Landon looked at Aly and could tell Jill hadn’t shared this with her based on the expression of surprise.And a little hurt.
“It’s… been a while, actually, since I started.I’ve been looking into Glenda, her family, and recently I expanded it to Glenda’s husband and his background.I still haven’t really found anything, just… a lot of odd little threads I don’t know how to make sense of.Like today.”
“You found something today?Something bad?”Aly said.
“No, it’s not bad.Well, yes, it is, but not anewruin-our-lives bad.It’s a… I don’t really know how to handle this.You guys know Jill—and Glenda—better than I do.I need your input on how to approach what I’ve found.”
“Which is?”Landon asked.
Sam inhaled deeply, let it out slowly.Landon noticed that Nate’s hand moved from the back of her chair to her back.A little physical support.
“Jill didn’t knowhowher grandfather died.Not all that uncommon, actually, for things that happened almost before a person was born.So I didn’t think much of it, just that I wanted to have a full picture.I’m grasping at straws for anything to determine what Glenda’s… hiding.”
Landon didn’t know why they needed to poke intoanyof this, but that was between Jill and Sam, he supposed.
“I got the death certificate today—and that was a whole rigmarole which makes it all feel more… weird, I guess.”Sam’s expression was uncomfortable and pained.“The cause of death was listed as self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The silence that fell around the dining room was heavy.It was a heavy topic, and wading through all the different elements of that little piece of information would certainly take longer than a dinner.
Landon had never thought much about Glenda’s husband.He didn’t remember the man at all, though from what Sam had said about the case, Landon would have been six or so when he died.
So maybe it made sense, at the time, they’d been sheltered from that piece of information, but for all the stories he’d heard about Glenda as some kind of boogeyman figure, he’d never heard anything about her husband.
Tragedy was often at the very least whispered about in town, if not outright discussed in the loudest, most detailed terms.
“How did we not know that?”Landon asked into the silence.
It was a small town and a tight-knit ranching community.How would no one have known that?Used it?Sure, suicide was a sensitive topic, but that didn’t stop people.
He knew that firsthand.When it came to death, some people would talk aboutanything, no matter how uncomfortable or inappropriate.Hell, there had been people who’d wanted him to give them details of his mother’s gruesome murder.
People were weird.Full stop.
“I really don’t know,” Sam replied.“Those types of stories tend to make the rounds.I get we were kids, but still… it seems like we should have heard that.Jill clearly doesn’t know, which means either her father doesn’t—or he’s purposefully keeping the truth from her.”
“But Glenda must know,” Nate said quietly.“If it’s a secret, it’s one someone kept on purpose.”
“I think she knows, and I think… well, even if it’s not the whole secret, it’s a part of the secret.”
“Do you think she was there?”Aly asked softly.
“I think seeing something like that would be pretty damn traumatic.So, it would make sense—whether she was there, or found him, or what have you.If that’s tied up in her speech issues.If she’s worked to keep it a secret somehow.Glenda was the informant on the death certificate, but that can technically be anyone.The issue is, I’m struggling to find any kind of police report, and there would have to be one even if the medical examiner was the one to notify police.I’m taking big leaps here, but it makes me think she was either there or found him and did a lot of legwork to keep the details hidden from as many people as possible.”
“Oh, this is so sad,” Aly said, clasping her hands under her chin, a sign of true distress.Landon put his hand on her leg under the table, hoping to offer some comfort.
Itwassad.It was also… just plain odd.Like all the facts didn’t quite add up, and he couldn’t say he loved that feeling.
“I just don’t understand why Jill would hire you to poke into this,” Aly continued.“Especially without telling anyone.What was she thinking?”
“I think she was probably tired of feeling like there was a truth she ought to know, right there, right out of reach.Touching and affecting everything she has to deal with day in and day out.”
They all looked up at Cal’s voice.He was standing in the doorway between kitchen and dining room.He looked… pale.Haunted.
Not unusual, but Landon thought he’d been looking better.Before this.
And he didn’t think Cal was actually talking about Glenda or Jill.Or he was at least putting himself in their shoes more than he was just… trying to understand their point of view.
“You made it,” Aly said, pushing to her feet.“I’ll get you a plate.”
