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“No need to apologize,” Rafe assured him. “And thanks for the photo.”
Bree thanked him, too, and ended the call. Then, she focused on the task at hand. The crappy task she was dreading.
She gathered her breath again before she drove to the gate. It opened right away so maybe the housekeeper had been watching for them. But she was wrong about that. Because themoment she pulled to a stop in front of the house, Wade came out the front door.
“Loretta said you’d called and wanted to know if I was home,” Wade volunteered. “What’s wrong? Did you find Tessa?”
“Why don’t we talk inside,” Bree replied.
Of course, that put some instant fear and alarm in Wade’s eyes, but she had to wonder if those emotions were for Tessa or because he knew his secret child had been uncovered?
Wade didn’t take them to the living room but rather straight down the side hall to his office. Like the rest of the house, it was massive, and it had an incredible view of the pastures where some Palominos were grazing.
“Tell me,” Wade insisted the moment he shut the door.
“The skeletal remains found at the inn were identified as Sandy Lynn Franklin,” Bree said, and she watched his face closely for a reaction.
And she saw it.
Damn it, she saw it.
A quick intake of breath. A clenched jaw that lasted barely a blink before he sighed and dropped down into his chair.
“Franklin,” he muttered. “Her mother is Nancy?”
Bree confirmed that with a nod and dragged over a chair so she could better make eye contact with him. “Tell me about Sandy Lynn and her.” And then she would press him as to why he’d lied.
“Tessa’s mom and I were going through a rough patch, and I had a one-night stand with Nancy after I met her in a diner where she worked. I saw her that one and only time,” he insisted, looking her straight in the eyes. “And she never got in touch with me to tell me she was pregnant.”
That eased some of the tightness in Bree’s stomach. “Did she know your name or how to get in touch with you?”
Wade sighed, shook his head. “I didn’t give her my surname. At least I don’t think I did. I was dealing with a hangover and made it worse by leaving the diner with her and heading to a bar. The only reason I knew her name is I recall her making a joke, saying something like she wasn’t any kin to Ben Franklin.” He stopped. “She had a baby?”
“She did,” Rafe said, sitting on the edge of Wade’s desk.
“And you’re positive she was my child?” Wade pressed.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Her DNA matched yours taken from the blood on the handkerchief.”
Wade cursed. “That damn bomb,” he grumbled, and for a moment Bree thought he was about to say if it hadn’t been for that, then he wouldn’t have known about this other daughter.
He didn’t. Instead, Wade seemed to regroup.
“I had no idea my bloody handkerchief would lead to this,” the man said instead.
“Obviously, neither did we. But at least now we know who she is, and we can give her mother some closure. All these years, she must have wondered what had happened to her daughter.”
Wade made a noncommittal sound and dropped into a long silence. One that Rafe broke.
“Sandy Lynn was born nearly two years to the day after Tessa. And you never met her?” Rafe asked.
“No,” Wade was quick to say. “Didn’t even know she existed.” He paused again, and he looked up at Rafe. “Why was Sandy Lynn buried here? Do you think she was killed in Canyon Ridge?”
“We don’t know yet,” Rafe explained. Like Bree, he had his attention pinned to Wade. “Obviously, we don’t have any evidence from a crime scene, but the jacket she was wearing is being analyzed. That might give us some clues. It’s possible even after all this time, there’ll be some kind of trace or prints. A long shot, but possible.”
“The jacket,” he muttered. “The one like Tessa’s.”
“Yes,” Bree confirmed. “But it was a larger size than Tessa’s so it’s definitely not hers. The lab tech thinks it might have been a fairly new jacket when it went into the grave with Sandy Lynn. So, maybe…” Now, she was the one who paused and tried to figure out the best way to say this. “Could Tessa have found out about her half-sister and had a jacket made for her?”
