if they were doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. If they thought Chloe would figure them out.” Reese’s voice turned raspy. “They’d leave her alone so much. Shut her away. I know they could hear her calling for them.”
Chloe’s voice whispered through Joel’s mind. “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.”
Joel’s heart ached. “Their killers were never caught.”
Reese looked up at him.
“Chloe solves murders all the time,” Joel continued, voice roughening. “But she didn’t find the person who killed her parents?” I don’t buy it. She would have hunted him. Would have searched until she found the killer.
“Some cases are harder than others.”
He stared into Reese’s eyes and searched for the truth. “Do you know who killed them?”
Reese licked his lips. “I’m not as smart as she is when it comes to killers.”
“That’s not what I—”
“But I know what you’re thinking. I know why you wanted to see me alone. I know what you suspect.”
What he suspected…what was curling in his gut like a snake getting ready to strike…
“Chloe isn’t like that.” Reese shook his head. “She didn’t take a knife and hack her parents to pieces. She didn’t slice them over and over until blood soaked her skin. That’s not what happened that night.”
“But you weren’t there,” Joel said softly. “So how do you really know?”
Reese didn’t reach for the doorknob any longer. He squared his shoulders and kept staring Joel dead in the eyes. “If you honestly think that shit about my sister, then get the hell out of our house, right now. Get the hell out and stay away. She doesn’t need you. You aren’t good enough for her. You aren’t worth her. You aren’t—”
A rap at the door. “Joel? I hate to rush you, but we need to get going. We only have so much daylight left, and Cedric said he’d meet us for the search. If you’re occupied with Reese, then I can certainly do this without you.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” he called back. His eyes pinned Reese.
“She tried to save them,” Reese whispered. “They’d been terrible to her. But she still tried. That’s what she does. She’s not the monster. I don’t care what you hear. I don’t care what lies you’re told. That’s not her. Back then, she’d been reading anatomy books. Fucking anatomy. She tried to put them back together. Tried to stop the blood loss. That’s why she was soaked when the cops arrived.”
Joel thought of what he’d done that day. Of the way he’d insisted Chloe stay with him in that room with Judith. She’d wanted to leave.
But she hadn’t.
“Fuck me.” Now he was the one grabbing for the door.
“Be good to her,” Reese snapped behind him. “Or I will kick your ass.”
Joel threw a frown at him.
“Fine. I’ll get Marie to kick your ass. And you will be so sorry because she happens to be fantastic at ass kicking.”
Joel yanked open the door.
Chloe was glancing at an empty drinking glass in her hand. “All done?” She didn’t look up. “Finish interrogating him about my parents’ murder?”
“You knew I—”
“I was listening at the door,” she confessed quietly. Chloe raised her eyes. “I went to the kitchen just to get the glass. Old school, but effective, I assure you.”
“You listen at a lot of doors?” Joel asked to buy himself time. Time to figure out how to say…I’m sorry.
“More than one would expect.” Her spine seemed very straight. She put the glass down on a nearby table. “We should hurry. Cedric is sending teams to the five locations I’ve suggested—”
“Five?”
“Well, it’s not like I know the exact spot for the body. But five locations are most likely. We’ll start at the top of the list and work our way down. That’s why we have to hurry. Losing daylight and all that.”
She made her way to the door. Her steps seemed a little fast. And that spine of hers? Still stiff and straight.
“You hurt her.”
Jesus. Joel spun around. “Reese, don’t skulk up behind me.”
“You need to apologize.”
“Yeah, I get that shit.”
“Chloe didn’t kill our parents.”
“I never said she did.” He made his way for the door.
“Oh, yeah? Then what was that whole interrogation scene about—”