For the rest of the drive to the safe house, he kept one hand on the wheel and the other holding hers.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Janie tossed and turned until the wee hours of the morning. The unsettling feeling she’d had after leaving the M.E.’s office had grown stronger as the night went on.
Giving up on the idea that sleep would be coming anytime soon, she threw the covers to the side and rolled out of bed. Maybe a shower would help to settle her nerves. If nothing else, perhaps the hot water would make her tired. At least then, she’d be able to rest.
A glance at the clock on the bedside table showed it was a little after two. Hoping the running water wouldn’t wake Emmett, whose room was across from hers, she quickly stripped and hopped in the shower. Twenty minutes and nearly a full tank of hot, steaming water later, and she felt more awake than before.
Janie’s stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t had much for dinner the night before. Emmett had gone through a drive-thru on their way back to the safe house, but she’d been too wired to take more than a fewsmall bites. Her appetite had apparently decided now would be a good time to return.
At two-thirty in the morning.
Of course.
Knowing she definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep until she’d eaten a little something, Janie threw on her baby blue, pinstriped sleep shorts and matching blue tank. Her bare feet moved silently across the plush carpet as she made her way to the door.
There was the slightest creaking sound as she pulled it open. She checked to make sure Emmett’s door was still closed before peaking down the hallway to her right. Dark shadows marked the walls and flooring, but there was no movement that she could see.
With caution, she tip-toed out of her bedroom and made her way down the curved staircase. It wasn’t until Janie got to the kitchen that she bothered turning on the lights.
One thing about this place, it had lots of natural light sources built in throughout. Between skylights and massively large windows, the moonlight alone was almost enough to see by.
She went to the refrigerator and pulled open both of the stainless-steel doors, pursuing the selections of fresh vegetables and fruits. There were also deli-shaved ham and turkey, as well as some Greek yogurt and a dozen eggs.
It was too late to do any actual cooking, and though a parfait sounded delicious, even that felt like too much work. Closing the doors, she leaned down and pulled open the bottom freezer.
Bingo.
A brand-new container of chocolate ice cream was waiting to be consumed.
“Don’t mind if I do,” she whispered softly.
There were two separate containers, so she grabbed one to call her own. A search through the room’s many drawers for a spoon finally yielded results at her fifth attempt. Janie slid the spoon’s edge into the creamy dessert and carried it into the cozy living room space a few feet away.
She sat down on the couch and pulled her lower legs up onto the center cushion. She leaned forward, grabbing the remote from the coffee table, ensuring the volume was low after turning on the TV.
While she sat there, stuffing her face and flipping through channels, thoughts of what they’d learned about Amy’s death weren’t far away. In fact, they were the very cause of her insomnia.
She couldn’t get the images Scarlett found out of her head, no matter how hard she tried. And she’d tried. All night, as a matter of fact.
Janie also couldn’t stop imagining the horrors Amy went through before being tied to something heavy and tossed into the water. No one should die like that. No one deserved to be ruthlessly murdered and then forced into a watery grave.
“What did they do to you, Amy?” she whispered out into the otherwise empty room.
When she and Emmett had returned to the safe house earlier, she’d gone over every photo and document in the file. Three times. And she wondered if the M.E. would reveal the truth to the press or conceal it.
You already know the answer to that one, Janie.
If he were planning to tell the truth, it would already be on the news. The autopsy was complete, and from the signed document they’d found, which looked pretty damn official, he’d already ruled on the cause of death.
Cause of death: Asphyxia due to drowning. Manner: Suicide.
And once Nguyen revealed the official cause and manner of death to the cops, the case would be closed, and Amy’s killer would be able to walk away Scot-free.
I can’t let that happen.
There were too many unanswered questions. They still needed to know who killed the young intern, whether it was the same man who’d broken into her hotel room, and why all of this was happening. Until that time came, Janie’s own life was still in danger.
