Authors: Terri Blackstock
“Good. That’s something to start with. Have you looked on the list Scott just gave you?”
“There’s only one person at the Flagstaff with those initials, and she’s a woman.”
“Okay. We need to match it to all of Nate’s acquaintances. I’ll get right on it.”
He started to get up, but Cade stopped him. “Joe, sit down.”
McCormick sat back down. “What is it?”
“There’s one person that came to my mind. Someone who has those initials, who knew about my proposal, had access to my truck, knows computers, has a grudge against me … and even fits Amelia’s description.”
Joe’s forehead creased. “Who?”
“Scott.”
Joe just sat there for a moment, staring at him. “No way! Cade, you’re way out of line here. You can’t seriously think—”
“He found Emily’s body, Joe. He wasn’t even supposed to be over there. His reason was lame from the get-go. Maybe he put her there.”
The skin of Joe’s face began to redden, and his lips tightened. “My nephew is not a killer, any more than you are.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I
know
him. Cade, he’s my sister’s kid! I’ve known him since he was born, and he doesn’t have this in him.”
“May be he didn’t do the killing. May be he just covered up.”
“No!” Joe said. “It’s not possible.”
“Then help me prove it.”
Joe’s lips were tight across his teeth. “That’s not what you want to prove. You want him to be guilty. You haven’t liked him from day one.”
Cade clamped down his anger. “You think I’d try to pin a murder rap on him, just because he rubbed me the wrong way? Do you honestly think
I’m
capable of
that?
”
Joe rubbed his face roughly and brought his angry gaze back to Cade. “He didn’t do it, Cade. It’s somebody else.”
“We’ll find out. I want to put him in a lineup, and let Amelia decide. Then we’ll see.”
“Good idea,” Joe said. “Then you’ll see, all right.”
C
ade reached Amelia on her father’s cell phone and convinced him to bring Amelia back for the lineup. Bob told him they would take the next flight out and have Amelia there by that afternoon.
Since Cade’s station didn’t have a lineup room with the two-way mirror, he used the one at the Tybee station. He rounded up all of the brown-haired officers under twenty-five, from both the Cape Refuge and Tybee departments, who hadn’t been on the scene during the rescue. Only four guys qualified. He filled in the rest with young seamen he’d rounded up at Crickets.
“So Uncle Joe, what is this lineup for?” Scott asked as they started to file in.
“A robbery that took place on Tybee last month.”
Scott lowered his voice. “Which one of the guys do they think did it?”
“I don’t know.”
As the men lined up, Joe shot Cade a withering look.
Cade couldn’t worry about Joe’s feelings now. If Scott was the killer, they’d know momentarily. He went around to the room where Amelia and her parents waited. Joe followed him in.
Amelia looked small as she sat between her parents, fidgeting with a button on her shirt.
Cade saw fear in the fragile expression on her face.
“Amelia, our suspect is in this lineup that you’re about to see. We want you to pick him out. Do you think you can do that?”
“I know I can. He was wearing sunglasses, but I’ll know him when I see him. His face is clear in my mind.”
“Good. Then let’s get started.”
Amelia stopped him. “Chief Cade, will he be able to see me?”
“No. They’re looking into a mirror.”
She nodded, and swallowed hard. “I’m ready then.”
Cade spoke into the microphone in the room. “Send them in.”
The men filed in, and Amelia held her parents’ hands as she looked from one man to another.
Cade held his breath and watched her.
Amelia’s frightened eyes scanned across the faces, but there was no sign of recognition. She looked back at the first one, clearly studying his features. Scott was third in line, and her eyes skirted past him.
“Do you see the man who abducted you that night?”
Tears came to her eyes, and he saw the struggle on her face. Was she afraid to name him, or was she just unsure?
“I … I don’t think he’s here …”
Cade glanced at McCormick, saw the relief on his face. “Just take your time. Look at each one.”
“He seemed thinner, taller. He’s just not here.” She started to cry. “I wanted it to be him. I was so hoping I could identify him, and you could lock him right up. But I don’t want to make a mistake, because if I do, he’ll still be out there.”
“That’s okay, Amelia. But you said he wore sunglasses.”
