After She Vanished by Shirley Jump

Author:Shirley Jump
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-06-11T16:16:25+00:00

Chapter Nine

The hand on Kate’s arm stopped her in the middle of turning the key to lock the shop. In an instant, her breath stopped, and the urge to scream raced up her throat. She spun around, pulse racing, fear pulsing inside her, then just as quickly, she calmed. “Mrs. Reynolds. You scared me.”

“I’m so sorry. I just wanted to get your attention.” Elaine’s mother seemed flustered and embarrassed to have startled Kate.

Downtown Fordham was quiet, save for the occasional car. Kate had just closed the coffee shop and had opted to walk home, given the warm, sunny day made brighter and sweeter by a morning rain. She’d been lost in her thoughts, musing about the dinner with Mack, and not really paying attention as she left work. It was so unlike her to have her head in the clouds, as her grandmother would have called it. Which was all the more reason to refocus on her work, and not on the detective.

“I wanted to say hello,” Helen Reynolds said, “and thank you again for bringing attention to my daughter’s case.”

Attention that had gone sideways pretty quickly. All those listeners, descending on Fordham, thinking they were going to crowdsource the answer to what happened to Elaine last season. The accident at the pharmacy, the bad publicity and then the police department issuing her a warning all happened in the space of a couple days. One week later, Elaine’s body had been found by a creek, with a single bullet wound to the temple, and the whole thing was ruled a suicide. Such a tragic end to a troubled woman who was only in her early thirties.

Kate covered Helen’s hand with her own. Grief clouded the older woman’s eyes, and sadness weighed down her shoulders. Losing a child, at any age, had to be the most devastating thing in the world. “I only wish we didn’t have to do it all.”

“Well, there are a lot of people who will remember Elaine now because of what you did and how nicely you spoke about her on your show.” Helen brightened by a degree. “And I have answers. They’re not the answers I wanted, but they are something.”

There’d been no note left behind by Elaine, no way to tie up the loose ends and answer the rest of Helen’s haunting questions. Elaine had been suicidal in the past and battled depression and a drug addiction. She’d get her life together, then something would happen—a breakup, a job loss, a sudden move—and she’d fall off the wagon again. Twice, she had tried overdosing on pills, and twice her mother had saved her. This last time, maybe Elaine had driven off to a remote spot where she wouldn’t be found or stopped. Maybe that explained the gun instead of pills too. Either way, it was a terrible loss.

When she first started covering the Reynolds case, Kate had been so sure Elaine had been murdered, and so committed to finding justice. So many clues had pointed to foul play, but the autopsy held the only answer—a gunshot wound to her temple.

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