“It’s because of your parents, isn’t it? I read about them. About you. You were in the house with them. You found their bodies. Did their blood get on you? Is that why you can’t stand the sight—”
“You can’t rely on everything that you read. Most stories are a mix of truth and lies.” She wasn’t trying to tug her hand free any longer. “But, yes, my blood…issue developed when I was younger. When they died. I don’t like seeing the dead cut open, but honestly, who does? I’m sure many people feel the same way. As for the unease I experience when blood gets on my skin, it’s a visceral memory. Their blood was on me. It was a very long time before I could get it off. The stickiness and the smell today at the crime scene put me back in a bad moment from my past, and I-I don’t like going back there.”
God. She spoke so flatly. So carefully. But he could feel her pain. All carefully held back. What had Marie said? That she put up a wall? Hell, yes, Chloe did. He could practically see it. When he thought of what she must have gone through as a kid…to see her parents that way… “Baby, did you see them die?”
“You keep using terms of endearment with me. I don’t know if you mean them or not.”
“You keep trying to distract me. It won’t work.”
She shrugged.
“You must have been in the house,” he rasped.
“It was an estate. Quite large. Had been in the family for a long time. It could be quite possible to be in one wing of the house and have no idea what was happening in another location. You could even scream until you were hoarse from one room, and the people having a party downstairs would never hear you.”
His heart slammed into his chest. “Did you ever scream like that?” Tell me no. I need you to tell me—
Her long lashes lowered. “Why would I have screamed?” Once more, she pulled at his grip.
This time, he let her go. “Did…” He stopped. Tried again. “Did your parents have a lot of parties?”
“Every weekend. They enjoyed them.” She turned away. “I’ve never particularly enjoyed parties.”
“No, I don’t see where you’d like them.” He followed her out of the kitchen. Caught sight of Reese ducking into—was that a library? The place came with its own library? Sure. Why the hell not? “Give me one minute, would you, Chloe?”
“You haven’t even asked me whose dead body we’re trying to find. That seems odd.”
He paused. Realized he probably should have at least wondered. Instead, he’d found himself in a whole mindset of…Why-the-hell-not with her. “Whose body are we trying to find?”
“Promise you won’t get mad.”
“I will make no such promise.” Now he felt alarmed.
“In the interest of full disclosure, I had these items before you asked me to stop holding back on you. And I fully intended to tell you everything when we met with Judith. It was absolutely, one hundred percent on my to-do list. Know that.”
“God, I have a bad feeling in my gut.” Knots, lots of twisted knots. “You may be giving me an ulcer.”
“You should see a doctor about that,” Chloe returned without missing a beat.
He would not smile at her. He would also not let her distract him.
“Oh, Joel, you were just so excited when you seemed to have the idea of talking to the librarian. I hated to tell you that I had already talked with her.”
Silence. No, not silence. At least, not total silence. He could hear the ticking of the grandfather clock that stood near the entrance to the library. “You already talked to Judith.”
“Are you mad?”
“When did you talk to Judith?”
“Before we met, actually. So you shouldn’t feel like I didn’t include you in the question session. Our paths hadn’t crossed at that point.”
“Uh, huh.” He ran through scenarios in his head. Scenes. “Wait, back up. So you’d already made the connection with the high school football team before that whole bit at the police station? When you stared at their ring fingers and acted like you’d reached some major conclusion, you already knew that shit?” He almost laughed. “And here I thought you were hyper observant.”
“I am hyper observant. And I have an eidetic memory.”
Reese strolled out of the library. “Someone is bragging.”