Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

She looked around. “I don’t think so.”


“What about on the wall behind?” Gill moved to the side of the room that needed the most cleaning.

“There might have been a picture. I don’t remember.”

“Do you have any photographs of an average day inside the cabin?”

She crossed to the wall of books and found a photo album her dad had kept.

Jo sat on the sofa, placed the album in her lap, and opened it. The album was one born in the days of film cameras. The images had yellowed edges from the musty conditions and sheer number of years they’d been sitting there. The thin plastic cover that was supposed to help the photos stick to the page had lost its integrity and lifted from the photographs. “I should probably take these in and have them copied digitally.”

Gill sat beside her, his arm circling her back.

She walked down memory lane as she flipped through pages.

“Is that you?”

“Pigtails were all the rage when I was five.”

He kissed the side of her hair. “Very cute.”

Jo pointed at the image of her and her mother. “My mom.”

“You look like her.”

“I guess. I always thought I looked more like my dad.”

The next page was of her dad on that same trip.

“I see the resemblance.”

She flipped again. “Who do you take after? Mom or dad?”

“I’m the spitting image of my dad. It’s scary knowing what you’re going to look like when you’re sixty.”

“I’m sure he’s handsome.”

“Beer gut.”

Jo laughed. “That’s easily fixed.”

“That’s why I drink whiskey.”

They both laughed as she drew a timeline of her childhood.

“Your dad and Karl?”

Jo nodded. They were so much younger. “Yep.”

More pages, and fast-forwarding through the years, she found a photograph of her, Mel, and Zoe sitting at the table her father was sitting at when he died. “I’m guessing my junior year.”

“Sexy.”

“Jailbait,” she reminded him.

“Worth the risk.”

She glanced at the photograph and then to the wall across the room. “Looks like there was a picture. Probably didn’t survive the blast.”

Jo dug deeper into the album. The plastic pulled away from the album and a photograph slid out.

She went to put it back in and peered closer.

“That doesn’t look like it was taken here,” Gill said.

“No. This is in town.”

“That’s your dad, right?”

“Yeah, my dad, Karl, and Caroline. That must be Drew.” The same mischievous smile sat on Drew’s young face. He couldn’t have been more than seven when this was taken.

She lifted the image closer, noticed a crease, and folded the picture where it appeared someone had done so before. When she folded the photo, Karl was taken away from the others. Only her father, Drew, and Caroline were left.

Jo’s heart started to speed in her chest.

She removed her phone from her back pocket and pulled up a picture taken at the last track meet of her and Drew. Then she found a close-up of her dad and set her phone beside his picture. “Holy shit.” The mouths were the same, the color of their eyes, even the goofy smiles.

She found the depths of Gill’s eyes. Eyes that were drawing the same conclusion as she was.

“I think we found the mystery woman,” Gill said.

“And the reason my dad didn’t let anyone in town know what he had going.” She couldn’t stop staring.

“Karl had a motive.”

Her mind wasn’t moving fast enough. “My father was having an affair with a married woman.”

Gill pointed to Drew on her phone. “More than just an affair. I think we need to talk to Mrs. Emery.”

Jo’s heart kicked hard. “I have a brother.”



Shauna met them in Eugene at the state championships. With Jo flanking the athletes on the perimeter of the track, Gill and Shauna had the opportunity to sit in the stands with Caroline and Karl. Under the guise of new friends and a mutual association with the team, their plan was to divide and conquer.

“What does Drew run?” Shauna asked.

“The three thousand meter.”

“Ouch.”

“He’s good, or he wouldn’t be here,” Karl said, pride in his voice. “But these meets last all damn day.” Karl mustered up some excitement, but only for half a second.

Gill watched the man without looking straight at him. No hand holding with Caroline, no love pats or any real affection. But that didn’t always say anything after twenty years of marriage.

“Is this Drew’s first championship?”

“Oh, no. Last year he made it here but didn’t make the podium,” Caroline told them.

“Do these meets get old?” Shauna asked.

Caroline said no, Karl said yes at the same time.

Caroline shoved her husband’s arm.

“What? They do. I’m here for one race and it seems like it’s never going to happen, and then when it does it’s not like it’s over fast.”

“I take it you’re not a runner,” Shauna kept the conversation going.

“No. I leave that to Jo.”

It was Gill’s turn to chime in. “I couldn’t keep up with her if I tried.”

“It helps that she’s twenty years younger than you, Karl.” Caroline leaned against the back bleachers on her elbows.

Karl started to fidget.

Gill nodded to Shauna.

“How much longer before Drew’s race?” she asked.

“Couple of hours,” Caroline informed them like it was old news.

Karl groaned.

“I could use a beer.” Shauna stood.

“Good luck with that. This is the high school championships, not a college football game,” Karl said.

“I’m starting to see what you’re saying, Karl. How about we find soda and a liquor store?”

He jumped to his feet. “I like how your partner thinks, Gill.”

“That’s why she’s my partner.” Gill followed them with his eyes as they zigzagged through people and made their way out of the densely populated stands. Once out of earshot, he said, “He really doesn’t like these things.”

“He doesn’t. Please don’t say that to Drew.”

“My guess is Drew knows.”

Caroline scanned the field. Drew wasn’t on it, they were warming up on a far end of the campus, away from spectators and the athletes who were next up to compete.

“Probably.”

Gill waited a minute, sipped from his water bottle. “My question is, does Karl know?”

Caroline’s look of confusion was followed by, “Does Karl know he doesn’t like these things?”

Gill shook his head. “Does Karl know how much Jo and Drew look alike?”

The smile on her face slowly fell.

“Does Karl see the same smirk on his son’s face that sits on Jo’s . . . and from the pictures I’ve seen, on her late father’s?”

Caroline slowly pushed off her elbows and looked behind them. Her voice was low. “What are you getting at?”

“You know what I’m getting at, Caroline.”

She started to breathe faster and she rubbed her palms on her pants.

“We knew Joseph had a lover, but it wasn’t until recently that we discovered who she was. It makes sense now.”

“It wasn’t like that.”