Page 86 of Diamonds in the Mud

I thought about keeping quiet for a moment. These cases were closer to home. There was information I didn’t want out there in the world. No use spooking the locals.

“I believe the two are connected,” I said, surprising Sabrina and myself.

“You do?” She leaned forward. “Why?”

I took a deep breath. “For now, that’s all I have.” I stood up. “You can see yourself out.” I motioned towards my closed door.

“Rayne,” she whined. “You can’t say something like that and expect me to leave.” She took my arm. “Give me something more.”

I shook my head. “Report it,” I said, “just like that. What I said.” I locked eyes with her and she stilled.

“You’re using me?” She gasped slightly. “Seriously?”

I smiled. “Have a good day. I’ll make sure to root for you and Owen.” I opened my door and motioned for her to leave.

“I hate you,” she whispered with a slight smile as she passed by, then she stopped suddenly. “I’m glad your mom is okay. She scared us all. She’s home now?”

I felt my heart sink as I nodded. “We hired a full-time nurse to watch her. The last round took everything she had left out of her.”

Sabrina touched my arm. “I’m praying for her.”

I nodded, fighting back the fear and worry I always felt when remembering finding Edith on the floor. Waiting to feel the weak pulse under my fingertips through my own rapidly beating heartbeat. Hearing her raspy breathing as I waited for the ambulance.

Randy and I had sat up all night by her hospital bed, wondering if each breath she took would be her last. Just as the sunlight broke in the hospital room’s windows, she’d woken up and we knew she was out of the woods.

That was the worst fear I’d felt in my life. Until Jasmine had called me that next morning and told me that Jameson had been jumped.

I didn’t know how much more my heart could take at this point.

I watched Sabrina leave. I wanted to leave the two of them to their own demise. Sabrina’s relationships never worked out. She was too much like me. Stubborn. She poked her nose into too many parts of a person’s life. There were no secrets around either of us. We were both strong-headed women not afraid to speak our minds.

Then I thought of Jameson and smiled. Maybe Owen was like Jameson and liked that about Sabrina?

“Got a second?” Randy asked, walking towards me.

“Sure,” I said.

“Let’s go for a ride.”

I locked my office and fell in step with him. It wasn’t often Randy asked me to go for a ride so as we walked out, several people watched with curiosity.

Randy drove in silence and the second we hit the county road, I knew where he was heading. Our favorite fishing spot.

Shit. This had to be bad news.

We only went up there nowadays when things got worse than worse.

“Mom?” I asked softly.

“She’s good,” he answered quietly. “This isn’t about her.”

I nodded, understanding he wouldn’t say anything more until we were sitting on the old pier. We’d spent a summer building the thing when I was in junior high.

When we climbed out of his car, he surprised me by pulling his fishing poles from the trunk. “No live bait, but we’ll make do.” He handed me the tackle box.

We walked side by side down the trail we’d forged over the years until we stepped out into the clearing where our lake sat.

When we were each seated on the pier, fishing poles in hand and our first lines cast, he finally spoke.