The Frozen Girl: A heart-racing, unputdownable crime thriller by Roberta Gately

Author:Roberta Gately [Gately, Roberta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800190283
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-05-17T18:30:00+00:00

24

Day 8—Sunday

Jessie slept fitfully, her brain trying to reconcile the new facts of her life. She’d been a motherless child for most of her life, and she’d adjusted, grown a thick skin, learned to navigate life on her own. That hadn’t always worked out. And now, at the age of twenty-seven, she had a mother. Or did she? Already, she was having second thoughts, wondering if she could really trust Angela Novak. She scrunched up her pillow once again and curled into herself, willing sleep to come.

At seven a.m., her alarm screeched her awake. She reached out to turn it off just as her phone rang. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she sat up and grabbed her phone, tapping accept to take the call. “I’ll be downstairs at eight,” she said stonily. “You don’t have to remind me.”

“What?” a woman’s voice said.

“Donna?”

“Yes, who were you expecting?”

“I thought it was Sam. Sorry. What’s up? I can’t work today, if that’s why you’re calling.”

“No, that’s not it. I guess you haven’t seen the news or the headlines today.”

“Oh, no. What now?”

“The Globe and the Herald and every television news report has announced that the body found last week is Sheila.”

Jessie’s jaw went slack. Tim Merrick’s appearance at headquarters would be all over the news. She wondered if he’d heard, and if anything would change today. “Did the police release the news?”

“It was her family. They put out a statement late yesterday. They wanted Sheila to be mourned the way she should be, and they hoped someone would come forward now with information that will help catch the killer.”

Jessie slipped out of bed and headed for the living room, clicking her TV on and searching for the news. “Have the police said anything?”

“Not yet, but there’s a crowd of reporters outside police headquarters. It makes me nervous that we have her emails and papers. I think we have to tell Sam. Thank God they took you off the case, huh?”

Jessie raked her fingers through her curls. “I’m actually back on it. Well, in a limited way, I guess.”

“Oh,” Donna said, but it was more question than statement.

“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing,” she said, deciding not to share that she’d been asked to observe Tim’s questioning today. “But you’re right. I think I’ll have to tell Sam about the emails. I printed a few out on Friday and took some budget papers, too. I was going to look at them this weekend. They were in my bag at Foley’s and I… I lost them.”

She could hear Donna’s sharp intake of breath through the line. “Oh, no,” she finally murmured.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry. This is all on me. Don’t worry.”

“Did you call Foley’s?”

“I did. They don’t have them.”

“Oh, no,” she said again.

“Listen to me. It will be alright. Those papers, those emails won’t mean a thing to anyone else. There aren’t any HIPAA violations, at least. I’m the one who screwed up. I’ll tell Sam. I’ll let him know we just found the box, too.

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