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“Yes,” I said. Maybe the jury was still out on Chloe’s particular gifts — if she had prophetic dreams, why hadn’t her sixth sense signaled her that trouble was on the way? — but she certainly believed she had talents in that area, and so, it seemed, did her mother. “That’s probably why I’ve been able to solve so many crimes. It’s amazing what a good session with your Tarot cards or pendulum can do for you.”
I decided it was better not to mention how the spirit of my Grandma Ellen had also helped me out on several occasions. Reading a Tarot card was one thing; communing with the dead might have been just a bit much for the Fairfields.
Heather reached for her neglected sandwich and took a bite. Then she said, “So…how do you plan to approach Chloe’s case?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I said frankly. “But probably the first thing I need to look into is Jack Speros’s past.”
Jordan, who’d just eaten a slice of strawberry, frowned…even as I thought I detected a hint of amusement in his eyes, eyes that were blue but a few shades lighter than mine. “The kid was twenty-two years old. I doubt he had much of a past.”
Next to her father, Chloe rolled her eyes, but I could tell she wasn’t going to contradict him.
Not when so much was riding on all this.
Calvin spoke up then. “You might be surprised,” he said. “I’m not saying we’ve had to deal with the same problems here in Globe that they have in the big city, but one thing I know for sure is that people can get in trouble at any age.”
Since those words were so patently true, no one at the table bothered to contradict him. An uncomfortable silence fell, one that Chloe appeared to think she should fill, since she said, “I’ll be interested to see what Selena finds out. All the time I was with Jack, he seemed like a straight-up guy. The only reason we broke up is that he started to get way too clingy…kept talking about wanting to get married even though he hadn’t even graduated yet. It started to feel kind of weird.”
If the startled expressions on Jordan’s and Heather’s faces were any indication, this was the first they’d heard about any of that.
“He asked you to marry him?” Heather asked.
Apparently realizing that she might have opened a whole new can of worms, Chloe replied, “Well, not in so many words. It’s more that he wouldn’t stop bringing up what it would be like to be married, and what kind of plans we should be making for our future. At first, I thought it was kind of cute, because most people our age aren’t ready to settle down yet. But then when he wouldn’t give it up, I finally pushed back and told him I didn’t have any intention of getting married until I was at least twenty-eight or twenty-nine. I mean, who wants to get tied down that young?”
Since I hadn’t tied the knot until I was past thirty, I could agree with my little sister’s opinion on the matter. Circumstances were different for everyone, of course, but it just made sense to me that she would want to grow into herself more as a person before she leaped into committing to a partner for the rest of her life.
“Well, I’m glad you told him to back off,” Jordan said. “Neither one of you was in any position to get into a serious long-term relationship.”
His tone was flat, and I had to wonder if he was thinking about the way he’d hooked up with my mother all those years ago. True, they’d used protection, but nothing was infallible.
What would have happened if he’d tried to “do the right thing” and asked her to marry him?
I’d actually asked her that question on several occasions, and she’d always shaken her head and told me there was no way she was going to force him to be with her just because biology had found a way, as it often did. She’d always been emphatic about raising me on her own…and she’d done a damn good job of it.
However, that didn’t mean she might not have harbored her own doubts from time to time, trying to decide if she’d made the right choice, especially on those tough days right before the next paycheck when mac and cheese often appeared on the kitchen table and I’d caught glimpses of her going over the bills on my way to brush my teeth, her blonde head drooping a little as she tried to make what was owed to the electric company and the gas company and the cable match up with what remained in her checking account.
“I know, Dad,” Chloe said, now sounding annoyed. “And that’s a big reason why I broke up with Jack.” She stopped there, teeth catching on her lower lip in the now-familiar worried gesture. “But now I can’t stop thinking that he would be alive if I hadn’t bailed on him and come to Arizona.”
“You don’t know that, honey,” Heather responded at once as she reached over to give her daughter a reassuring pat on the arm. “The problem is, none of us knows much of anything right now.”
No, we didn’t. And although neither Heather nor Jordan gave me a significant glance, I had to believe they weren’t entirely sure I’d be able to pull this off.
Well, that made three of us.
However, the rest of the meal didn’t present any hiccups, and it ended with Calvin once again promising to reach out to Alec Scurlock to see if he was available to take Chloe’s case. Heather and Jordan wanted to have her go back to their hotel with them, and she agreed, albeit with some reluctance.
“But I’ll come back to the house when I’m done,” she told me as we made our way down the porch steps, and at once, Jordan lifted an eyebrow.
“You’re staying with Selena?”
“It seemed the best thing to do for now,” I replied. It still felt kind of strange to interact with him as though he hadn’t been out of my life for the entirety of my existence, to act as if this was all perfectly normal. “Neither Calvin nor I thought it was a good idea for Chloe to be alone at the Airbnb so soon after….” I let the words trail off, mostly because there wasn’t an easy way to say, So soon after someone was murdered there. However, I made myself go on, “But I don’t think Chloe has made a final decision as to where she wants to end up. We’re just taking it day by day right now.”
“Exactly,” she said. Then her expression clouded. “Maybe Hazel won’t even want me to come back after what happened at her place.”
I knew Hazel would never kick Chloe out — especially because she’d texted me earlier that day to tell me she was horrified after finding out about Jack’s murder from Henry Lewis, and that she supported my sister in whatever she wanted to do, whether it was to continue her stay at the Airbnb or find someplace else to crash while she was here in Globe.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” I said gently. “Hazel let me know that she’s on board with whatever you decide. It’s up to you.”
Hearing those words, Chloe sent me a grateful look, telling me I’d eased at least one worry that had been preying on her mind.
