Page 115 of Is Anyone Listening?
"It seems like there's something there."
"Maybe," I murmured. "Maybe not. It's complicated."
"You look like you were in a fight, Cassidy. What happened to your face?"
"That's a long story. I'll tell you everything, but not right this second."
"That's fine. I need to catch my breath."
"So do I. Then we'll figure out what happens next."
Chapter Twenty-Six
A half hour later, Tom returned to the cabin, and he and Ellen sat down with Jessica to discuss her future. While they did that, I went into the bedroom to make a call that couldn't wait another minute. I needed to speak to Natalie's brother. I needed to let him know what had happened.
When Adam Warren answered, his voice was hopeful, and it hurt even more to crush that hope, to tell him that Natalie's murderer had confessed to killing her and that the police in Stonecross had her locket. I couldn't answer any of his other questions. I didn't know where Natalie's body was, or if it could be recovered, but I referred him to the Stonecross Sheriff's Department for more information. Not able to find any words to console him, I eventually just apologized for the bad news and hung up. It was the worst call I'd ever had to make, but I'm glad I could give the family some closure. I hoped that was better than nothing.
Maybe some point Ellen would share information with Adam about why Natalie was running away, why she'd needed to start over, but I wasn't sure if that would happen or not. My grandmother was still in many ways an enigma. But I would leave it to Adam to press for more answers. In the end, nothing would bring his sister back.
Needing some air, I walked out to the porch to talk to Finn. He was on his phone but quickly got off when he saw me.
"Who were you talking to?" I asked.
"Sophie. Dorothy had to be taken to the hospital. She collapsed when she heard what Jeff had been doing at her house."
"Oh, no!" I said with alarm. "Is she going to be all right?"
"They think so. It was just an overwhelming shock. My mother and Sophie are with her now. She's resting comfortably, so they're going to head home soon."
"She's a sweet lady. She has to be devastated by what Jeff was doing. That kind of evil probably seems unimaginable to her. It was unimaginable to me until I saw the insanity in his eyes, the complete disconnect with reality. He had seemed so normal before that. Like Tom's easygoing, nowhere-near-as-intense younger brother."
"Jeff fooled everyone," Finn said. "I served him drinks and meals for the past two years and never had an inkling that anything was off."
"He hid his dark side very well." Pausing, I added, "I can still see his amused smile when I came back the night I was run off the road. That had to be him, don't you think?"
"Probably. Unless it was Tyler."
"Tyler said it wasn't him. He wasn't hired to kill me. And Jeff was at the inn when I got back that night. He was sitting with Dorothy when I told Ellen I was her granddaughter. He enjoyed that drama. He probably thought it was a great distraction from my search for Natalie, because now I was persona non grata with Ellen and everyone else in town."
Finn gave me a guilty look. "I shouldn't have left you alone earlier today. I should have taken you with me to see Nathan. That decision could have been a fatal mistake."
"What happened isn't on you, Finn. I brought everything on myself. I stirred up trouble. I made Jeff nervous, my grandmother, too, because she feared I would expose her network. She was afraid that the women she'd saved wouldn't be safe anymore. I sure got her wrong. But that's one thing I am happy about."
"You have a lot to be happy about."
"I know. I'm grateful to be alive. And I'm glad we got some answers." I thought about that for a moment. "I asked my grandmother about Anna, the woman who was staying in the room next to mine who disappeared before dawn one morning. She wasn't one of Jeff's victims. She's safe."
"That’s a relief."
"But there were other victims."
"We'll get their names. We'll get them justice," he assured me.
I nodded in return. "We will."
"How are you actually feeling physically after all this?"
"I feel numb, like I'm running on adrenaline, but I'm betting everything is going to hurt tomorrow."
