Chapter Sixteen
As he watched Livvy eat her breakfast, Ethan was feeling a lot of things. Worry over the investigation. Over the possibility of Livvy being emotionally crushed if her memory did fully return. Heck, he was even concerned about the safety of the baby and her.
One thing he wasn’t feeling was regret.
It had no doubt muddied their relationship waters for them to have sex, again, but he was having a hard time being sorry about it happening. Along with it being pretty damn amazing, Livvy had seemed to relax. And later, she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
No nightmare.
That was somewhat of a miracle, considering the hell she’d been through for the past two days. Of course, the “hell” wasn’t finished. Ethan knew that soon reports would be coming in on Belinda and the two crime scenes. Added to that, a second investigation would need to be opened on her mother.
All of that would no doubt be like adding salt to Livvy’s wounds, but for now, for this moment, she seemed, well, settled while she ate the eggs and toast he’d made for her.
She wasn’t noticing that he was studying her because she had her attention on her laptop screen where she was reading a transcript of the recordings that had been in the file Franklin had given them.
It had to be hard to read about Chloe plotting Belinda’s murder, but he wasn’t seeing that on her face.
Maybe she was looking at the info as simply evidence needed to solve a case.
If so, he hoped she could keep that attitude for a while longer until they had caught the killer.
“I’m all right,” she said, glancing up at him. So, she’d noticed him studying her after all. “How about you?”
Ethan felt himself smile, and to answer her, he leaned in and dropped a kiss onto her mouth. He expected her to return the smile.
She didn’t.
Instead, she sighed. “We really do need to have that talk, don’t we?”
His stomach went into a knot. He definitely didn’t like the sound of that. “Are you dumping me?” he had to ask.
Judging from her face—mouth dropping open and eyes widening—he’d thankfully gotten that wrong. “No, uh, I was thinking more along the lines of asking you just how hard should I be guarding my heart.”
Now it was his turn to look surprised. He had no idea how to respond to that and didn’t get the chance anyway because Livvy continued.
“I shouldn’t be saying this, but I’m in love with you,” she blurted, and she looked stunned and a little horrified at her confession.
“And no, it doesn’t have to do with the great sex.
That’s just…icing. It doesn’t have to do with the baby either.
That’s more icing.” She stopped, groaned.
“I’m babbling. Sorry—forget everything I just said. ”
Not a chance. In fact, Ethan was certain he’d remember that for the rest of his life. He was also equally certain that it scared the devil out of him. He wasn’t ready to fall in love again.
Was he?
If he loved anyone again, it would definitely be Livvy, but…hell in a handbasket, his mind was all muddled now, and even though she’d said her feelings for him had nothing to do with the baby, or the great sex, that was all part of this.
Wasn’t it?
Ethan did a whole lot of mental cursing, and he actually felt a little reprieve when Livvy’s phone rang. He needed a couple of seconds to tamp down the whirlwind in his head. A couple of seconds to catch his breath.
Livvy was in love with him.
And he had to figure out what to do about that.
She kept her gaze on him until she picked up her phone. “It’s Grace,” she relayed to him.
Unlike what Livvy had just said, the call was expected.
The night before Grace had texted to let them know she’d picked up Sunny from the hospital but that she wouldn’t be talking to the woman about her fingerprints on the file until morning.
She’d decided to let Sunny try to get a good night’s sleep before discussing that with her.
“How’s everything there this morning?” Grace greeted after Livvy answered the call and put it on speaker.
“Fine,” they said in unison.
A little too fast. And more than just a little tense. Damn it. He’d blown it, and Ethan didn’t know how to fix it.
“Okay,” Grace replied as if she hadn’t bought their response.
“Well, I just wanted you to know that the CSIs did finish up inside at the old house. They’re still examining the area around it, but we’ve been cleared to visit the scene, so Sunny and I are about to head out there in a couple of minutes. Do you still want to join us?”
“Yes,” Livvy said, already standing.
Both Grace and Ethan sighed. “All right,” Grace muttered. “FYI, you’ll want to hear what she has to say about her fingerprints being on that file. It doesn’t really give us a break in the case, just more of an insight. See you in about twenty minutes,” she tacked on before ending the call.
