Page 99 of Little Bitter Truths
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks.”Mia exhaled.“Anyway, Jeremy found photos of me at Christian’s house, looked me up, and then showed up at the conference I was attending under a fake name.”
Bryan set down his spoon.“Are you kidding me?”
“He introduced himself as Simon Sullivan,” Mia said.“We met, we spent some time together at the conference, and after, we kept in touch.I liked him, and then Georgiana found out Simon is Jeremy Shepherd.”
Bryan looked at me.“Has he been questioned?”
“He has, but they didn’t have enough to hold him.”
Bryan sat back, his head shaking.“A man lies about his identity to get close to a woman whose sister was murdered, and there’s not enough to hold him?”
“Lying isn’t proof of murder,” I said.
“No,” Bryan replied.“But it’s a red flag.Isn’t it?”
I couldn’t argue.
Mia stared out the window toward the water.
“If I was on the outside looking in, and I wasn’t emotionally invested, Jeremy would be my main suspect,” she said.
We exchanged glances.
“What if Wrenwasthe target all along, and not me?”she asked.
“What makes you think that?”
“After we talked, I started thinking about how good Jeremy was at deceiving me.What if he blames me for Christian’s death?Think about it.Christian died while texting me.At least, that’s what the police think, right?That he was on his phone when the accident happened?”
I nodded.
She continued.
“What if Jeremy found out?What if he saw the messages and the letters Christian kept, and he decided I took his brother from him?”
As I considered what she was saying, a troubling thought took root.
“Maybe killing me wasn’t the point,” Mia said.“Maybe it was about making me feel what he felt.I took his brother, so he took my sister.”
Whether or not her theory had merit, it was one I should have thought of before.
Grief.
Revenge.
Misplaced blame.
A sister for a brother.
My phone rang, the sound startling all of us.I glanced at the screen and pushed back from the table.“I’ll be right back.”
I walked outside and answered.“Hey Hunter, did you find something?”
Hunter’s voice came through low and serious.“I did, and there’s something you need to know.”
37
