Dying to Tell(10)

Then Sadie spotted another file peeking from the stack and noticed it was labeled “Arthur Blackwood.” A shudder coursed through her. Oh, God, was Jake looking into his father’s disappearance?

Of course he would...

Had he found out anything so far?

A tense second passed, and she tried to pull herself together. “Did my sister say anything?” Sadie asked. “Offer any explanation about what happened?”

Jake shook his head, making a lock of black, wavy hair fall across his forehead. She had the insane urge to sweep it back with her fingers like she used to do. She could almost hear the way he groaned her name when she touched him.

When he touched her...

No, Sadie, you can’t go there. Too many secrets. Too many lies.

Besides, hadn’t she heard he’d married? She couldn’t see who was in that photograph on his desk, but it was probably his beloved wife.

“I tried to talk to your sister,” Jake said. “But she just stared into space as if she couldn’t see me. As if she was lost in her own world.”

Despair threatened...she’d seen her sister like that before. So many times.

Jake continued in a monotone, “I called the coroner for your grandfather, then Ms. Lettie phoned Dr. Tynsdale and he came right away.”

“What did Dr. Tynsdale say?”

“That Amelia was traumatized. She’d slipped into a near catatonic state.”

“But you arrested her and brought her here instead of the hospital?”

Jake’s jaw tightened. “I had to, Sadie. She was holding the damn murder weapon in her hands.”

Sadie felt panicky, as if the room, the walls, the years, were closing in on her. As if they were going to shatter and all the secrets would tumble out and she would crumble and blow away like dead leaves in the wind.

But she couldn’t let Jake see her weakness. “Are you sure there was no one else around? It probably took you a few minutes to reach the farm once you received the call.”

A tense pause. “I did everything by the book, Sadie. My deputy and I searched for footprints and signs of an intruder outside and inside, but found nothing. Then I processed your sister’s hands, checked for powder burns, and collected samples. They’re at the lab now.” He leaned forward, so close she could see the scar above his right eye.

The one he’d gotten defending her in a school fight.

“Your sister fired the gun, Sadie. She killed your grandfather.”

Sadie swallowed hard. If Amelia had shot Papaw, she had to have been confused. Thought he was someone else.

Or that she was...

“Have you talked to Amelia or your grandfather lately?” Jake asked. “Maybe one of them hinted there was a problem. Something going on between the two of them that could have triggered this.”

Was that censure in his voice? Did he think this was her fault for not being here? “No...”

“No, you haven’t talked to them,” Jake asked, “or no, they didn’t mention anything was wrong?”

Guilt clawed at her barely leashed control. Jake’s mother had died when he was only four while giving birth to his little sister, who had died as well. Unlike her, he remembered his mother. She had told him that family meant everything.

According to him, Sadie had failed by deserting hers.

If only he knew the truth about his own.

No...he could never know. She would never hurt him like that.

So she squared her shoulders. “No, I haven’t talked to either of them in a while. Ms. Lettie had my number and was supposed to call me if there was a problem.”

“Well, you’re here now. Maybe you can convince your sister to tell us what happened.”

He folded his big hands into fists. Sadie saw the faint line where a wedding ring had once been, but it was gone.

Was he still married?

“You know Amelia doesn’t belong here, Jake. She needs psychiatric treatment, not to be locked in jail like an animal.”

Jake gave a clipped nod in concession. “The doctor is handling the paperwork to have her transferred to the mental hospital. I expect he’ll be here shortly.”

“Good.”

Jake shuffled the file, and the edge of a photograph slipped into view. Blood dotted the carpet in Papaw’s room.

She averted her gaze, her stomach revolting.

“Do you want to see your sister now?” Jake asked.

She couldn’t avoid it any longer. But fear slithered through her. Persuading her sister to talk meant opening herself to the pain of meeting the others again.

But she had learned a lot on the job. She simply had to use her skills to unearth the truth.

Then she could get the hell out of Slaughter Creek before her whole world fell apart around her, and she ended up locked up like her sister.