He’d asked each of the men to bring his own pair. He leaned over to the microphone. “Gentlemen, put your sunglasses on, please.”
They took their glasses out and put them on. Cade looked at Amelia. “That change anything?”
She looked at them again, one by one, then shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You did good.” He must have been wrong. If Scott were the guy, she would have identified him.
They held the lineup until Amelia and her family had left the station, and then they let them all go.
“I hope you’re satisfied with that,” Joe said. “My nephew didn’t do it.”
“I have to agree with you. I don’t think he did either.” But Cade knew he couldn’t rule Scott out entirely. Not until they had someone else behind bars.
“Hey, Cade.” Chief Grant leaned into the doorway. “Sorry the lineup was a bust. But I have some news you might be interested in.”
“Yeah?”
“Nate Morris just died.”
One month later
Blair and Cade’s wedding day dawned as beautiful as anyone could have hoped. Sadie sat on the window seat in her mother’s room, gazing out her window at the activity going on below. Men from the church were setting up chairs that spanned from the front porch, all the way across the lawn, into the street—which Jonathan had flexed his mayoral muscles to barricade off—and across the sand to the new gazebo built on the beach for the occasion.
Everyone in town would be here in a couple of hours. So why did she feel such uneasiness?
Ever since she’d been rescued from the pit, Sadie struggled with the feeling that someone dangerous was watching her, charting her movements, waiting to grab her again. Crowds made her nervous, and she constantly found herself assessing every male face she saw, wondering if Nate Morris’s accomplice was near.
Her mother sat wheelchair-bound behind her, Caleb in her lap.
“You have to be a good boy for Mommy, okay? When they put you in your little police car, you’re going to ride down the aisle without crying.”
“Me big boy.”
“That’s right. You’re a very big boy, and you’re gonna smile and wave at everybody.”
“Not cry.”
“No, not cry.”
Sadie smiled. Blair insisted on having Caleb in the wedding, but she knew with her little brother, anything could happen. He could get cold feet and refuse to participate, or he could cry or knock the flowers over, disrupting the whole ceremony as they read their vows.
Blair insisted it was worth it.
“Now I want you to lay down on Mommy’s bed and try to take a little nap. I don’t want you to be grumpy at the wedding.”
Caleb slid off her lap and climbed onto her bed. Letting out a wicked giggle, he began to jump on the mattress.
Sadie got up and caught him. “You rascal. That’s not how you take a nap! I guess I’ll have to take you to your room.”
“No!” He dropped down, lying with his thumb in his mouth.
That wouldn’t last long. Sadie turned back to her mom. “You need any help getting ready?”
“Do
I? As hard as I’ve tried, I can’t put my makeup on with my left hand.”
Sheila’s face had been reconstructed in surgery, and while the bruising had faded, it was still swollen on one side and bore surgical scars along her hairline that hadn’t yet healed. Even with her left arm and leg in casts, Sadie thought she looked beautiful. Like a hero.
“Here, I’ll do it for you.”
Sadie rolled Sheila’s wheelchair to her vanity table and sat down in front of her. She brushed the eye shadow on Sheila’s eyelids, then got an eyeliner pencil and lightly outlined her eyes. “I wish Amelia could be here. She’d get such a kick out of seeing Caleb riding down the aisle.”
“She really wanted to.”
“Yeah, but she’s right. It probably isn’t safe yet.”
She heard the telephone ringing in the hallway, and someone downstairs answered it. At the same time, Blair came running up the stairs.
“What an idiot! How could I do something so stupid?”
Sadie stood up and looked out into the hall. “What is it?”
Blair looked like she might cry as she came to Sheila’s doorway. “I just had my hair done, and I wore this stupid T-shirt. How will I get it over my head without ruining my hair?”
Sadie pulled on the neckline, hoping it would stretch. But it didn’t. “I see your problem.”
“Just cut it off, hon,” Sheila said. “Sadie, I have some scissors in my dresser.”
“Great idea.” Sadie got the scissors and handed them to Blair.
“Thanks.” She let out a huge breath. “You saved the day, Sheila.” She started out of the room, then turned back. “Sadie, when did Matt say he and his mother were bringing the flowers?”
“Two. They should be here soon.”
