Lynn came in the room then, carrying a piece of paper in his hands and looking perplexed.
“I did all this work,” he said. “Did all this research. Ran a DNA test. Found out that she was, indeed, Avery’s sister. And then the woman up and dies?”
“The woman up and got murdered,” I corrected.
Lynn stopped and looked at the baby asleep in Ford’s arms.
“You look good with a baby, kid,” Lynn teased.
Ford rolled his eyes. “Hello, Mr. Mayor.”
Lynn grimaced and held out the paper.
“I’m not sure you’ll need this at all,” he said as I took it. “But it shows the DNA matching and that the kid is Avery’s sister.”
I nodded once.
“Thanks,” I said as I folded it up and put it into my pocket.
The kid began to fuss and Ford immediately handed the baby back over to me.
“Why do y’all keep giving this kid back to me?” I asked, fumbling slightly with the baby.
The baby’s eyes opened, and she looked at me with Avery’s eyes, making my heart melt.
“Well,” Ford said. “I guess technically, since Avery’s yours, so is this kid.”
My mouth dried up as I realized the implications.
I mean, honestly I’d thought about them and all, but I also hadn’t given them much thought at the same time.
But this kid likely had nobody just like Avery did.
The mom hadn’t even had anybody in her phone. Every number was just a number. Nobody had been named in the contacts.
Hell, there hadn’t even been any photos of the baby on her phone.
It was the weirdest thing ever.
“Shhh,” Louis said from beside me. “She’s talking.”
I turned my attention back to the interrogation room.
“No, don’t.” Rachel held up both hands, reaching out as if to grab Ashe.
Ford tensed beside me, as if he was going to barrel through the one-way glass and tear the girl away from Ashe.
Ashe, seeing the move, stepped back so that she wouldn’t be touched by the little psycho.
“Daddy only told me how to kill her.”
That bomb dropped like a book in a quiet library.
“Ms. Howell…” the lawyer tried.
But Rachel turned to him with a glower. “Shut up!”
“Shit,” Dad said from the other side of Louis. He looked over at Booth and jerked his head. “Go get him.”
Booth left without another word.
I heard the commotion that came from the lobby, but I didn’t stop staring at the interrogation of Rachel.
“How about you tell me what really happened,” Ashe suggested.
Rachel looked away.
“He told me how to commit the perfect murder,” she said. “I don’t think he realized what he was doing at first. I think he thought I was just curious. But he followed me over to the woman’s place. After I shot her, he came in the door, looking stunned. Then he freaked out and told me it was all wrong. That I shouldn’t have done it. And then he helped me shoot her again. This time making it look like she shot herself. I was going to get rid of the baby, too, since that’s Avery’s sister. But Daddy said that I couldn’t because it wouldn’t look like a suicide then.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
If I hadn’t had this hunch that Rachel had been at the scene based solely off of one little comment of ‘it’s time to finish off the family’ and her ability to get into the locked police car as well as the locked gun vault between the seats, then she’d have gotten away with this shit. And so would Pierson Howell.
***
Avery
I was so late.
I’d gotten talking to the counselor about my next year’s classes, then I began registering for a summer course, and things had just gotten out of hand.
Now I was two hours later than I was supposed to be, and I was now meeting Derek at the police station instead of our lunch date.
I hurried inside, smiling at the front attendant.
“Hello again,” she smiled at me.
I couldn’t remember her name, but that sweet face still had the same great smile.
“Hi!” I chirped. “I’m here to meet with Derek Roberts.”
She clicked something beside her desk, then gestured to the door. “It’s unlocked. You know where you’re going?”
I nodded once, walking into the bullpen of the police department moments later.
The first person that I saw happened to be Louis.
“Hey, Louis!” I called out. “Do you know where Derek is?”
Louis looked up from the coffee that he was pouring, then grinned. “Yeah. Follow the screams.”
I frowned, but then realized that I could, indeed, hear screams.
I followed them, finding Luke’s office fairly easily.
I blinked when I saw both men standing over the table as they both changed an infant.
“Ummm,” I said. “What’s going on?”
Derek looked up.
Luke had already spotted me and was grinning.
Derek finished the diaper, picked the baby up, and presented her to me like an offering.
“Avery, I’d like you to meet your sister.”
Chapter 20
Thanks for all the orgasms.
-Coffee Cup
Avery
I took a baby to graduation.
Derek was supposed to watch her, but of course right when I was about to leave, his pager went off.
Meaning I had no other choice but to take her with me.
The last four days leading up to graduation were definitely interesting.
I’d never had to deal with a baby before. I didn’t know how to change diapers. I didn’t know how to feed or burp a baby. And I didn’t know how to wash them or put them to bed.
After some digging in Lindia’s house after the crime scene had been released, we’d gotten the rest of her clothes.
But, still, we hadn’t found out her name.
Not until we’d asked Lynn what the birth certificate said.
Which wasn’t going to fucking cut it. I couldn’t call this sweet little baby Rachel, so after a little contemplation, we decided to go by her middle name: Sonja.
We called her Sunny.
Katy, in her epic momness, had given me the down and dirty on how to take care of a baby.
And now Derek and I were co-parenting at his house.
It looked like a baby factory had puked all over his living room.
When I’d suggested taking it all to my place, he’d given me a level look, told me I was moving in with him, and that was that.
So, in a span of a week, I’d gone to prom, been shot, acquired the custody of my two-month-old baby sister, and was now graduating.
I patted the sleeping baby’s back and walked with my head held high across the length of the football field to the front of the rows of chairs.
I’d found out last night that I made Valedictorian.