Where the Darkness Goes

Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

GARRETT — PRESENT DAY

When I get home from work, I half expect Tessa to have packed her bags and disappeared, leaving me behind again.

Instead, I find her pacing in the living room, phone to her ear. “Well, can you please check the security footage? It’s very important— No, I understand that, but what I’m saying is— I’m not accusing you of anything, sir. I just need to know who was visiting her.” She pauses, catching sight of me. “It’s for her safety. I mean, my brother is her medical POA because he’s the oldest child, but he’s not here right now. I don’t even need to know anything about her medical care, though. I just need to know who visited her yesterday. One of your nurses said it was a woman, but she couldn’t remember anything else about her. I don’t understand why it’s so complicated.” She sighs loudly, not hiding her frustration. “No, I guess that was it. I just hope you realize we have other options for her care, and I’m happy to take her somewhere else if I feel like she’s not safe there.” With that, she pulls the phone away from her ear and ends the call, releasing an exasperated groan.

“Everything okay?”

“If by everything, you mean nothing, sure.” She flops down on the couch. “How quickly can you be ready to go?”

“I just need to change.” I gesture toward my slacks and polo.

“Okay, cool.” She’s not really listening, I know. She’s in her own world, thoughts swirling.

In my room, I change into jeans and a sweatshirt before we head to the nursing home. Once there, Tessa leads the way straight to Frannie’s room. This time, there are no nurses around to usher us inside, so Tessa knocks gently before opening the door.

“Momma?” She eases her head inside the room. “Momma, it’s me. It’s Tessa.” Pushing the door open the rest of the way, she enters and crosses through the kitchen. Frannie is lying in bed, and at first, I think she’s asleep, but once I’m closer I can see that her eyes are open. Tessa sits down on the edge of her bed and rubs her mother’s leg.

“I told you we’d be back soon.” She kicks her feet, swinging them slowly. “We went to Britney’s funeral yesterday. I wish you could’ve been there. Will should be back soon, and I’ll try my best to get him to visit you.” Sliding her hand up, she takes her mom’s hand. “I wish you could tell me who’s been visiting you, Mom. I wish there was a way you could talk to me and tell me who it was. Someone left that note for you. Were they…were they threatening you? Or warning you, maybe?”

I walk up behind Tessa. The last thing I want to do is overstep or intrude, but I want her to know I’m here should she need me. I would do anything for this girl.

I resist the urge to reach out and touch her dark hair, to connect with her in some way. It might be what I need—to discuss last night, to find out where her head is and if everything is as fuzzy and confusing now for her as it is for me—but this isn’t about me. Or us.

If I ever want to have that conversation, I can’t be selfish with her now.

“I’m going to find out, okay? I’m going to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on.” She trails off with a breath. “I’m not going to let anyone bother you, okay? I promise. I’m here for as long as I need to be to understand what’s happening. This place, the staff here, aren’t particularly helpful, but I’ll find out. I, um, actually, there’s something else I wish I could talk to you about. Your doctors say you can still hear me when I talk to you, so I need your help. The police are investigating Britney’s death, but they found something that connects her to one of the deaths back then, which I guess makes her a suspect for all of them. She didn’t do it.” Her voice cracks. “I know she didn’t, but I don’t know how to prove it. They found a necklace that makes her look guilty, and?—”

I don’t hear the rest of what she’s saying because my brain has short-circuited. I take another step toward her. “What did you just say?”

She looks up at me, brows drawn down. “They, the police, they found Cassidy Cole’s necklace at Britney’s house. Do you remember the one that was missing?”

My throat is so thick and immovable it may as well be filled with concrete. I nod, or at least I think I do, then step away to the window to look out.

Why would Britney have Cassidy’s necklace? The necklace.

Cassidy’s mom was an actress years before she had Cassidy, and she’d been given the necklace by a director. It was worn by Marilyn Monroe at one point, or so they told everyone. It’s worth more than most of the houses in our town.

“Yeah, of course.” Cassidy bragged about it every chance she got, but on the night she and her mother died, it and its matching bracelet were discovered missing. Most people in town think their murders were somehow related to the missing jewelry.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” I tell Tessa, crossing the room with a sharp ringing in my ears. It’s as if someone stood next to me and screamed at the top of their lungs. My whole head is spinning with this news.

“You okay?” She stands.

I cut a glance back at her, not missing the deep line in her forehead that tells me she’s worried, and I’m only adding to it. As badly as I want to reassure her that everything’s fine, I can’t stay here. I need air. Now. “Fine. Just realized I forgot my phone in the truck.”

I dash away from the room and down the hall, waiting until I exit the building to pull my phone out of my pocket and call Will again.

“Yes, dear?” he teases.

“They found the necklace.”

“The necklace?” His voice shakes as he asks, and I know he’s hoping I mean any other necklace in the world. But I don’t.

“Britney Foster, er, Davis now, I guess. It was at her house. They’ve already connected it to Cassidy. Dude, you need to come home. It’s only a matter of time before they?—”

“Don’t say it,” he warns, his tone sharp. Then, lower, he adds, “Trust me, no one will ever know we had it.”