“Who is taking care of your children while you’re here?”
Laurie sighs. “My sister. I just spoke to Damian earlier this morning.”
Jonathan pauses, his eyes scrutinizing her. “And Isabella?”
“Isabella…well…she…she…” she trails off, her eyes looking down at her hands. She shakes her head, and Jonathan knows not to ask anymore. At least not for now.
Jonathan sends Laurie a compassionate smile. He thinks for a minute about his own daughter, Eve, and reminds himself to call her later today. The last time they spoke, they had been in a fight. A stupid one, but aren’t all fights silly seen in retrospect? The fact is, he misses her. Ever since she left home, the house has felt empty, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Is that what retirement is going to be like for him? Loneliness? He doesn’t like the thought much. And he doesn’t like feeling sorry for himself either.
“You’ll be home before you know it,” he says.
He looks at Laurie, but she has already dozed off, and her breathing grown heavy. He signals Detective Grande that it is time for them to leave, and they do. He closes the door carefully behind him, even though he knows he could probably slam it shut, and Laurie Davis wouldn’t wake up at this point.
“Do you want to go grab a bite?” he asks his young colleague.
She smiles, then shakes her head. “I can’t.”
He nods. Of course not. She’s newly married and wants to go home to her husband. He wishes he would have done the same thing a lot more, said no, and just gone home instead of working till the late hours, never letting go of his cases until they were solved. Maybe he’d have someone waiting for him today if he had done that.
“Well, maybe you can tell me of a place that’s good to eat around here?” he asks, holding the door for her as they leave the hospital.
“Depends on what you like.”
“Just a good burger and maybe a piece of pie. That’ll do it for me.”
She smiles. “Then I know just the place.”
Everett Street Diner in the heart of Bryson City is everything Jonathan wants it to be. You get the coffee pure black, no hazelnuts, no lattes, no fancy mochaccino, or whatever it’s all called today. Just plain coffee served from a pot by a waitress named Joanne, who calls you hon and smiles at you in that way that makes you want to stay longer just to get another one. Jonathan likes the place so much that he returns the next morning for breakfast. In the middle of biscuits and hash browns, sausage, and eggs, Detective Grande enters. She looks tired, and her pretty brown eyes don’t have the same spark to them as the day before. She’s holding a folder under her arm as she comes up to Jonathan at the counter and sits down.
Joanne doesn’t even ask; she pours her coffee and slides it toward her with one of her smiles.
“Anything to eat, hon?”
Detective Grande shakes her head while Jonathan finishes his eggs and washes them down with coffee before Joanne refills his cup.
“Good morning,” he says. “Got out on the wrong side of the bed?”
She nods. “I was called out to the cabin early this morning.”
“Really?” he asks surprised. “Any news?”
“Yes,” she says as she sips her coffee. She reminds him of a small bird the way she delicately drinks. She seems so fragile, but he has a feeling she’s a lot stronger than she looks. He hopes she is, or she won’t last long in the job.
“And then I received a call from the lab. They’ve been going through Laurie Davis’s phone. This is what they found.”
Detective Grande opens the folder and pulls out a couple of photos. Jonathan wipes his fingers on a napkin, takes them, and flips through them one after another. It doesn’t take him long to figure out what she’s trying to tell him.
“You see why I’m a little off this morning?” she asks.
Jonathan nods.
“This does change things.”
She finishes her cup, and Jonathan pays for both of them. They walk outside into the gloomy day that has just begun. Beautiful mountains surround them, and as always, the tips are hiding behind a light cloud cover. A car with kayaks on the roof passes them on its way to the river. Jonathan is not much of a watersports man himself, but his wife was. She’d always try to make him go with her, but he was very good at coming up with excuses. He always had work to do. Now, he wishes he could go with her again—just once. He’d do anything to be able to spend another day with her.
In the distance, he can hear the old steam train as it blows its horn to mark its departure. The city offers tourist train rides through the mountains, and it is supposed to be gorgeous. There’s also some old train museum that Joanne told him he ought to visit while he is in town.
He hasn’t told her why he is really here.
“I think we need to take a different approach to her,” Detective Grande says as they reach their cars in the parking lot outside the diner. There are a few puddles of snow left on the side of the road, but most of it has been washed away in the recent rainfall, as is the custom when spring makes its arrival. Grande is standing on the other side of her car, and he can barely see her as she opens the door. She pauses and looks up at him.
“Laurie Davis has been playing the victim’s act all along. I don’t think she’s as much of a victim as we have believed this far.”
Part II
Chapter 16
She is just done eating her breakfast when they knock on her door. The nurse takes her tray, and Laurie looks at their faces. Jonathan can tell she already knows just by looking at them. The nurse leaves, and he closes the door behind her.
Jonathan sits down. Detective Grande remains standing with the folder clutched tightly in her hand.
“Good morning,” Laurie says.
“Feeling better today?” Jonathan asks.
She nods. He can tell that she knows they’re not happy. She has tension in her shoulders, and her fingers are fiddling with the bandage holding her arm in place. The doctor had told them she was lucky. The bullet had only caused some muscle and tissue damage—nothing fractured and nothing vital damaged. Now, she just needs to keep it calm so she won’t rupture the sutures.
“Much better, thanks. Probably also due to the drugs,” she says with a light laugh.
Jonathan glances at Detective Grande, who obviously doesn’t have the patience he possesses. He chalks it up to her lack of experience. He once was as eager as she is. Now he knows it won’t get you very far in an interrogation situation. Patience is your friend. With patience, the story will be revealed; with patience, the witness opens up and tells it in her timeliness. Experience has taught him that you can’t pull a story out of someone. It has to be revealed, and for that to happen, you need time. You can’t be in a rush, or essential parts will be left out.
Grande opens the folder and places the pictures in front of Laurie.
“Care to explain these?”
Laurie stares at them. She doesn’t have to look long to know what this is about.
“These pictures were taken on the phone—your phone, just a few days ago. Who is the man in the pictures?” Grande asks.