She plopped down on the bed and dug the file Wyatt had given her from her bag. Twenty-six interviews had been conducted with friends, family, and colleagues. Adeline read each one. The shared themes were “no problems” and “loved by everyone who knows her.”
Adeline picked up a candid shot of Cherry Prescott with her family. “Someone didn’t love you, Cherry. Who was it?” The husband? A lover? What had brought her to the Moss Point area? No one seemed to have a clue why she was down this way.
According to her colleagues, Prescott hadn’t been working on a case that might have lured her to the area. No known friends or family lived here.
But there had to be a reason for her visit.
A reason someone wasn’t happy about.
The husband and closest friends didn’t have a clue why she had received the princess letter. Unlike Adeline, her birthday was months away. No known enemies. Nothing.
Adeline’s cell vibrated. She pulled it from her pocket and accepted the call. “Cooper.”
“Addy, you were supposed to call me when you got here.”
“Hey, Mom. Sorry. I got distracted.” The idea that Adeline’s baby was sitting in some garage awaiting new tires pissed her off all over again. Telling her mom about the incident was out of the question.
“I hope you’re being careful,” Irene fussed. “I’m very worried about your being here.”
“I’m fine.” How many times did she have to say that? “I carry a big-ass gun, Mom. No one’s going to mess with me.” Not and live through it anyway.
“It’s Clay that concerns me.”
“I warned Cyrus to keep his offspring off my back.”
“You talked to Cyrus?”
There was something in her mother’s voice. “Yes, I did.” Adeline turned over the inflection she’d heard ... fear, maybe? “He told me about the cancer.”And you didn’t,she thought but didn’t say.
“You and I never talk about him. In the past when I’ve brought up anyone or anything around here you didn’t want to hear about it.”
That was true. Adeline could scarcely blame her for not mentioning Cyrus’s health issues.
“If I have time we’ll have lunch tomorrow, okay?” The last thing she wanted was her mom fretting over every step she took.
“You could come here,” her mother ventured.
Adeline considered the idea for a moment. She hadn’t set foot in her childhood home in more than nine years. Staying there was out of the question but dropping by for lunch ... maybe. It would make her mom happy. “We’ll see,” she hedged.
“Please be careful, Addy. Your father ... worried so about you being in law enforcement.Iworry about you.”
“I’m always careful, Mom.” Not exactly true but her mother did not need to know that.
After another minute or two of awkward conversation, they said good night.
Adeline stared at her phone a long moment after the call ended. She was home. And it felt acutely weird. She’d gone to school a few miles from here. Her father was buried in a cemetery just down the road.
And the man she had loved with her whole heart still lived here. He didn’t wear a wedding ring. Hadn’t really changed that much.
Adeline pushed up from the bed and walked over to the mirror on the back of the closet door. She hadn’t changed, either, not really. Still thin. Her hair was exactly the same. Long. Wild and thick. Drove her nuts most days.
What didhesee when he looked at her?
The same wild girl who’d loved him so madly?
Or this older, jaded woman who knew him for what he was?
A man fully capable of betrayal.