“I hope so. They’re late, and it’s going to take awhile to decorate the gazebo.”
“It’ll all be done. Just go relax. Try to enjoy this. It’s your wedding day!”
Morgan came up the stairs, carrying her baby, who slept blissfully in her arms. “Sadie, you have a call. A girl named Tina.”
Sadie frowned. The only Tina she knew was the girl from the motel. She took the cordless phone. “Hello?”
“Yeah, uh, Sadie? This is Tina. We met at the Flagstaff?”
She caught her breath. “Tina … how are you?” She went out of her mother’s room and stepped into her own so she could hear.
“Uh, not so good.” She could tell that the girl was crying, trying to control her voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve just … got to get out of this place. I’ve been trying to stop doing dope, and I’ve been sober for two weeks. But it’s getting really hard. And I remembered you saying that I could come there. That maybe there was help for me.”
“Yes, there is. You need to come and talk to Morgan and Jonathan Cleary. They run the house and the program.”
“I don’t have any money. I don’t even have a job. I couldn’t pay anything.”
“You don’t need money. Please, just come. Do you know where Hanover House is?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s that beautiful house on the Sound. I could walk over right now …”
Sadie looked out the window, saw that Matt’s florist truck was pulling in. She started to tell Tina that it wasn’t a good time, then stopped. If she put her off, she might change her mind, or someone else might coerce her into staying. A delay of even a few hours could send her back to drugs. “Yes, come now … When you get here, you’ll see a lot of activity out in the yard. We’re having a wedding today, but it’s not until four. If anyone stops you, tell them you’re looking for me.”
The girl sniffed. “Are you sure? Maybe I should wait.”
“No, don’t wait. Come now, okay? I’ll be watching for you.”
There was a long pause. “Okay, I’m coming.”
B
lair stood in her parents’ bedroom, feeling almost giddy as she looked out the window. So far the weather was beautiful. No artist’s brush could have painted such an azure sky, and the ocean was calm, rolling against the shore in whispered approval of what was soon to take place.
She hoped Jonathan had been right to block off the street and line so many chairs across to the beach. If they didn’t fill them up, it would be embarrassing. But she felt sure they would. Everyone wanted to see the town’s favorite bachelor tie the knot, and they were trying to accommodate them all.
Blair fluffed her veil again and laid it back on the bed. She’d just had her hair and makeup done, and she stood in her wedding gown, afraid to sit down for fear she would wrinkle it. Maybe she’d put it on too soon.
Morgan sat in the rocker across the room, nursing little Wayne as she smiled up at her sister. “You look gorgeous.”
Blair looked into the mirror. “That makeup artist was good. She almost covered the scars.” Almost. It would have to do. The veil would cover them on the way down the aisle, but after it was pulled back, there would be no hiding them.
But it would be okay. Cade thought she was beautiful no matter what. And so she was.
What would her mother and father have thought of her marrying Cade? Were they watching from heaven, tears of joy streaming down their cheeks? Even if they weren’t, she hoped they’d gotten word.
“I miss Mama and Pop,” she whispered. “It won’t be the same without Mama fussing over me, telling me some story about her wedding day. Pop kissing me on the cheek and making me cry before I walked down the aisle. They were supposed to be here, Morgan.”
Her sister’s eyes filled with tears, and she looked down at the precious little baby sleeping in her arms. “They were supposed to be here for him too. But we got through it okay, didn’t we?”
Blair picked up one of the pillows off of their bed, brought it to her face. It used to smell of salt air and sea breeze, her father’s aftershave, her mother’s shampoo. But she couldn’t find that scent any longer. It was long gone. The memories this room represented were etched more on her heart than they were on the items her parents had left behind. “I think it’s time to clean the room out. It’s crazy leaving it like this.”
Morgan looked around at all the things her parents had left. She walked through it, stopping at her mother’s closet. Her mother’s shoes were still lined up on the shelf unit her father had built. On one side of the closet, her mother’s dresses and pantsuits still hung. On the shelves above them were things they had collected over the years. A porcelain Christmas tree with Lite-Brite lights that fit into the holes. A couple of suitcases. Extra pillows. An old iron that didn’t work. A box of pictures and papers.