived by what they called a thieves’ code, which was something to be admired in their culture. They left behind any family ties, including wives or children. But the code of thievery also included not working, and this Kostin had been at Ryan’s jobsite.
If he wasn’t organized crime, why was he here? “I think he might have been looking for the item.”
Vince picked up a package of ground beef and placed it in his basket. “That’s what I thought. And if he was, who stabbed him? Could there be some disagreement with another member who wants it? That doesn’t seem likely, and it made me wonder if you have two parties after the same thing.”
“That’s what I was thinking. You find anything else on Kelly Cicero?”
Vince scowled. “Nothing other than the two big deposits. I get bad vibes from her, though.”
“Me too. And Bury?”
“Nothing more than what I told you. We need to get Kelly to talk to learn more.”
“Is Kostin still in a coma?”
“He started to come out of it about an hour ago. Not coherent enough for us to interrogate him, but the doctor thinks he might make it. He’s far from out of the woods yet, though.”
“I think I’ll go have a chat with Kelly again. You spoke by phone. Maybe in person I can get her to talk.”
Vince shook his head. “She’s gone. When I got there to see her, she was packing up a moving van. I asked where she was going, and she wouldn’t tell me.”
“Did you check with the moving van company to see where she was dropping it?”
“They wouldn’t give up that information without a warrant.”
