Chapter 5 #2
Her cheeks heated. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“I’m teasing. I agree with your assessment.
I would have loved it. I spent plenty of time traipsing these woods the rest of the year but never during the summer and never overnight.
The Thomases have always been such a giving, generous family.
I can’t imagine the blessing of spending time in their utopia. ”
“Grounding yourself with nature is healing. Letting go of electronics and expectations and learning to listen to yourself and the world around you helped me grow. I quieted down for long enough to listen while I prayed.” She sighed.
“I’d love for the kids I work with to have opportunity to go to camp.
Being city kids, they aren’t out in nature very often. But…”
“You don’t think you could come back here again? Why did you return?” he asked, the question barely above a whisper.
She blinked back the tears. Crying wasn’t an appropriate response to tenderness. Their old bond resurfaced but cold facts remained. She couldn’t rest her head on his shoulder or lean into him as she sobbed.
“I came back to bring up memories of Liz. My therapist encouraged me to attend as a way of unlocking my mind and forgiving myself.” She shivered. “But being here is stoking my deepest fears. I don’t have any clear mental pictures from that time. I’m suffering more.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Our last conversation,” she murmured, raising her gaze.
Her chin trembled, and her skin chilled.
She had to say the awful words. She held his warm chocolate gaze but felt no heat.
She was ice cold. “I can’t remember what was said.
Did I cause her to run out? Why wasn’t I there when it happened?
Was it all my fault? We took care of each other. ”
Daniel had never imagined the moment he told Emma about his investigation.
He’d had plenty of daydreams but not about a work in progress.
He’d wanted to solve the case, knock on her door, and give her answers.
Perhaps she’d come back to town with him.
He wanted to remove the biggest obstacle between them before approaching her again so they could find a way back to the kids they’d been before everything had changed.
Instead, he tightened his grip on the wheel as he turned into the parking lot of the hospital and stopped the SUV.
The conversation demanded a little more privacy than pulling up in front of the building.
Sitting in his patrol vehicle, he turned toward her and finally accepted that they could never go back.
His mind tricked him into believing in a fantasy, like he’d get a do-over for the last two decades.
He had to go forward in this reality, whether he liked it or not.
“Whatever happened, you were not responsible,” he murmured.
Emma crossed her arms over her chest and faced the windshield. “How can you know if I don’t?”
She looked like she’d donned a suit of armor. He’d give her one if he thought it would protect her. The heart could only take so much. Could his insight help her heal?
“Emma, I have been investigating your sister’s death for many years,” he said. “I don’t believe it was an accident. The details don’t fit. She was the most careful person I’ve ever met.”
“Please, don’t let me off the hook. If I pushed her to do something, what does that change other than my guilt?”
“I don’t know details of what happened between the two of you,” he said. “I am aware of other facts.”
“This is a mistake. I can’t go back. Coming here was a mistake. I shouldn’t dig up the past if I can’t carry the weight.” Emma took in a gulping breath.
A startling thought struck hit him. Emma thought her sister hurt herself on purpose and that Emma had been the catalyst. For Liz’s sake, and Emma’s too, he had to disavow Emma of the burden of such a terrible thought.
“No, Emma, listen.” He reached for her hands, holding both.
Her clammy fingers felt like a cadaver’s.
Her genuine fear permeated to her bones.
He shouldn’t tell her about his suspicions without tangible proof.
But he couldn’t watch her suffer. “She was meeting someone that night and never made it. I believe Liz was murdered. I don’t know why or how. ”
Emma sniffed, staring at him through watery eyes.
He squeezed her hands.
“That…changes everything,” she whispered.
He nodded. It did. Closure might finally be achieved, but how many other lives would be upended in the process?
Liz’s death didn’t spark a wave of homicides and suspicious tragedies.
Her fatal fall had been a one-off and the only untimely death for nearly fifteen years, until a car accident outside town. And before Owen’s accident.
Emma pulled her hands free and folded her arms again.
This time, the gesture looked more like she gave herself a hug than shoved off the outside world. “I’m sorry for everything you and your family have endured. I want to get the truth of what happened.”
“I found a note,” Emma whispered. “I didn’t tell anyone. It was just one word on a scrap of paper. Sorry.” She shuddered.
He wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, wrap her in his arms, hold her as she sobbed. He could be a rock for her. Had she carried this burden since that night? “Anything else?”
She shook her head.
“The note could have been anything. Maybe it was for someone else and fell out of her pocket. One word is also hard to identify as someone’s handwriting. Anyone could have dropped it.”
Emma pressed her lips together, scrunching her face. “I withheld facts. I hurt the investigation.”
“You didn’t do anything to impede law enforcement,” he added, hoping he reassured her.
“You were a kid in distress. It’s understandable.
The sheriff at the time didn’t look too deep.
He couldn’t fathom a murder in his town so he didn’t poke and prod like he should.
If he had, he would have approached you, and you would have told him. ”