“Insight,” Ethan repeated.
He was all for that. All for Livvy and him having an air clearing, too, but he decided to wait until they were back here for that.
They put on their shoulder holsters, and since Ethan had put the cruiser in the garage, they headed there, making their way through the mudroom, where they grabbed their coats.
When Livvy pulled out of the garage, it was as if they’d been plunged right into winter.
Of course, Ethan had already seen the dark skies from the windows, and he had known they wouldn’t have a warm, sunny morning for this visit, but it looked as if they were on the verge of getting some ice or snow.
Because the old house didn’t have heat, maybe that would shorten this visit.
Ethan wanted Livvy to spend as little time there as possible, only long enough to get whatever answers she hoped to get.
They had barely made it out of the driveway when both of their phones dinged with texts, and the head county CSI’s name flashed on the dash monitor.
Since it was a group message to the sheriff and all the deputies, Ethan figured it was one of the many reports and updates that would be coming in.
And it was. But this was an update that might give Livvy a jolt.
“They found old blood under the floorboards in the bathroom,” he read aloud. “Significant amounts of it, and samples are being sent for testing.”
So, that was likely the proof that Livvy’s mother had indeed been murdered there, and he glanced at her to see how she was handling that. He was surprised when he saw her nod.
“Good,” she murmured. “This might mean we’re one step closer to learning the whole truth about what happened.”
True. But that didn’t mean the lab would be able to prove the blood was Belinda’s. By now, any components of the blood, including the DNA, would likely be degraded. Still, if they could narrow down the timing of how long it’d been there, that would add to the details they already had.
When Livvy took the final turn onto the road to the house, Ethan spotted Grace’s cruiser. And Grace herself. Sunny and she were standing in front of the house, and their shoulders were hunched, no doubt to shield themselves against the bitter chill.
Livvy parked behind them, and they got out as well. Yeah, it was definitely cold, and the wind was slashing through the bare tree limbs and the cornstalks that looked like something straight out of a horror movie. It only added to that knot that was still in Ethan’s stomach.
“Sunny,” Livvy greeted.
The woman nodded, but there was nothing cheerful about it. She glanced at the house as if both dreading this but also determined to go through with it. Like Livvy, Sunny probably thought she’d find answers here. Ethan hoped that was all they found, and the uneasiness went up a notch.
“Let’s talk inside,” Grace said, leading them up the rickety porch steps and into the front room.
Sunny glanced around before her attention landed on the narrow hall. Even though some of the wall was missing, it wasn’t possible to see into the bathroom, but she no doubt knew it was in that direction.
Livvy was doing her own glancing around as well, and it was probably a toss-up between Sunny and her as to which one was having the harder time by being here. Both had had family die in this miserable place. Or at least it’d been where their bodies had been dumped.
“Before we take a look at the bathroom,” Grace said, getting their attention, “Sunny has some things she wants to tell you.”
The dread on Sunny’s face escalated a whole bunch, but she nodded. “It’s about the file Grace said Franklin gave you.” She paused, clamping her teeth over her bottom lip for a moment. “Zadie showed me the file. That’s why my fingerprints were on it.”
“She showed it to you?” Livvy questioned. “When?”
Sunny dragged in a long breath. “It was about two months ago. Zadie brought it to my quarters one night. She said that Chloe had left her safe open, and Zadie spotted the folder. There was enough of the old cassette tape sticking out to make her curious, so she had a look.” Another pause.
“Zadie told me that Chloe had done something very bad. Something that could get her locked away in prison for a long time.”
Yeah, if the contents of that file were true, Chloe could have been looking at the death penalty.
“Did she say what exactly Chloe had done, or did you read the file for yourself?” Ethan asked.
Sunny was quick to shake her head. “No to both of those. In fact, I told Zadie to put the file back and forget that she’d ever seen it. I know that sounds wrong—cowardly, even—but I reminded her that whatever was in there might not even be about Chloe but a patient.”
Ethan didn’t think Sunny was lying about that. No need. And Chloe could indeed have put sensitive patient info in that safe.
“And how did Zadie react to what you told her?” Livvy pressed when Sunny fell silent.