Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
A half hour later, Tom returned to the cabin, and he and Ellen sat down with Jessica to discuss her future. While they did that, I went into the bedroom to make a call that couldn't wait another minute. I needed to speak to Natalie's brother. I needed to let him know what had happened.
When Adam Warren answered, his voice was hopeful, and it hurt even more to crush that hope, to tell him that Natalie's murderer had confessed to killing her and that the police in Stonecross had her locket.
I couldn't answer any of his other questions.
I didn't know where Natalie's body was, or if it could be recovered, but I referred him to the Stonecross Sheriff's Department for more information.
Not able to find any words to console him, I eventually just apologized for the bad news and hung up.
It was the worst call I'd ever had to make, but I'm glad I could give the family some closure. I hoped that was better than nothing.
Maybe some point Ellen would share information with Adam about why Natalie was running away, why she'd needed to start over, but I wasn't sure if that would happen or not.
My grandmother was still in many ways an enigma.
But I would leave it to Adam to press for more answers.
In the end, nothing would bring his sister back.
Needing some air, I walked out to the porch to talk to Finn. He was on his phone but quickly got off when he saw me.
"Who were you talking to?" I asked.
"Sophie. Dorothy had to be taken to the hospital. She collapsed when she heard what Jeff had been doing at her house."
"Oh, no!" I said with alarm. "Is she going to be all right?"
"They think so. It was just an overwhelming shock. My mother and Sophie are with her now. She's resting comfortably, so they're going to head home soon."
"She's a sweet lady. She has to be devastated by what Jeff was doing.
That kind of evil probably seems unimaginable to her.
It was unimaginable to me until I saw the insanity in his eyes, the complete disconnect with reality.
He had seemed so normal before that. Like Tom's easygoing, nowhere-near-as-intense younger brother. "
"Jeff fooled everyone," Finn said. "I served him drinks and meals for the past two years and never had an inkling that anything was off."
"He hid his dark side very well." Pausing, I added, "I can still see his amused smile when I came back the night I was run off the road. That had to be him, don't you think?"
"Probably. Unless it was Tyler."
"Tyler said it wasn't him. He wasn't hired to kill me.
And Jeff was at the inn when I got back that night.
He was sitting with Dorothy when I told Ellen I was her granddaughter.
He enjoyed that drama. He probably thought it was a great distraction from my search for Natalie, because now I was persona non grata with Ellen and everyone else in town. "
Finn gave me a guilty look. "I shouldn't have left you alone earlier today. I should have taken you with me to see Nathan. That decision could have been a fatal mistake."
"What happened isn't on you, Finn. I brought everything on myself.
I stirred up trouble. I made Jeff nervous, my grandmother, too, because she feared I would expose her network.
She was afraid that the women she'd saved wouldn't be safe anymore.
I sure got her wrong. But that's one thing I am happy about. "
"You have a lot to be happy about."
"I know. I'm grateful to be alive. And I'm glad we got some answers." I thought about that for a moment. "I asked my grandmother about Anna, the woman who was staying in the room next to mine who disappeared before dawn one morning. She wasn't one of Jeff's victims. She's safe."
"That’s a relief."
"But there were other victims."
"We'll get their names. We'll get them justice," he assured me.
I nodded in return. "We will."
"How are you actually feeling physically after all this?"
"I feel numb, like I'm running on adrenaline, but I'm betting everything is going to hurt tomorrow."
"There's probably a crash in your future. I've ridden that adrenaline high before."
"I don't think that crash will compare to anything I've gone through today. I was almost killed twice. I really don't want to test my luck a third time."
"You won't have to do that. I'm not going to let anything else happen to you, Cassidy."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I think it's over for me now.
Jeff is in jail, and not even his brother seems interested in defending him.
I'm guessing Tom will be more focused on protecting himself going forward.
I'm not sure if this underground railroad is going to create problems for him and my grandmother, but I think they will have a lot of questions to answer, especially from the families who are missing loved ones. "
"I agree, and I suspect their network will have to end. Or at least operate in a more overt way. I am glad to see that Tom does have a good side. I wasn't sure about that, especially recently, when you pointed out all the flaws in the investigation into Natalie's disappearance."
