her hometown had always seemed to stay the same. Now she knew that sameness had been hiding her parents’ killer.
“Miss Gibby, you feel up to talking?” Zach asked.
Gibby tried to sit up and then gasped. Savannah was there immediately to stop her and then raised the bed slightly. Zach put another pillow behind her head to help prop her up.
“I’ll try my best, Zach, but I can’t say I remember much. If I rightly recall, I was getting ready for bed and Samson started meowing real loud. He only does that if something upsets him. I went to pick him up and heard something out in the hallway. I opened the door and didn’t see anything, so I stepped out of the bedroom and went to the top of the stairs. I felt someone’s hands push me forward. Next thing I knew, I was waking up here in the hospital.”
“The doctor said you told him you’d fallen,” Zach said.
“Well, I wasn’t about to tell him what really happened. What if he mentioned it to someone?”
“Last night at Lamont and Nesta’s, you said you had something to tell me. What was it?”
“After your mama and daddy passed, your granddaddy was in a pickle. He was just so worried about you three girls and how this was going to affect you. Lots of people offered to help, some of them even wanted to adopt one of you or all of you, but there was one person who specifically wanted only you, Savannah.”
A chill zipped up her spine. Though Savannah and her sisters were identical, the discerning eye could tell them apart. However, even at an early age, people were calling Savannah “Little Maggie” because, except for the wavy hair she’d inherited from her father, she was the spitting image of her mother. She met Zach’s eyes and then looked at Gibby again. “Who was it?”
Gibby grimaced. “That’s the thing … I don’t know. Daniel was insulted by all the offers but that was the one that made him uncomfortable.”
Revulsion roiled in Savannah’s stomach. Someone had wanted her because she looked like her mother. Had that someone had anything to do with Maggie’s death?
“Did you notice if Granddad started treating any particular person different than before?”
“Oh, honey, he treated everyone different. Even me.” A fleeting expression of hurt appeared on Gibby’s battered face. “Guess he didn’t trust anyone after that, even family. You and your sisters were his life. He would have done anything to protect you.”
Savannah knew that to be true. Her granddad’s life had changed dramatically when her parents died. He had stopped socializing with friends and had rarely gone anywhere unless it pertained to his granddaughters. She had often felt guilty about them taking over his life so completely. Now she wondered if he’d closed himself off for a different reason. Because he had no real idea who might have killed her parents, had he suspected everyone? And not knowing who was responsible, had trusted no one?
How she wished she had known these things earlier. If he had shared this secret, maybe they could have discovered the truth together. A fresh wave of grief immobilized her. She had known her granddad had dealt with a lot, she just hadn’t known how much.
A large hand grabbed hers and squeezed gently. She looked up into Zach’s face and was surprised at the depth of sympathy in his eyes. Longing built up inside her for this wonderful, caring man. She had hurt him with her silence but he was still here for her, offering her his sympathy and support.
Zach held her gaze for a moment, giving her the comfort she so desperately needed. Then, squeezing her hand once more, he turned back to Gibby. “Do you have any suspicions about anyone?”
“I wish I did, Zach. Lord knows there’s lots of mean people in this world and this town has its share. Problem is, this person is probably someone we know and would never suspect.”
“When you’re released, I want you to come stay with me until this is over,” Savannah said.
An unusual hardness changed Gibby’s expression from that of a badly battered victim to that of an infuriated, determined woman. “I most certainly will not. I’ve lived in that house more than seventy years. Nobody’s going to run me out of it.”
“Then Brody, Zach’s friend, will stay with you until it’s over.”
“If you think I’m going to argue about having that sweet young man who’s standing outside my room staying in my house, you’ve