Cold River - Carla Neggers [36]
Sean couldn’t read his sister—her tone, her attitude, her feelings—but now, with the biting cold and the situation at the crypt, wasn’t the time to push her about whatever was going on with her.
Jo had her cell phone out as she joined them. “The local police and Scott Thorne are on the way. They’ll take a look around here. They’ll want to talk to you, too, Sean.”
“No problem.”
“And Hannah,” she added.
It was an unnecessary comment, which told him Jo had wanted to see his reaction.
“Devin was framed as well as nearly killed a few weeks ago,” she went on. “Hannah could think people were too willing to believe he was guilty.”
“Meaning you, Jo?” Sean asked quietly.
“Keeping an open mind isn’t the same thing. Hannah has to be angry, Sean. Anyone would be. We’re all angry.”
“She’s used to holding her emotions in check.”
Jo slipped her cell phone into her jacket pocket. “Bolting up a mountain by herself in twenty-degree weather isn’t holding her emotions in check. Neither is looking for Bowie O’Rourke in a cemetery.”
“I get your point,” Sean said, careful to keep his tone even.
“I just want to be sure you’re seeing this situation clearly.”
“It’s not your problem, is it, Jo?”
“Don’t make it mine.” She softened, rubbing her gloved hands together. “Damn, it’s cold. Sean, you know what I’m getting at. You were at O’Rourke’s in March when Bowie got into trouble. Now you were at…whatever this was here. If he has his eye on Hannah and sees you as a threat—well, I guess it doesn’t matter, does it? You’ll be back in Beverly Hills soon.”
“You should come out, Jo. Get some sunlight. It’ll cheer you up.”
She rolled her eyes. “As if one Cameron man isn’t enough to deal with, Elijah comes with two brothers.” She looked at the pallet holding the granite blocks. “Did your dad have much to do with Bowie before his arrest in March?”
“I don’t know.” Sean wasn’t fooled by Jo’s show of interest in the pallet. Jo’s focus was entirely on interrogating him. “I wasn’t around much then, either.”
“Pop was a trustee for the cemetery and the Four Corners church,” Elijah said, standing close behind her. “He recommended Bowie for a job at the church last winter.”
“That doesn’t mean anything by itself,” Jo said. “Bowie’s a natural for any mason work. If I had any that needed doing at the lake, I’d call him, but right now I just think I need a sledgehammer.” She glanced up at the two brothers and grinned. “For those old cabins. Not for you boys.”
A town police cruiser pulled in behind Myrtle Smith’s rented car.
“They’re going to be thinking what I am,” Jo said. “Bowie’s a question mark. We don’t have anything that points to him, but this—it won’t help ease any suspicion.”
“He was in police custody when Pop was killed,” Rose said.
Jo nodded. “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved. I’m not suggesting he was, but it’s not a good idea for Hannah to be around him right now. Bowie’s too much of a loose cannon.”
Elijah settled back on his heels. “You’re not used to having a personal stake in an investigation. You can’t control what we all do. And you can’t protect us.”
She pulled her jacket hood up over her head. “You’re right. I can’t.”
Grit and Myrtle stepped out of the crypt, shutting the creaky door behind them and replacing the stick in the latch. “I’m going for that hot chocolate and whipped cream,” Myrtle said, giving an exaggerated shudder. “I believe in ghosts, you know.”
Grit sighed. “Of course you do.”
A town police officer headed down the lane. Sean recognized him from high school. His life in California suddenly seemed distant, surreal, as if he’d never get back there—as if he’d never left Black Falls and it was his home and always would be.
Jo eased in next to him, away from the others, her gaze narrowed on the dark woods. “Some days I feel like a stranger here,” she said with some sympathy, then angled her turquoise eyes at him. “What do you think, Sean? Did Hannah really hear someone whispering her name?”
He considered her