Retracing the Investigation by Tyler Anne Snell

Author:Tyler Anne Snell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-03-25T18:40:41+00:00

* * *

THE CAR RIDE out of the Woodland Complex was, the best Cassandra could describe it, strained.

Jones had slid into the driver’s seat with a quietness that had been loud in its own way. He’d sat straighter, yet seemed to be dragging downward.

Exhausted wasn’t the right word.

Cassandra wondered if the same could be said about her.

After her mission was a success, Jasmine had continued to talk about the past until Jones had ended his conversation with Lila.

It hadn’t been about Kelby Creek.

It had been about Jones Murphy.

And his late wife, Helen.

Cassandra had never asked about Bonnie’s mother, about his romantic life in general. There had never been the place or the right time. He hadn’t asked her, either. It wasn’t like they’d been living distraction-free, after all. The last two days’ problems could have filled two years’ worth of stress, as far as Cassandra was concerned.

Still, she’d known logically that the sheriff might have been a widower, just as he might have been divorced.

Cassandra had never once thought that his wife had been killed.

Caught in the cross fire at the ambush during Annie McHale’s ransom exchange.

Cassandra could have cried on the spot for how awful her heart hurt for the man. No wonder he’d left Kelby Creek to start a new life with Bonnie.

How had he had the strength to come back?

And not only come back, but also reinvestigate the case that had led to his wife’s death?

“Sometimes singing praise for finding justice is just noise to hide the fact that you’re really looking for revenge,” Jasmine had said before Cassandra had said goodbye. “Don’t get caught in the cross fire, too.”

Cassandra hadn’t liked the phrasing, and she also didn’t like how the warning had made her feel. She tried to push away those thoughts as she and Jones shared what they had learned.

“Jasmine and Annie had become friends after Vera took Jasmine to work with her a few times while Annie was visiting,” she explained after recapping the two lies told in the original investigation. “They spent the night at the Deacon house, but the next morning they were woken up by Vera instead of her watching Annie walk to her house. She wanted to make sure they didn’t miss their study slot at the library.”

Jones, who in silhouette still seemed impossibly big behind the car’s wheel, cocked his head to the side in question.

“Their study slot?”

“It’s for one of the two rooms in the back of Redman Library, you know, the public one near downtown. You can reserve them for studying or meetings or just to read without any interruptions.”

“And Annie and Jasmine signed up to study that morning?”

His eyes stayed ahead on the road so Cassandra made sure to say no instead of just shaking her head.

“No. Jasmine said that Annie had been going once a week to the library to read this one book series she’d become obsessed with, but knew her parents would flip out if they found out she’d checked them out. That

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