"I know now that Tom was covering up the railroad, that he and my grandmother genuinely thought everyone was safe. They just couldn't say why." Feeling suddenly exhausted, I said. "I need to sit."
Finn waved me toward the porch bench, and I took a grateful seat, happy when he sat down next to me. I was starting to really like his strong, powerful presence beside me. "Do you think Marcus Pierce will send other people after Jessica?"
"I've spoken to Tom about that. He didn't know much about the Jessica situation. Ellen wasn't as open when it came to Jessica, and now we know why. She didn't want to tell him that Jessica was Lily's child."
"That was a shocker," I murmured. "I never expected to get a sister out of all this.
How crazy is it that I might have gone my whole life and never known about her?
But, somehow, we ended up at the same place at the same time.
I guess it was fate. I wasn't sure I really believed in fate before, but maybe I do now. "
"It's hard to say it was anything else," Finn agreed. "Tom said he'll talk to the U.S. Marshals about getting Jessica back into witness protection until the trial."
"But she said that didn't work before."
"They'll try to make it work now. They'll also try to find links between the man who was pretending to be Tyler Pierce and Marcus Pierce. If they can establish that Marcus paid the man in the woods to kill Jessica, that should add more charges to what he's already facing."
"I wonder where the actual Tyler Pierce is?"
"They'll look for him, too."
"Do you think he's also dangerous?"
"No idea. But until the situation settles down, Jessica will need protection." Finn gave me a questioning look. "Are you going to tell your father he has a daughter he never knew about?"
"That's a good question. I have a lot to talk to him about.
But I need to get my head straight on all the details.
That's going to involve a longer conversation with Ellen.
And in the end, I really think she should be the one to tell him everything.
But we'll see if I can make that happen.
My grandmother and father are like two immovable objects.
It might take a force of nature to bring them together. "
Finn's smile warmed my heart. "I think you just described yourself, Cassidy."
I smiled back at him. "I didn't use to be a force of anything. Since I came here, I've become a different person. One who is willing to take risks, to push back, and to fight. I have never fought for anything the way I fought for my life today."
"You're stronger than you thought."
"I am. And while I might have misjudged my grandmother and Tyler, I wasn't wrong about you, Finn. My gut told me you were a good guy, and you are."
His smile faded. "I wasn't as good as I thought I was.
I shouldn't have taken Tom at face value when he shut down the private investigators who showed up in town.
I should have asked more questions. And that boat trip with Nathan and Tessa was a huge mistake.
I was distracted by my friend's call. He has PTSD, and he needed to talk to me urgently, and dealing with him took my mind off what was happening with Tessa. "
"That's why you disappeared for ten minutes."
"Yes."
"That makes sense. And I know you didn't think Nathan would do anything to Tessa."
"I really didn't." His blue eyes darkened as his gaze met mine.
"It wasn't just your investigation that shook me up; it was also you, Cassidy.
I've been a little stuck in my life. I got thrust back into a career I'd walked away from a long time ago.
I told myself I couldn't say no, couldn't turn my back on my family, that it was only temporary, but then months turned into years, and I am still here. "
"It seems like you enjoy running the bar."
"I actually don't mind it, but I never wanted to spend my whole life in Stonecross. And I don't know that I want to do that now."
"There is a big world out there. Maybe when Sophie moves to New York, you'll want to come visit."
He met my gaze. "I'm definitely going to do that, Cassidy."
My nerves tingled at the look in his eyes.
Was there something between us? I didn't want to mistake the high emotion of the last few days for something more.
But that cautious thought reminded me of how often I had chosen the safe path in the past. I couldn't keep doing that, and I didn't want to keep doing that.
But so much had happened today, I couldn't deal with anything else at the moment.
"What are your plans in terms of leaving town?" Finn asked.
"Tessa gets released from the hospital tomorrow. I know she'll want to get back to New York. And I need to go with her. She can't travel alone."