Why dont you ask him? Sid snapped. Hes sitting right there.
Im asking you. When was the last time you saw your daughter?
Millie spoke up from where the rocker. I saw her that afternoon. She said she needed to run an errand. I wouldnt let her take the car so she had her friend Twyla pick her up.
Twyla? Halley asked.
Twyla Reynolds. Millie looked to Sid. He had sat back down again and now had one arm over his face. Sid, when was the last time you saw Jessica?
That evening after she came home, he said, his words muffled. She said she was going to bed. I just assumed
You have to understand, Millie said. The letters We wanted to believe that she was alive. If I noticed something different about the way she wrote, I just thought it was because shed changed over the years.
Didnt you ever wonder what shed done with the baby? Colton asked, still angry because something had been wrong in this house or Jessica would never have been at their secret spot that night. She would never have needed to run away. She would still be alive today.
He could see that Deputy Halley Robinson was asking questions as if she still thought Jessica might be alive. She was the only person in this room, though, who believed that now.
Id hoped that she had the baby and was raising our grandchild Millie looked away.
Id like to have a handwriting expert look at the letters that were sent to you, Halley said. If you get any more, please try not to handle them so we can dust them for prints.
Millie nodded distractedly. We werent due to get another one for almost a year. I would imagine they will stop coming now.
Only if the killer finds out that Jessicas disappearance is being investigated, Colton thought. But the way news spread in this county, if the killer was still around, he would know soon enough.
Do you have anything Jessica wrote before she left that we could compare it to? Halley was asking.
Millie pushed herself to her feet. Im sure there is something in her room. Its just as she left it.
Colton started to rise to follow the deputy and Millie upstairs to Jessicas room, but Sid Granger stopped him.
You arent going in her room, Sid said, blocking his way. If you hadnt gotten her pregnant
Why dont you wait outside, Halley suggested to Colton.
He could have put up a fight, but he didnt have any fight left in him and there was nothing more to accomplish in this house, even if he could stand another moment in it. All he could think about was Jessica. She had been pregnant with his baby. But theyd been so careful. Not that any of that
mattered now.
She must have been planning to tell him about the baby that night. Hadnt she realized that he would have been excited about the prospect of being a father? He would never have deserted her. Never.
As he left the house, he tried to swallow the lump in his throat at the realization that if he was right and Jessica had never left the spot under the trees that night, then his baby had died with her.
I think I have everything I need for now, Halley said a few moments later as she and Millie came out through the screen door to the porch and started down the steps to where Colton was waiting.
As she headed for her patrol SUV parked in the yard, she shot him a look. He could tell that shed found more of Jessicas handwriting and it matched the letter hed received fourteen years too latenot the ones someone had been sending her parents in the interim.
Ill let you know what we find out, the deputy promised Millie whod followed them as far as the vehicle and stood looking even smaller and even more terrified.
Colton saw her glance back toward the house. Sid stood in the doorway. Millie Granger visibly shuddered at the sight of her husband. As Colton looked toward the man in the doorway, he thought of the mans temper, his obsession with Jessica, his hatred of Colton. What if Sid had followed his daughter that night and caught her at the secret spot on the creek?
You all right? the deputy asked as she started the SUV.
He could feel her gaze on him as he suppressed a chill at the thought of what Sid Granger might have been capable of when it came to his daughterwas still capable of doing when it came to his wife.
You didnt know she was pregnant.
It wasnt a question but he answered anyway. No.
I assume the baby was yours?
He looked over at her, anger hitting him again with sudden heat. Why would you even ask that? You saw the letter. She wanted me to run away with her.
Halley nodded, but said nothing until they were back at his pickup parked at the edge of the road where hed left it earlier. As he started to get out of the patrol car, she said, Im going to need a sample of your handwriting.
EMMA WOULD HAVE SAID she was the luckiest woman in the world if anyone had asked her just three seconds ago.
Moments before shed been lying on the soft warm blanket on the pile of hay beside her husband, his arm around her, trying to catch her breath after their love-making. Shed been wondering if other people their age still felt like this, and felt bad for them if they didnt.