He remembered the officer from when he was a kid, but the man had been dead for years, so there was no way to go back and question him.
When he called the hospital where they had been taken, he hit another dead end. The doctor who’d been on duty in the ER that night was in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s and had lost his ability to communicate years ago.
Other than the killer, Betsy was the only survivor that he knew of, and she couldn’t remember enough to help. In frustration, he pulled her journal out of evidence and began to read, making notes as he went.
* * *
The kitchen in the Jackson house was just as Lissa remembered. The cutlery was still in the same drawer and the dishes in the same place in the cabinets. It was like being in a time warp. Even the curtains were the same, just a little more faded by countless washings over the past ten years. It felt good to be here. She and Mack had made so many good memories in this house. Now she was ready to make some new ones.
She’d settled on reheating a bowl of beef Stroganoff and had noodles cooking on the stove to go with it. She’d taken a peach pie out to reheat and had a fresh pot of coffee brewing.
The day was sunny but cold, and as she worked she thought about her friends cleaning up her house. Until that broken window got fixed, it would be cold inside, and she felt bad they had to work in that.
She had rented a car to drive back and forth to work, but now that she wouldn’t be going back for a while, she decided to turn the car back in to the rental agency and gave them a call.
The owner had heard about what had happened to her and was properly horrified on her behalf. After a brief conversation, he offered to pick up the car himself. He and an employee came by a little while later to pick up her check and the car keys, and then left to go to her house to retrieve the car, which was still in the drive.
Lissa was standing at the window, watching them drive away when the timer went off. That meant the pie was ready to take out of the oven. She glanced down the hall on her way to the kitchen, but the door to Mack’s room was still closed.
She was getting ready to drain the noodles when she heard a knock at the door. She set them aside and went to answer, quickly recognizing one of her mother’s oldest friends.
“Mrs. Sanford! It’s so nice to see you. Please come in,” Lissa said.
Frieda Sanford smiled as she handed over a plate of cookies and then took a seat on the sofa.
“These look wonderful. Thank you,” Lissa said.
“I heard Mack was released from the hospital and wanted to bring a little something. I’m pleasantly surprised to see you here.”
Lissa sat down beside her. “He got hurt trying to protect me, and I’ve been temporarily evicted from my own home because of a stalker. I’m sure you heard all the dirty details.”
Frieda’s smile faded. “Yes. It’s horrible, what’s happening to you. I would be terrified out of my mind.”
“I was. I will be so grateful when he’s caught and jailed.”
Frieda nodded, but she’d come for another reason, and she needed to get it said. “You know, your mom and I were best friends.”
“Yes, I know. She thought the world of you,” Lissa said.
“When she was diagnosed with the brain tumor, she told me first. Of course, you weren’t here, and with your father already passed and everything, I guess I was the obvious choice.”
“I’m grateful she had you,” Lissa said.
Frieda nodded. “Yes, well, about a month before Polly...your mom got to the point where she could no longer speak, she called me over one day. Just to visit, she said, but as soon as I got there, I knew there was more. It didn’t take long for her to break down and start crying. She said she’d done a terrible thing to you and Mack right after you graduated, and that she needed to unburden herself before she died.”
Lissa froze. All of a sudden she knew she was about to find out why her parents had gone out of their way to break her and Mack up. She took a deep, shaky breath and waited.
“It all had to do with something that happened to her the summer she graduated high school.”
Lissa leaned forward, listening intently.
“She was getting ready to go away to college when she found out she was pregnant. She’d already broken up with the boy, so finding out was devastating. When she told him, he denied it—and her. Her parents reacted badly as well, and then made it worse. They sent her away to a home for unwed mothers and then used their religious beliefs as a lever, telling her it would shame their family and stigmatize the child if she raised a bastard. She caved in and put the baby up for adoption.”
Lissa was stunned. “Oh, my God! Are you serious? I have a sibling somewhere?”
Frieda’s shoulders slumped. “No, and that’s part of why she did what she did later to you and Mack.”
“What do you mean?” Lissa asked.
“She regretted the adoption almost immediately and tried to change her mind, but the courts wouldn’t let her. The baby went to a couple in Miami, Florida, and then died before he was two from child abuse.”
Lissa gasped. Her heart was hammering so hard she felt faint.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” she whispered.
Frieda nodded. “The guilt nearly killed her. She met your dad a couple of years later, and they had a happy marriage and then they had you. She told me she thought she’d moved past all that guilt until you had the miscarriage. She said when they got the call from the hospital that you were losing a baby they didn’t even know you were carrying, she freaked out. She said all her guilt and sadness came back, and what was happening to you felt like it was happening to her all over again. Then she felt she had to tell your father about her past, and he gave her a hard time about that. She said she did everything wrong for what she thought were the right reasons, but she knew after you two left for college in two different directions that she’d done you both a disservice.”
Lissa was in tears. “I’ve been back in Mystic almost seven months. Why are you just now telling me this?”
Frieda’s expression implored her to understand.
“I guess because I didn’t know where to start. For all I knew you’d both moved on, and I didn’t want to start something that might turn ugly for one or both of you. Can you understand that?”
“I guess... Yes, I do,” Lissa said. “But why now?”
“When I heard that Mack was nearly killed trying to catch your stalker and that you came home from the hospital with him to help nurse him back to health, I knew there had to be something left between you. I’m not betraying your mother’s confidence. I’m just telling you what she would have if she was still alive, okay?”
Lissa threw her arms around Frieda’s neck and hugged her.
“You’ve answered a question that neither of us has been able to fathom. They knew we loved each other. I just couldn’t understand why they lied.”
Frieda patted her heart with relief as Lissa leaned back. “You don’t know what a heavy burden this has been to carry. I’m so grateful to get it off my chest.”
Lissa’s eyes welled again. “My poor mother. What a tragic thing to carry all her life.”
“I know it’s none of my business, but are you and Mack going to renew your relationship? I know your mother would be pleased if you did,” Frieda said.
“We already have,” Lissa said.
“Oh, praise the Lord!” Frieda said. She then clapped her hands together as if that task was done and stood abruptly. “I need to be gone, and I’m sure you’re busy. You don’t know how good I feel now. This is a good day, a very good day.”
Lissa got up and walked her to the door. “Thank you for the cookies and for the story. It’s explained so much.”
“You’re welcome,” Frieda said. “Be safe, the both of you. Bad things are afoot in Mystic now. I don’t know what to make of it. Someone murdering good people, and now a stalker? Our little town has seen too much sadness lately.”
Lissa stood in the doorway waving until Frieda Sanford had driven away, and when she turned around, Mack was standing only a few feet behind her wearing a pair of sweats and holding a zip-front hoodie.
“Oh, you’re awake! I wish—”
“I heard it...all of it,” Mack said. “Are you all right?”
Lissa sighed. “As sad as Mama’s story is, I feel better knowing it because I was holding quite a grudge. It was the wrong thing to do, but I guess now I understand why.”
Mack held out his good arm and pulled her close.
“I love you, Lissa. We have been given this second chance at happiness, and I will never again put off saying anything that’s in my heart.”
“I lived ten years without you in my life and grieved about half of that away before I finally accepted I was going to grow old without you.”
Mack held her tighter. “I’m sorry, I am so sorry.”
“So am I, Mack. Finding out it was my parents who broke us up was shocking. I never thought we would be together again, but I’m forever grateful that we are.”
“Dad would be really happy about this,” Mack said. “He left a letter for me in a safety deposit box, and the last part of it was about you.”