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He laughed. “Trust me, it’s not just you.” He cleared his throat and pulled himself back to the other side of the board. “Now, you ready for a trouncing?”
“In your dreams.”
At 1:45, James’ phone pinged and he glanced at it. “They found a coffin.”
She sucked in a breath. “Okay then.”
“They’re on the way. You ready?”
She nodded and they put the game away, with Lainie the clear victor in spite of James’ grumbles that someone with a dictionary in her head was cheating. James suggested lunch, but Lainie shook her head. “I couldn’t eat a thing. Can we just go? After you eat something, of course.”
“I’m not really hungry either. Let’s go. We’ll get something after?”
“Please.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door while James called to let his boss know they were on the way. Two police cars fell into place behind them, and Lainie reached over to clasp his hand.
James held it all the way to the hospital.
Twenty-Three
Once in the hospital, in the waiting room of the morgue, James looked at her. “How are you doing?”
“I feel like I’m going to throw up but could dance for joy that this is finally happening, all at the same time.”
“That’s a wide range of emotions.”
“Tell me about it. I don’t want to question an answer to prayer, but I’m so beyond confused that I don’t even know what to think. Half of the people who know him believe he’s dead. The other half are convinced he’s alive. Someone stole his gravestone, went to a lot of trouble to erase him from the system, and now Adam’s father says that his son is buried there, but insists there’s no body in the coffin because his son really isn’t dead. My brain is ready to self-combust.”
“Well, we’ll know in just a little while what’s what.”
The door opened and Victoria Irwin stepped inside. Lainie sucked in a ragged breath while James stiffened. “Hello,” he said. “I’m a little surprised to see you here.”
“Myles asked me to come,” she said, “to witness this farce.”
“My partner’s been trying to get in touch with you,” James said, ignoring her statement.
“Yes, I’ve got a voice mailbox full of his messages. I’ll call him after this invasion is finished.”
Invasion? Lainie raised a brow and bit her tongue while James tapped out a text message. Probably to Cole letting him know Victoria was at the morgue with them.
What was Lainie going to do if the body in that coffin wasn’t Adam? Because she seemed to be the only person who still believed it was.
Unfortunately, she was having trouble truly hanging on to that belief she’d been so sure about just a couple of days ago. Then again, someone was going to an awful lot of trouble to make it look like Adam was alive. If it took that much effort to do so, wasn’t he really dead? Again, the thought occurred to her that this was all just a smokescreen. Who would benefit from her believing that Adam was alive? Who would benefit from her being dead?
Lainie released a long sigh and realized she’d been squeezing James’ hand so tight her own fingers were numb. She let go and leaned her head against him. “You haven’t said much about your back. How is it?” She kept her voice low. Victoria had seated herself across from them, her nose in her phone.
“Better.” He kept his voice just as soft while his fingers tapped the screen of his phone. “I’m texting Cole. He’s tied up at the moment but plans to bolt over here to see if she’ll meet him at her house.”
“Why don’t you just ask her?”
“Because I don’t want to give her the opportunity to say no. Cole can just follow her home and bug her until she lets him in.”
“Ha.”
When he finished, he looked at her and slid an arm around her shoulder. “As for my back, today is the first day it’s not painful to move, so that’s progress.”
“I’m glad. That was some bruise.” She glanced up at him. “Do you ever wonder what happens to the people you help?”
“Of course I do.”
