“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Jo plopped into a kitchen chair. “This seems so hopeless right now.”
He sat in the seat across from her. “I’ve had experience investigating complex cases, and this feels complex to me. I get the sense it involves something much bigger than we can imagine. Trust me, I’ve honed that instinct.”
“But you can’t know.”
“That’s why we leave no stone unturned. Investigations take time,” he said. “Days. Weeks. Months and years.”
That elicited a smile. “Okay. I’m feeling so much better now.”
A laugh erupted from him, then he grew somber.
“What about Naomi?” she asked. “Are you reporting any of this in your investigation about my mother back to her? She wanted to clear Mason’s name, remember?”
He released a heavy sigh. “I received an email from her today. I have a feeling a family member sent it. It simply said she released me from the investigation. She’d wanted to clear his name, but the stress of it is too much while she focuses on healing. Again, I can’t see Naomi giving up, especially after being attacked so brutally.”
She didn’t know how she was supposed to feel about or react to that. “Did you respond?”
“I reassured her that I would clear his name and told her to focus on recovering.”
“You’re a good man, you know that?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I just try to do the right thing, though sometimes it’s hard to know what that is.”
“Like saying you would clear his name when you can’t be sure he didn’t kill my mother?”
“I’m reasonably sure that Naomi was correct. This was a setup.”
Jo frowned. That meant her mom had committed a crime. “Naomi said Mom warned him to disappear.”
“She did say that.” Cole stared at the floor as if in thought.
Or maybe this felt as awkward to him as it did to her.
“Well, I guess the museum it is,” she said. “We just keep chipping away until we find the truth. I hope we can find images of everyone in that picture with Mom and Pop. She must have tucked it into my photo album for a reason. Instead ... instead of inherphoto album.” Jo shrugged. “Maybe she wanted me to find the truth if something happened to her. That photo could be why someone broke into my house.”
“You could be right, Jo. The photo is incriminating in that we know of three people in the photograph who are dead—if we confirm that woman is the reconstructed skull,” he said.
“Besides your father, the other man—if he’s still alive—could also be in danger. And for whatever reason that danger has transferred to you.” He stood and paced the kitchen. “Which means following the clues provided by that photo, visiting the museum, could be the most dangerous thing we’ve done yet.”
“We’re going, Cole. End of story. It’s better than sitting around here and being bored, waiting for answers to come to us.” She stood and then closed the distance without realizingit. “I mean, unless you just want to sit around here and be bored with me.”
Oh man,am I flirting? Because itdefinitely sounded like flirting. Wrong time. Wrong place.
His crooked grin sent warmth straight through her. They were an odd couple, except they weren’t a couple at all. But she wanted them to be. The more she thought about his explanation of why he hadn’t come back, and the regret and sincerity in his voice, the more inclined she was to accept it and forgive him. To move on and forward.
With him.
He stepped closer and twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. “I could never be bored with you, Jo.” The words sounded strained. “Don’t you know that?”
No. No,I don’t.“A couple of days ago, you didn’t finish what you were going to say. What were you going to tell me? I should have stayed and let you finish.”
And just when she thought he might tell her, he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, then backed away. “Get some sleep. We have an early morning meeting with Sanders and what looks to be a long day.”
“And I’m still recovering from jet lag.” But she left him with a smile on her face because she felt like, finally, they were getting somewhere.
Visiting a museum that might actually tell her what happened ...before...
