“If you really want to help, find a letter of confession.That seems like the fastest way to wrap this whole thing up.”
“Okey-dokey.”She sighed as she reluctantly stepped inside.“One confession letter coming right up.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if it was that easy?”
She looked at the alarm clock on the side table.“Our hour’s nearly up.We’ll have to go if we don’t find anything in the next few minutes.”
“Gotcha,” I told her.Since we didn’t have cell service, there was no way to let Pippa know if we were going to be late.“We’ll leave in five minutes, vision or no vision.”
“Unless we’re in cruise jail,” Gilly said.“You know, forentering.”
I sniffed lotions, perfume bottles, cologne, hair spray, shampoo, conditioner...You name it.If it had a scent, I inhaled it.I wasn’t getting anything.
“It’s almost like she had no sentimental or emotional attachment to anything she owned.”I scratched the base of my bun.“How’s that even possible?”
“I have no idea,” Gilly said.“I have an emotional attachment to my retired diaphragm.”
“Well, yeah.”I shot her a playful wink.“Bouncing Betty was always faithful, unlike all your exes.”
“Iwillcut you,” she threatened, a glint of humor in her eyes.She was searching through a Chanel carry-on bag and having as much luck as me.She glanced at the clock.“It’s time to get going.”
“I know.”My shoulders dropped.My defeat complete.I wished invading Callie’s privacy had borne any fruit.I would’ve taken a grape at this point.
“Hold up.”Her hands were still inside the bag.“There’s something behind the lining.”
“Seriously?”I crossed the suite to her.“Can you get it?”
“Someone removed the lining and then reapplied it using Velcro.”There was the tell-tale rip of one side of Velcro detaching from the other.Gilly slid her hand behind the lining and retrieved a plastic bag.
“What’s in it?”I asked.
“It looks like letters, a small bottle of Vertiliance cologne, and a square of gray fabric.”She unzipped the package and reached inside.“It feels like sweatshirt material, soft on one side and tight-knit on the other.”
“That’s an inexpensive cologne.”I picked up the bottle.“I’ve seen it at Penny’s for under thirty dollars.”I opened the cap and took a good whiff.
“God, I love the way you smell,” a woman coos to her lover.They lay in bed, their arms and legs entwined.“I love the way you hold me.”She slides his gray Indiana University sweatshirt up his body and over his head.“I love the heat of your body against mine, and the way you love me like no one else has ever loved me.”I can’t see their faces, of course, but I recognize Callie’s voice.She trails a finger across his bare chest.This man has the body of someone young and in shape.The dancer Ramone?Doubtful.The man’s hair is light brown.
“I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with you Callie Lee,” he tells her.“There ain’t no one else in this world for me but you.You are my entire world.”
“And you’re my universe, Billy Grant.”
Billy?That was her first husband.
“Promise me,” he says.“Promise me that it’s you and me to the end.”
“I promise,” she replies.“I swear it to God.And after I get my record deal and make it big, I’m going to give you a dozen babies, and you can stay home and raise them while I bring home the bacon.”
“Oh,” he growls.“Now, I like that scenario.There ain’t nothin’ wrong with being a kept man.”
She giggles as he rolls her onto her back and crawls on top.“As long as you get to keep me right back.”
I blinked as the world came back into focus, my gut churning with heartbreak and pain.She’d loved him.More than I could’ve imagined.Billy Grant hadn’t been a steppingstone to bigger and better things for Callie.He’d been her one true love.Her everything.The fact that she had kept his cologne and what looked to be a square of the sweatshirt he’d been wearing in the vision, seemed to confirm it.
“Nora, you’re crying.”Gilly’s voice sounded worried.“Are you okay?”
I shook my head but said, “I’m okay.”
“All these letters are love notes written from Billy to Callie.”She held up one of the unfolded letters.“What does this mean?”
