Chapter 30
Cora
I dart my eyes in Eddie's direction the second Will leaves the table to answer the door.
The look on his face tells me that this isn't going to play out the way we expected it to, and I feel a sense of betrayal in that. I was told it would be a phone call, not that someone would show up and announce Sadie's death, but maybe this is more believable. People don't just get phone calls about a lost loved one, do they? That would be cold and callous.
I know it has to be someone from ICE because no one else would have the code to the gate, and I wonder if that's something they figured out on their own or if Eddie provided that to them.
My chin is trembling before William walks back into the dining room. There's a man with him that I don't recognize.
"Good evening," he says, making eye contact with everyone in the room. "I'm Detective Erik Granger with the Charleston police department."
I feel Eddie's eyes on me, but I can't look in his direction. If I see even a hint of sadness or empathy in his eyes, I'll lose it. I'm barely holding it together as it is.
I want to yell, to tell this man to leave, to let us finish our meal in peace before he shatters my family .
"I regret to inform you that we discovered Sadie Preston's body earlier today."
"What?" Chris snaps, his tone already laced with pain.
I look in his direction, tears already streaming down my face.
"What happened?" I ask the man who I seriously doubt is actually from Charleston police, but it would be suspect if an ICE agent showed up to announce the overdose of someone.
"The autopsy is scheduled for later in the week," the man answers."But preliminary findings point to an overdose."
"Cora?" Chris sobs, and I rush to him immediately.
Eddie stands and goes to Faye who is crying into her dinner napkin.
William stands in the doorway to the dining room, his face twisted in anger, jaw clenching repeatedly.
The fake cop looks at everyone in the room, and I feel like an animal behind a glass wall as someone taps the glass urging me to perform a certain way, but my heart is shattering all over again as I hold my sobbing brother.
This is horrific, to ask this of us.
"I was hoping that I could get some information," Mr. Granger or whatever his name is says.
"Information?" William snaps. "What could we possiblytell you about what happened to her?"
With a calm and cool look in his eyes, Mr. Granger turns to my eldest brother. "We're hoping you might know some of her connections. Did she mention any specific people in her life? I can only imagine your suffering, but we're hoping you might have information on who could've sold her the drugs."
"Do we look like the type of people who know the names of drug dealers? I'm going to ask you to leave."
"Mr. Preston, we—"
"We can make arrangements to speak with you and your colleagues at another time. Please, allow us some time to process the information you've provided."
Mr. Granger looks to Eddie as if he has all the information he needs, but William isn't placed in handcuffs, and the fact that my brother can be so callous makes me cautious. Is he involved or is he taking the lead in such a family tragedy the way he feels he needs to?
From watching him lift his hand toward the front of the house to give the officer another nudge in that direction, I can't even tell.
"She's gone?" Chris says, his face contorting with pain. "He's lying, right? This is just a cruel joke?"
"I don't think he's lying," I whisper, my throat threatening to seize with emotion.
I feel the warmth of a hand on my back and sigh with relief to look up and see that it's Eddie and not William. I don't know when I started to let the idea of his involvement in Sadie's death sink in, but I realize at this moment that at least a part of it has settled inside of me, making me cautious of him.
I hate the feeling. It's not much different from the regret I feel over my actions where Sadie is concerned. It's like acid boiling deep inside of me, threatening to consume me from the inside out. I hate all of it.
"I'm going to ask you to leave as well, Agent Yarrow," William says when he comes back into the room.
"What?" I snap, looking up at my brother.
"He is here to work on finding Sadie," William says, looking at the man in question rather than me. "She has been located and his services are no longer needed."
"William," Chris says, his voice weak and offended at how insensitive he's being right now.
"He's right," Eddie says, his finger curling into my back for a second before he takes a step back. "I'll gather my things. "
"Eddie," I whisper, catching his eyes.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Ms. Preston," he says before leaving the room.
A putrid sense of betrayal washes over me, and I don't know whether to aim my anger at the man who just so easily walked away or at my brother for suggesting he do so.
It isn't five minutes later when Chris's sobs begin to soften that I hear the front door open and close again.
William still stands sentry near the doorway to the dining room, and I glare at him with tears in my own eyes and angle my head toward Faye. The woman needs comfort, too. Sadness fills his eyes when he looks at the woman and he moves closer to her.
"Let's get you up to your room," he cajoles, and I think it's possibly the softest I've ever seen William.
He's always so stoic and unemotional.
"How about we move to the den?" I suggest to Chris.
He uses his cloth dinner napkin to dab at his eyes and swipe under his runny nose, and I feel heartbroken all over again when he looks up at me.
"How is this even possible?" he asks, shaking his head as if he still can't believe she's really gone. "We lost Mom and Dad and now Sadie? Who's next?"
"No one, " I assure him as I help him stand.
I remember when I got the news about Dad. Christopher was with him. They took a little time to go to the golf course for Chris's fourteenth birthday, and our father collapsed on the course. He was alone then and devastated, and I can only imagine what lasting effect that has had on his birthday. He smiles and tries to act like it's a day worth celebrating, but I've always seen the shadows in his eyes when we attempt to celebrate as if he blames himself for what happened.
I feel like I'm not adequate enough this time. Chris has grown over a foot taller than I am, and he's no longer the gangly teen I can wrap my arms around and protect the way I did when Dad died.
I sit beside him on the sofa, leaning over and grabbing the half-empty box of tissues that I've been using each time I find myself thinking about Sadie since getting home from California.
"I'm going to head back home," William says entering the room after getting Faye settled. "I'll call Charleston in the morning and make arrangements for burial."
Both Chris and I look up at him.
"I think a quiet family affair would be best," he says, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The less press we have on this matter the better. She has ruined this family's name enough."
"The better?" Chris snaps. "She was our sister, you cold, heartless bastard!"
I wrap my insufficient arms tighter around Chris, wondering if he's going to stand up and go after his older brother because I can feel his body trembling with rage.
William looks at him as if his outburst is unreasonable.
"Shh," I tell Chris before looking back up at William. "I'll walk you out."
According to our mother, it's customary to stand on the porch and wave at people until they're fully out of your line of sight so that they're not alone as they begin their journey away from you.
I don't want to do this for William, but it would be weird if I didn't.
Cold chills rush up my arms when we're alone in the hallway walking toward the front door.
"You don't seem surprised," he says.
"I don't think it has fully set in yet," I mutter, wondering if he's suspicious of how I've reacted to the news.
I knew it was going to be difficult for me. As much as I've tried, I've never been much of an actress. I can smile and take things on the chin with the best of them, but this sort of stuff is out of my wheelhouse. I haven't come to the end of my grieving, but I've had more time than Chris to come to terms with the truth. Maybe William has had even more time, and that's why he's so very capable of keeping his emotions under control.
"Let me know what you work out," I tell him when he opens the front door to leave.
"Don't let him leave tonight. He's not in any condition to leave."
"I'll make sure he stays," I assure him, my hand on the edge of the open door.
I close it behind him the second he steps on the front porch, lifting up on my toes to peek through the keyhole, needing to know that he's actually gone.
He doesn't immediately leave. He stands on the porch as if confused about what's expected next of him.
He shakes his head, lifting his chin as if staring at the stars above for answers.
"Aww fuck, Sadie," he says, his voice muffled through the door, but the emotion in his tone is very clear. "Why did you do this to us?"
I pull my face back and let him have his moment, and when I go back to my younger brother, I know without a doubt that William had nothing to do with her death.
Now I'm left with the responsibility of making sure the government doesn't pin this on my brother because they need a scapegoat to cover the fact that they haven't been capable of capturing this hitman.