All That Remains Behind by Jack Dane

Author:Jack Dane [Dane, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Back Alley Press
Published: 2024-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter fifteen

“Thanks for meeting me,” Cassandra said to him as they sat down in the restaurant.

“Of course. I was actually going to text you, but I didn’t want to wake you if you were already asleep,” Kincaid replied.

Cassandra snorted. “You remember what I do for a living? I read, listen, and speak about the worst of humanity on the daily. I don’t sleep.”

“Me neither,” Kincaid admitted.

They’d managed to find a twenty-four hour restaurant called Melba’s Po-boys in the French Quarter.

Now they sat with their enormous po-boys and fries on their egg carton-like plates, among the many late-night customers there for the New Orleans staple.

“So–what’s up?” he asked as he went for his drink.

Cassandra looked down for a moment. “It’s about Morgan. She’s… she’s not doing well. Mentally, I mean.”

Kincaid nodded. “That’s completely understandable. What she went through… that was an intensely traumatic experience. I wouldn’t expect anyone to be normal after that.”

“She’s been seeing therapists, taking medication… but part of me feels like it’s my fault,” Cassandra said quietly.

Tears began to form at the edges of her eyes, giving them a glassy look. Kincaid shook his head.

“You can’t blame yourself, not for any of that. The fault lies with Atlas Lejeune, and him alone.”

“But it was my idea for us to go down and stay at her parents’ house to cover the case. I was the one who said it’d be ‘fun.’”

Cassandra blinked back tears for a moment before pulling her drink closer and sucking hard on the straw. After a long sip, she sat back and blinked several more times.

“I just… I don’t know. I feel so guilty. Just needed someone who was there to talk about it with, I guess.”

Kincaid gave her a knowing nod. He found her eyes. “I know how you’re feeling. I also know everyone says that to a person in your situation, but trust me… I really do.”

He took a shuddering breath as memories flooded him then. Was he really ready to share them?

Cassandra’s teary eyes locked with his, and he decided he could.

“My wife… my daughter… I blamed myself. From the moment they were gone, I blamed myself.”

He looked out the window at the dark streets outside, unable to talk about this while looking at her.

“She… I was out, working on the Bone Artist case. Had been for weeks. Long nights. A week before she was killed, she told me she heard something in the backyard.”

It was Kincaid’s turn now to feel a surge of emotion. His throat tightened, and his teeth dug into his lip.

“I dismissed it as just an animal. Maybe if I had looked harder, really searched back there like it was a crime scene… maybe…”

He swallowed hard around the mound in his throat. Cassandra reached out her hand and closed it around his fingers.

Kincaid cleared his throat. “A week later she was killed, at eight months pregnant. Shot twice in the back as she stepped out of the car at the dentist. A man wearing all black, no plates on the car.

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