I could barely stay on my feet.
“I think it’s time to leave.” Rowe stepped in, putting an arm around me in support.
Annabelle nodded and went to walk away but then hesitated before stepping in to give me a brief hug. It was over before I could even return it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to out her. I would never do that to someone intentionally. Even after their death.”
“It’s okay. Thank you.”
She walked away quickly, joining her mother, who gazed at me with a worried look on her face. “Are you okay?” she mouthed at me.
I nodded and turned, letting Rowe and Liam lead me back to the car.
Silence surrounded us once we were all inside.
It was Liam who broke it. “Mae…we need to go to the police. If Tori and Jayela were in a romantic relationship, this changes everything—”
“No!”
Liam bit his lip.
I lowered my voice. “No. We already threw Will and Tori in the middle of this shitshow once, and we were wrong.”
“You mean I was wrong. You had nothing to do with the things I accused Will of.”
Rowe shook his head. “That doesn’t matter now. But for the record, babe? I’m with Liam. We need to report this.”
But again I shook my head. “So Johnson and Stewart can fuck it up again? Or just completely blow us off like they did every other time we tried to get them to see things our way?”
“I see your point, but this is new evidence that might get Heath’s case opened again.”
They were only seeing one side. “And it might ruin Tori’s life. If it’s true that she and Jayela were in a relationship, and that gets out? Her family will disown her, Rowe. They’re devout Catholics. Divorce is a sin in their eyes and barely tolerated. Cheating? And with a woman? They’d crucify her. Her entire identity is wrapped up in that church and in being a wife and mother. I’m not just going to throw all that out there and make it public knowledge. Not until I’ve talked to her.”
Liam pressed his lips together. “Have you heard from the hospital about visiting her yet?”
“No. But when I submitted my form, they said she was in ‘deep treatment’ for another three days, and then the doctors would consider my request.”
“First thing Monday, we go down there then.”
I nodded. I needed answers.
Even with all the evidence stacking up against her, I needed to hear my best friend say she’d killed my sister.
25
Rowe
Liam and I had an entire conversation just in worried glances in the rearview mirror. His gaze darted over at Mae, huddled in the passenger seat, then up into the rearview mirror to meet mine. His was full of ‘What do we do?’ questions, and my answering looks were all ‘I have no idea.’
So we just drove toward home like yet another bomb hadn’t just been dropped on us. But hope rose in my chest. I didn’t want it to be Tori or for Mae to lose her best friend. But I didn’t want Heath on the run for the rest of our lives either.
Now that I’d told Mae how I felt about her, there was no going back. This wasn’t a fling for me. And I knew it wasn’t for Liam either.
My gut instinct told me Heath was all-in, too, even if he did keep his cards close to his chest.
My phone rang, interrupting the uncomfortable silence in the car. “Speak of the devil,” I muttered. But then said louder, “It’s the cabin landline. Must be Heath.”
We’d programmed our phone numbers into the old phone that sat in the corner gathering dust because nobody ever used it. We’d kept promising to get Heath a burner cell because the landline battery died constantly but it was enough to get a call out in an emergency.
Which I really hoped this wasn’t.
I answered the call, willing myself to remain calm even though I knew Heath wouldn’t just call for a chat because he got bored. Sure enough, when I answered the phone, Ripley’s cries were loud in the background. Fear wrapped its way around my heart, squeezing it so it thumped too quickly. “Heath? Is he okay? What’s wrong with him?”
“Quit stressing. He’s fine, physically.”
A little of the fear eased up. Parenting came with a bucketload of stress I’d managed to forget over the last few years while he’d lived with Norma. Though I was better equipped to deal with it now that I wasn’t drowning in grief. “What’s going on then?”
“He misses his grandma. He wants to talk to her, but we didn’t program Norma’s number into the phone.”
“Oh.” I breathed out slowly. Outside, the houses flashed by. We weren’t actually far from Norma’s house in Saint View. “Put him on. I’ll talk to him.”
Ripley’s tears grew louder as Heath passed him the phone.
“Rowe?” he asked between sobs and hiccups.
The tone of my voice changed instantly. “Hey, buddy. You missing your granny today?”
There was a pause, and then Heath’s voice, farther away, added, “He’s nodding.”
“That’s okay, Rip. I miss her, too. I’ll be home in fifteen minutes, and then we can call her on my phone. You remember how we did that the other day, and you could see her on the screen?”
But his sobs only grew louder. “My Spider-Man toy is at her house, and I haven’t got any of her oatmeal cookies and I haven’t got any of her hugs.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face, my heart ripping in half at the pure anguish in his voice.
Heath got back on the phone. “He’s really upset. I don’t know what set him off. One minute he was fine, the next minute he was bawling.”
“It’s okay. He’s been through a lot. It’s understandable he’d be missing her. We’ve distracted him pretty well ever since we got him, but this was bound to happen.” I paused and looked to Liam. “We’re not far from Norma’s place. Can you stop in there for a moment? I need to pick up some of Ripley’s things and maybe organize for her to come out and visit. He needs her.”
“Of course. On it.” Liam changed lanes, gunning for the looming Saint View exit we were about to pass.
“Tell him we’re en route to pick up Spider-Man, and hopefully Granny, too.”