Apparently, she’d been deep in thought and it had been plastered all over her face. “Nothing,” she said. “I’ll be I touch and readily available, but I need to go back to the hospital. I need to check on Rose.”
Connelly sighed and looked back to the monitor, then to Avery once again. “Avery…thanks for coming on for this. You’ve already helped immensely. But maybe you should step away. Be with your daughter and get things right there…”
“No. Just…keep me posted on anything.”
“Are you sure?”
But she didn’t bother with a response. She was already to the doorway with her thoughts on Rose in a hospital bed and that itching sort of feeling that came over her when she thought of Howard’s letter. She then saw the woman from the group that was afraid of fire and the man that was afraid of death. What other phobias had been in that room? And how were they all connected other than through fear?
There’s something there…something to that, she thought.
She pried at the thought as she headed to her car, feeling that maybe she had missed something after all. But with the need to see Rose so strong on her heart, she wasn’t able to figure it out.
Avery was well aware that she had relied on Howard as something of a crutch in the past, visiting him whenever a case got too far away from her. He’d sometimes provide insight and other times make her feel foolish. But now that he was gone (apparently living somewhere else while keeping a close eye on her), she felt almost empty.
Who are you, Avery?
She’d thought she’d always known the answer to that. But leave it to Howard Randall to make her doubt it.
And in his absence, Avery thought the answer might be in a hospital bed within the heart and mind of her daughter.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
She arrived at the hospital just after eight o’clock. She found Rose in much better spirits, watching television and snacking on cafeteria Jell-O. The smile she gave Avery when she walked in was bright and unexpected.
“Hey,” Rose said. “Back so soon? Did you close that case?”
Avery sat down in the visitor’s chair and shook her head. “No, not yet. I’m trying to sort things out right now.”
“Here?” Rose asked. “I’d think it would be easier to think and sort things out in a warm tub of water with a tall glass of wine.”
“That does sound nice,” Avery said. “How about you? How are you doing?”
“Good. The doctor checked in on me for the last time a few hours ago before clocking out for the day. He said everything looks good. They’re going to release me in the morning so long as all of my bloodwork comes back normal. They want to make sure all of the meds have been flushed out of my system.”
Avery cringed at how light-hearted Rose seemed when talking about it. She knew this was an opening to have a lengthier conversation but she wasn’t sure how to start it. It was just as tricky as the interrogation she had just left.
“Rose…I understand the animosity you must have felt. But I want to know what I can do to make sure that you can come to me if you ever feel that way again. I’ll be honest with you…I blamed myself. And maybe that was for the best. Maybe it was true.”
“No, it wasn’t all on you. But…not to make light of it, that really long sleep I was in was cathartic. I woke up and saw you here and something struck me.”
“What’s that?”
Rose was tearing up. She looked away from her mother and to the television where some terrible reality show was on. “I’m tired of being angry at you. The whole teenage angst thing should have stopped years ago. I need to stop blaming you for everything and start looking at the world through a hate-free lens. Sounds deep, sure, but that’s how I feel.”
“That sounds good,” Avery said.
“So…I know I’m not Ramirez but do you want to tell me about this case? Why haven’t you cracked it yet?”
“Cracked it?”
Rose shrugged. “I only know the lingo from what I see on TV. And let’s be honest, it’s all very badly written.”
“I brought a suspect in this afternoon but I’m ninety percent sure he’s not the guy.”
“The spider guy?”
Avery chuckled, a noise that turned into a yawn. She had gone three months without these high-stress days. Today had taken its toll on her. In fact, it was all running together for her. Kneeling by Abby Costello’s body by Jamaica Pond and walking into Janice Saunders’s house filled with clowns…it all blurred together in one big chunk of time.
“It’s more than spiders now,” she said. “It’s getting really bad.”
“A serial killer?” Rose asked, sounding a little too interested.
“I think I liked it better when you were quiet,” Avery said.
“So…a serial killer,” Rose said, grinning at her mother’s irritation. “One of those bad TV shows would stall and stall until the end and then come up with these profound ideas. That or some serious deus ex machina—a clue coming out of nowhere to save the day.”
“Yeah, it rarely works that way in real life,” Avery said. “In real life, it’s honestly more like a game of Clue or Guess Who. It’s sometimes less about clues and more about digging deeper into people’s lives and their connections to suspected killers or other victims.”
“Did your time off slow you down?” Rose asked.
“Maybe. I do feel a little off. And damn, I’m tired.”
“I say we have a sleepover. Not to brag, but I can hook us up with some pretty righteous Jell-O.”
“The sleepover sounds good,” Avery said. “The Jello-O does not.”
“Awesome. Pull your chair up and watch some TV with me.”
“What are we watching?”
“Twenty women get catty with each other and cry about everything because some guy doesn’t have enough roses for them.”
And like that, something felt natural and almost repaired about their relationship. It was more than sweeping the past under the rug and pretending nothing had happened. It felt more like something had been renewed. And with renewal came the reality that they’d need to work on things but, as they worked together, they could learn to trust one another again.
Despite this, Avery drifted off to sleep fifteen minutes after moving her chair closer to Rose’s bed so she could watch television. She went to sleep with her own comments drifting around in her head like flotsam and jetsam.
It’s sometimes less about clues and more about digging deeper into people’s lives and their connections to suspected killers or other victims…
Avery didn’t realize she had drifted off until her cell phone buzzed. It was in her pants pocket, so when it vibrated it woke her up with a start. Startled, Avery checked the phone. The first thing she saw was that it was 3:05 in the morning. The second thing she saw was that the buzzing had been an incoming text from Kellaway.
All of Dan Hudson’s alibis check out. The one for Abby Costello isn’t rock solid but it’s enough to be considered verifiable given that he’s been ruled out for killing Lawnbrook and Saunders. He meets with a lawyer tomorrow to represent him in the case that’s currently being process in regards to him shooting you.
Avery then checked through her emails but found no new information on the case. She tried to drift back off to sleep but couldn’t. She went to the bathroom and splashed some water in her face. When she came back out, Rose was awake.
“I heard your phone buzz. Are you off to save the city?”
“Not quite,” Avery said. “But if you don’t mind, I am going to go home and grab a shower before heading back to the precinct. Will you have someone call me when they release you? I’ll come by and pick you up.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I do. I want to. You’ve made a promise to yourself to stop hating me. The least I can do is make a promise to you that you’ll be my top priority.”
“I appreciate that, Mom,” Rose said. “But can you start that after you bring this guy in? Seeing you struggle between me and a case is heartbreaking. And I know how you can get when you’re knee-deep in a case. Go be a badass.”
“If you say so,” Avery said. “But I mean it…call me. I want to pick you up and take you home.”
“Maybe I can come see your creepy little cabin in the woods when this is all over.”