Olivia moved closer, pulling up a stool she took a seat beside the chair. Wallace Grady’s gaze fell upon her, and for a moment, she saw a flicker of recognition. There was intelligence in that gaze. His mind still functioned, but it was trapped in a broken body.
“Hello, Mr. Grady,” Olivia greeted him softly. “My name is Olivia.”
Lifting his hand with great effort he grazed her cheek with gentle but clumsy fingers. His skin felt dry and papery but not unpleasant.
“West.” His voice was low and gravelly, his words slurred.
Olivia’s smile widened.
“Look like your mother.” He spoke sluggishly, his mouth fighting to form the right words. “Always knew you’d come back.”
“Chief Grady.” Jake squatted down beside Olivia’s stool so the chief could see him. “We need to ask you about a string of unsolved murders from about twenty years ago. Several young men, and one of them had his bones removed. Do you remember?”
“Files.” He raised a shaky hand and gestured toward a closet across the room.
“Pops has a box of old police files in there,” Charlie explained.
“May we take a look?”
The old man nodded slowly as if the action took great effort. “Trust no one,” he whispered as his eyes drooped.
“That’s the most I’ve heard him speak in months,” his granddaughter told them. “You’re welcome to take a look at his files, but I’m afraid he needs to rest.”
Jake and Olivia rose to their feet, moving the stool aside so Charlie could lift her grandfather’s feet onto a small footstool. They watched in silence as she covered him tenderly with a patchwork blanket and kissed his forehead.
“Rest up, Pops,” she whispered, then turned back to Jake and Olivia. “If you want to go back to the living room, I’ll find the box and bring it to you.”
They made their way back out into the other room and waited patiently. A few minutes later Charlie reappeared carrying a shabby brown box file, that she placed on the table in front of them.
“I don’t think he’s supposed to have these.” She shook her head. “But I remember him telling me before the stroke that there were a couple of unsolved cases he just couldn’t let go of. One of those was the murders of Isabel and Alice West. I remember because he mentioned that one more than once.”
Olivia stiffened as her eyes sought out Charlie’s.
“Same last name, I’m guessing they’re related to you?”
“Yes,” Olivia murmured.
“I’m sorry,” Charlie replied. “That case never sat well with him. He kept going over the file even after he retired. Said he always felt like they’d missed something.”
Jake lifted the lid off the box and started leafing through the stack of files. “Are these all of them?”
Charlie nodded. “I think they’re all unsolved cases. The ones he couldn’t let go.”
Jake stopped when he came across the file labeled homicide with the dates they were looking for written beside it. But when he flipped it open it was empty.
“What the hell?” he cursed. “Do you have any idea what happened to whatever was in this file?”
“No. I’ve never even been in these boxes before.”
“Has he had any other visitors recently, anyone asking about old cases?”
“I don’t think so, just family.” She looked up at Adele walking into the room. “Adele, has anyone else been to see Pops recently?”
“Your mama and your brother last week, and his cousin, Vern, came in from Florida last month.”
“Anyone else?” Jake persisted.
“There was someone else, about a month and a half ago,” she mused.
