“Maybe,” she said. “Amber and I were very close, but she kept a lot from me. When I pressed her about what trouble Spence might be in, she wouldn’t tell me. Instead, she backpedaled and said she was probably just being dramatic. I simply figured it had something to do with the Spencers’ financial situation, which had always been precarious. When Spence was murdered, however, I wondered if the trouble he’d gotten himself into had been the reason he was killed. In the days after he died, Amber totally shut down. She didn’t eat or sleep or talk, and I kept thinking she’d open up to me once the grief had subsided a bit. Of course, she never got the chance to get past the grief.”
Gina’s eyes misted and she dropped her chin to take a moment to compose herself. After clearing her throat she continued. “I realized after Amber died that she’d hidden a great deal from us. I never knew that she and Spence were intimate with each other, or that she was seeing a counselor at school to talk about her problems. With me, she was always putting on a happy face. She was in love with Spence, and she was looking forward to her future as a psychiatrist.” Gina’s expression turned both prideful and melancholy. “She got accepted into one of the top schools for psychiatry, you know. UCLA. She and Spence were all set to move to California together.”
“Uncle Ben was going to UCLA?” Cole asked, genuinely surprised.
“Yes,” Gina said. “Didn’t you know that?” Cole shook his head. “Ah, well, your uncle had gotten a scholarship to play football there, but at the last minute the funding got pulled. Amber said the coach had overextended his budget, but Spence had another scholarship lined up and he’d still be going. It was a relief to us, because that out-of-state tuition was very expensive, even back then.”
Gina looked down at her hands again. “None of that matters now, though. The kids never made it there.”
We all fell sadly silent and that’s when the curtain parted and the girl with blue tint poked her head in. “Gina? Your two thirty is here.”
Gina got up from the table, and put a hand on her lower back, as if it ached a little, then she moved to the doorway. Pausing to turn back to us, she said, “Remember what I told you kids. I know you’re anxious to have the case reopened, but I wouldn’t push any further with this. Nothing good will come of it, and your grandmother, Lily, could turn on you. Don’t forget how powerful she is in this town. We all know that she’s already turned on her son. She can make your life, and your mother’s, very difficult if she wants to.”
With that, she was gone, and Cole and I were left to sit and think about what she’d said.
“What do we do?” I finally asked him.
“Do you want to stop?” he asked me in turn.
“No,” I admitted. “I mean it, Cole: if my grandmother had anything to do with Ben and Amber’s death, I won’t be able to live under her roof. And my mom won’t, either.”
“She got your mom that job at the hospital though, right?” Cole said carefully.
I sighed. “She did. But there have to be other hospitals Mom can do her residency at. If I told her that I thought Grandmother had something to do with Amber’s death, she’d pack us up and move. She would.”
“Okay, so let’s keep digging,” Cole said. “And let’s agree that if we get enough clues together to reopen the case, I’ll send an email to one of the special agents I met at FAIT and see if I can convince him to look into it.”
“You want to get the FBI involved?” I said uneasily. That was hard-core.
“It’s probably the only way to bring some justice to Ben and Amber, and avoid having your grandmother getting involved and shutting down an investigation. The feds might also be able to protect our moms from retaliation. I mean, I’ll bet your grandmother wouldn’t hesitate to get involved with a Fredericksburg PD case if she thought it might lead to trouble for her, but I doubt she’d be willing to gamble with an obstruction charge from the FBI.”
I sat with that for a minute. If Grandmother really had been involved in the murders of Ben and Amber, then I honestly wasn’t going to shed a tear if she was taken off to jail. I’d gotten to know Amber and Spence in the past twenty-four hours, and they felt more like friends than strangers. If she’d been responsible, then I knew she’d have to be brought to justice.
And yet…she was family. Her blood ran though my veins, and instinctively, I felt a little protective of that kinship.
“Lily?” Cole asked me. “You look like you want to back out.”
“No,” I said, finally arriving at a decision I thought I could live with. “No. I’m not. If she’s responsible, Cole, then my grandmother needs to be brought to justice.”
He laid a hand on my shoulder and said, “Let’s keep digging and decide once we’ve put all the clues together. If everything points to Maureen Bennett, then I’ll let you decide if I make that call to the FBI. Fair?”
I pressed my palm against the back of his hand. “That’s only fair to me,” I whispered.
His flesh and blood had been murdered, and it might have been because of something my flesh and blood had done. I didn’t know if I could’ve made him the same offer if our situations were reversed.