“Yes,” Livvy said, already standing.
Both Grace and Ethan sighed. “All right,” Grace muttered. “FYI, you’ll want to hear what she has to say about her fingerprints being on that file. It doesn’t really give us a break in the case, just more of an insight. See you in about twenty minutes,” she tacked on before ending the call.
“Insight,” Ethan repeated.
He was all for that. All for Livvy and him having an air clearing, too, but he decided to wait until they were back here for that.
They put on their shoulder holsters, and since Ethan had put the cruiser in the garage, they headed there, making their way through the mudroom, where they grabbed their coats.
When Livvy pulled out of the garage, it was as if they’d been plunged right into winter. Of course, Ethan had already seen the dark skies from the windows, and he had known they wouldn’t have a warm, sunny morning for this visit, but it looked as if they were on the verge of getting some ice or snow. Because the old house didn’t have heat, maybe that would shorten this visit. Ethan wanted Livvy to spend as little time there as possible, only long enough to get whatever answers she hoped to get.
They had barely made it out of the driveway when both of their phones dinged with texts, and the head county CSI’s name flashed on the dash monitor. Since it was a group message to the sheriff and all the deputies, Ethan figured it was one of the many reports and updates that would be coming in. And it was. But this was an update that might give Livvy a jolt.
“They found old blood under the floorboards in the bathroom,” he read aloud. “Significant amounts of it, and samples are being sent for testing.”
So, that was likely the proof that Livvy’s mother had indeed been murdered there, and he glanced at her to see how she was handling that. He was surprised when he saw her nod.
“Good,” she murmured. “This might mean we’re one step closer to learning the whole truth about what happened.”
True. But that didn’t mean the lab would be able to prove the blood was Belinda’s. By now, any components of the blood, including the DNA, would likely be degraded. Still, if they could narrow down the timing of how long it’d been there, that would add to the details they already had.
When Livvy took the final turn onto the road to the house, Ethan spotted Grace’s cruiser. And Grace herself. Sunny and she were standing in front of the house, and their shoulders were hunched, no doubt to shield themselves against the bitter chill.
Livvy parked behind them, and they got out as well. Yeah, it was definitely cold, and the wind was slashing through the bare tree limbs and the cornstalks that looked like something straight out of a horror movie. It only added to that knot that was still in Ethan’s stomach.
“Sunny,” Livvy greeted.
The woman nodded, but there was nothing cheerful about it. She glanced at the house as if both dreading this but also determined to go through with it. Like Livvy, Sunny probably thought she’d find answers here. Ethan hoped that was all they found, and the uneasiness went up a notch.
“Let’s talk inside,” Grace said, leading them up the rickety porch steps and into the front room.
Sunny glanced around before her attention landed on the narrow hall. Even though some of the wall was missing, it wasn’t possible to see into the bathroom, but she no doubt knew it was in that direction.
Livvy was doing her own glancing around as well, and it was probably a toss-up between Sunny and her as to which one was having the harder time by being here. Both had had family die in this miserable place. Or at least it’d been where their bodies had been dumped.
“Before we take a look at the bathroom,” Grace said, getting their attention, “Sunny has some things she wants to tell you.”
The dread on Sunny’s face escalated a whole bunch, but she nodded. “It’s about the file Grace said Franklin gave you.” She paused, clamping her teeth over her bottom lip for a moment. “Zadie showed me the file. That’s why my fingerprints were on it.”
“She showed it to you?” Livvy questioned. “When?”
Sunny dragged in a long breath. “It was about two months ago. Zadie brought it to my quarters one night. She said that Chloe had left her safe open, and Zadie spotted the folder. There was enough of the old cassette tape sticking out to make her curious, so she had a look.” Another pause. “Zadie told me that Chloe had done something very bad. Something that could get her locked away in prison for a long time.”
Yeah, if the contents of that file were true, Chloe could have been looking at the death penalty.
“Did she say what exactly Chloe had done, or did you read the file for yourself?” Ethan asked.
Sunny was quick to shake her head. “No to both of those. In fact, I told Zadie to put the file back and forget that she’d ever seen it. I know that sounds wrong—cowardly, even—but I reminded her that whatever was in there might not even be about Chloe but a patient.”
Ethan didn’t think Sunny was lying about that. No need. And Chloe could indeed have put sensitive patient info in that safe.
“And how did Zadie react to what you told her?” Livvy pressed when Sunny fell silent.
“She agreed with me, eventually, but when she tried to return it, Chloe had already locked the safe. Zadie didn’t have the combination and she didn’t want Chloe to know she’d taken it, so she slipped it in with the rest of the files in the records room. She intended to put it back in the safe when she got the chance. But she never got that chance.” Sunny’s voice broke, and tears pooled in her eyes. “Grace said that Franklin had found it.”
Ethan nodded. Franklin had said that, but they had no idea if it was true, that he’d simply pulled it from the shelf. If he’d been the one to ransack Chloe’s office, he could have gotten it then.
“Any idea if Zadie showed the file to anyone else?” Livvy wanted to know. “Like Anthony, for instance? Or Vernice, thewoman who visited Chloe at New Hope? Or maybe she even showed it to Franklin or someone else on the staff who would have told Franklin about it?”
