EPILOGUE #2
“Linda’s packet cleared up the barn, too,” Kelly said. “Carol had marked the meeting point on Talon Road, the track into the woods and the barn.”
Selena pictured the route. “She parked there before Linda arrived.”
“That’s our reconstruction. Price thinks he can match the tires of Fen’s car to some of the imprints found there.”
“And Blethan?”
“His final blood-pattern work supports Linda being attacked while she was sitting behind the wheel.”
Selena nodded. “So Carol kills her, walks back to her own car and leaves.”
“Taking Linda’s phone with her. It still hasn’t been recovered, but Carol marked the creek beside the bridge on the same map.”
“She threw it in on the way back.”
“That’s what we believe.”
Kelly turned another page. “Karen and Ruth’s phones were never recovered either. Carol must have destroyed them.”
Selena understood. “The HearthSpace messages.”
“That’s our read. The phones were the quickest route into those private conversations. Taking them couldn’t erase HearthSpace’s records, but it kept us from opening a handset and finding MorningGlory44 straight away.”
“What about Ruth’s laptop?”
“No HearthSpace credentials or cached pages. It appears she used the platform through her phone.”
Selena nodded. “Same cleanup after all three.”
“Exactly.”
Selena tried to move and then thought better of it. “The wedding announcement triggered it.”
Kelly nodded. “It appears so. The first search for Karen took place the night Andrew’s remarriage was announced online. Carol searched Ruth and Linda the following morning. Deb came two days later.”
Months of preparation reduced to dates on a screen. Carol had built the murders in silence while presenting herself as a sympathetic voice to other women.
Selena glanced toward the rain-streaked window. “How is Deb?”
“Recovering. The knife missed the major vessels in her shoulder and side. She lost a lot of blood, but there’s no permanent organ damage. They expect to discharge her in several days.”
“Has she given a statement?”
“Enough for the charging affidavit. They’ll take a fuller one when she’s stronger.” Kelly closed the folder. “She asked about you.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were complaining, which meant you were improving.”
Selena laughed. “You got the first part right.”
For the first time, Kelly smiled.
It faded quickly.
“There’s something else,” she said.
Selena waited.
“I’ve been called back to Seattle.”
The words took a moment to settle. “Why?”
“I put in the request.”
“You asked to go back?”
“Yes. I head out tonight.”
Selena shifted too quickly, and pain ran through her wrist. “Why?”
Kelly ran one thumb along the folder’s edge. “The temporary assignment was supposed to be reviewed after the case. I spoke to Meg yesterday and asked her to end it now.”
A familiar guilt rose before Selena could test whether it belonged there.
“If this is because of me, I…”
“No.” Kelly’s answer came firmly. “It isn’t anything like that.”
“Kelly, we’ve barely managed to work in the same room without dragging school into it. And… I’m sorry for that. It’s hard to let go of the past. I see the great agent you’ve become. You’re not that girl anymore.”
“That’s part of why I came, to fix things, but it’s not why I’m leaving.”
“Then help me understand.”
Kelly turned toward the window. Rain had darkened the trees beyond the parking lot. Leaves broke free in the wind and spun past the glass.
“I guess some people are right when they say you can never go home,” she said. “I thought I wanted this place because Seattle had become empty. I thought being here might fix something.”
“Did it?”
“In some ways.” Kelly lowered her gaze to her clasped hands. “I did good work. We stopped Carol. I said what I should’ve said to you years ago.”
“That doesn’t sound like failure.”
“It isn’t. I just don’t feel as if I belong here anymore.”
Selena considered the old school, Kelly’s desk near the office door, and the careful distance between them during those first days.
“I thought you wanted to get away from Seattle.”
“I wanted to get away from the life I had there. That’s not the same as wanting this one.” Kelly gave a small shrug. “I’m better suited to city work. More cases, larger teams, less driving through woods where every road has three names and none are on the map.”
Selena almost smiled, but the weight in Kelly’s voice stopped her.
Kelly drew a breath. “Selena, are we okay?”
The question held no demand for absolution. Kelly did not ask whether the past was erased or whether they could become friends. She wanted to know what they were at the end of the work they had shared.
Selena extended her right hand.
Kelly took it carefully, avoiding the injured wrist.
“Yeah,” Selena said. “We’re fine.”
Relief softened Kelly’s features.
“If you need a reference for a transfer somewhere else,” Selena continued, “or for anything in Seattle, use my name.”
“Thank you.”
“You earned it.”
Kelly released her hand and stood. “Good luck, Selena.”
“You too, Kelly.”
A strange pang moved through Selena. The woman at the foot of the bed was not the girl from the locker room. She was not quite a friend either. She belonged to a part of Selena’s past that had followed her into the present, changed shape, and was now leaving on its own terms.
Kelly reached the door.
“Kelly.”
She turned.
“Thank you.”
Kelly nodded. “See you around, Selena.”
The door closed behind her.
Silence returned to the room.
Selena turned toward the window. Rain crossed the glass in uneven lines. Beyond it, autumn leaves fell through the hospital grounds, some dropping directly while others caught in the wind and traveled beyond the parking lot.
Her bandaged hand rested against the white sheet.
Five days earlier, she had entered Deb Mosley’s house believing the case was almost over. Now Carol Fen lay restrained under guard, Deb was learning to move without tearing her wounds, and Kelly was returning to the city she had once tried to escape.
Connor would come back. Her dad would continue ignoring instructions. The old federal office in Eagleton would still contain three empty desks, a sealed box beneath Selena’s desk, and more work than one agent could manage.
She watched another leaf turn slowly past the window.
Harlan County had brought her home, taken blood from her, and refused to explain what came next.
Selena could not shake the feeling that the longer she stayed, the more Harlan County was seeping back into her bones, and she had no idea whether its intentions were friendly or not.
Selena rested her head against the pillow and wondered what the county had in store for her next.