“How did he die?” Addie asked.
Butch grimaced. “I don’t think you really want to know.”
“Well, now I think we have to know,” Dotty said. “What happened to him? How did he die?”
“He was murdered,” Butch said. “Shot three times.”
Monroe gasped and with her hand over her mouth she ran out of the room.
Addie jumped off the floor and ran after her, ignoring the wave of dizziness that hit her. She hadn’t exactly been eating properly since Cash had gone. And it seemed that it was catching up to her quickly.
Dotty followed her into the bathroom, where Monroe was bent over the toilet throwing up, not that she seemed to have anything in her stomach to throw up.
Addie knew how that felt, and it wasn’t nice. Grasping hold of Monroe’s hair, she rubbed her sister’s back. The memory of Cash doing this for her hit her hard.
Was she ever going to stop thinking about him? Stop missing him? Stop wondering about what could have been?
She really hoped so. Because she didn’t want to live this way for the rest of her life. She guessed the idea of him would fade over time, the memory would go.
Monroe finally stopped puking, and Dotty helped her drink some water while Addie closed the lid on the toilet and flushed.
“I’m so sorry, Monroe,” Addie said. “That must have been a real shock. Even though he was a dick who left you the morning after your wedding without a word, ghosted you, and maybe sent men after to kidnap you, it must still be hard to learn that he’s dead, that he was shot.”
“It was just a surprise,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t know what I wanted. I don’t think I wanted him dead, though. Maybe he wanted me dead. Who knows what those guys had intended on doing if they got hold of us in the airport?”
“What do you want to do?” Dotty asked. “You don’t need to go and identify the body if you don’t want to.”
Addie nodded. “The police sound pretty certain that it’s him. You don’t need to put yourself through that.”
Monroe sighed. “But I think I do to know for sure that he’s gone.”
“All right,” Dotty said with a nod. “Then we’ll go with you.”
Addie nodded. “Absolutely. The three cutie-teers ride again.”
“Well, there might really be tears this time,” Monroe said. “But you guys don’t need to come with me.”
“We’re going with you,” Dotty said firmly. “I’ll go and tell Butch to make it happen.” She left the room.
Addie pulled a face at Monroe.
Monroe giggled. “I bet Butch will really like that. He seems to totally enjoy being bossed around.”
“Yep, he’s got ‘I want to be bossed around’ written all over him.”
47
Butch drove them to the morgue with Ethan Stone riding shotgun. Ink was going to meet them there to help Monroe. Addie and Dotty were really just here for emotional backup.
“Did they figure out what his real name is?” Dotty asked.
“Apparently, they ran his fingerprints, but everything came back clean, which is kind of surprising,” Stone said as he looked at something on his phone. “I would have thought that he’d have a record of some sort.”
“So how will they identify who he really is?” Monroe asked.
“Probably through dental records,” Dotty said.
“Could take months,” Butch pointed out. “With no idea who he is.”
