“Not in a personal sense.I’m pretty sure Charles Hayes is Jake Hayes’s father.”
“The detective?”Jill had mixed feelings about Detective Hayes.
He’d been both kind and a little off-putting when questioning Grandma around Benjamin Bennet’s trial.He had a way of staring that was both off-putting and also… made her consider that hewaskind of hot… for a much older guy.
Which was a particularly embarrassing thought considering what she was here for.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed, clearly not noticing Jill’s embarrassment.“I’m going to talk to him about it, see what he knows.Daryl Everly was a teacher at the high school, but he retired before I was in high school.I looked him up and he lives in Livingston, so I’ll be checking in on him too.But if your dad has any insights, let me know what he says.I’m just gathering up any information I can.”Sam tapped a pen on her desk.“Do you know how your grandfather died?”
“Howhe died?”Jill echoed.
“Yeah, like heart attack?Cancer?What was the official cause of death?He was only fifty.”
Jill opened her mouth, then closed it.She’d never given much thought to the man who’d died before she was born.She knew Grandma loved him, from the pictures she kept, from the way she softened on the rare times he came up.She’d considered something about his death had triggered Grandma, but she’d never really poked that wound.Mostly because Dad didn’t speak about him much either.She’d always known there was a sense of guilt around his death, but Dad rarely spoke about his life growing up in Montana—very little about his parents or his friends or the ranch.He’d been the kind of guy who’d wanted out and focused on that, so it had just seemed… natural he hadn’t had stories about growing up like other parents had.
Fifty.She hadn’t realized her grandfather had been so young when he died.She hadn’t realized… so many things.Still, she tried to focus on what shedidknow.
“I know he was in the hospital, and Dad couldn’t get here in time.So whatever it was wasn’t immediate.There was snow in Boston and probably snow here, so it was something like two days after he died before Dad made it home.But I guess… no, I don’t know what caused him to be in the hospital.How he died.No one ever told me.I never asked.”
Sam nodded as if that wasnormal, but it wasn’t, was it?To not know how her grandfather died.Still, if it was something traumatic, surely Dad would have mentioned it as a factor in Grandma’s muteness.He wouldn’t just bebaffled.
“Could you ask your dad that too?”
Jill nodded.“I… I guess I could.”She hated poking at her dad for these things he didn’t give up willingly.
It felt… cruel, somehow, to ask for information he didn’t want to share.And he didn’t, if he’d never shared it before.
“We could also request a death certificate.That would have a cause of death on it.It’s kind of a pain in the ass process, and it’ll take a while, but it’s an option if you weren’t wanting to get your father involved.”
“Oh, well, I’ll… I’ll talk to Dad and go from there.”
“Sure, no problem.Just let me know anything your dad says.I’m going to look into these friends, and I’ve got a genealogist looking into your grandfather’s family.It’s all a bunch of long shots because there’s…”
“Because the most likely possibility is that there’s no one special reason.That it’s a combination of things I’ll never know, and we won’t have any answers.”Jill hadn’t meant to let all thatbleaknessleak out, but she couldn’t help but feel it.
“Well, when you put it that way… yeah.”Sam blew out a breath, looking genuinely concerned.“I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be.”Jill tried to smile.No doubt failed.“I knew it was a possibility to not have a real concrete answer.It just… you know when it feels like you’re missing something right in front of your face?”
Sam nodded.“Yeah.Welcome to half of why Honor’s Edge Investigations was founded.Look, as long as you want me to, I’ll keep searching.If it’s nothing, it’s nothing.But there’s bound to besomethingsalong the way.”
Jill wondered if she should just give up.Accept Grandma the way she was.Accept that some secrets were best left hidden.
But then a man appeared from the back door.
Cal Bennet.He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, both looked old and threadbare.She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him dressed so informally.Like a man born and raised in Marietta, Montana.
Jill wanted to believe Grandma’s… strange relationship with Cal was just because Grandma had helped his mother when his father had been abusive.That she’d babysat and looked after Cal.That she’d helped the fourth Bennet brother escape their terrorized childhood.
But all that had been brought to light.
And there was stillsomethinghiding.
The truth had done so much good—for the Bennets.Why couldn’t she keep looking for some truth and good for Grandma?
“Hi, Cal,” she offered.
“Hey,” he replied, and Sam looked over her shoulder at him.
