“Fuck!” I could feel the heat creeping up my face, my cock twitching in an instant. This was so inappropriate. I shook my head and walked into the dressing room. Reaching into my pocket, I put on a pair of gloves and opened Malcolm’s closet. I moved a few expensive suits around and found absolutely nothing odd. I pushed them aside, and that was when I noticed it. I opened Alyssa’s closet to be certain. They were built onto a wall which meant the back of it was a solid wall in most homes, but the shade of paint behind Malcolm’s was a shade lighter than the rest of the room or his wife’s.
I frowned. I can’t believe I missed this before.How could the police miss this?I started to press against it, and lo and behold, it gave way and slid aside. Behind it was what looked like a large walk-in safe. I needed to talk to Alyssa about that before the investigators started doing their jobs and got a handle on it. I slid the drywall back in place, and when I’d had enough of snooping around, I met Meredith Reagan on the front porch.
We took a seat at the garden table.
“Find anything new?” she asked me.
“Not really,” I lied. There was no reason to say anything about it until I spoke to my patient.
“I told the detectives all I knew, which honestly wasn’t much. It’d been hard enough for the family, Gracie especially…” she trailed off. “What my sister did, it shook us all. We… just don’t understand it.”
I nodded. “I understand that. I’m working with your sister every day, and hopefully, I’ll be able to get answers soon. I just wanted to see if there was anything, anything at all you remembered about Alyssa and Malcolm, their relationship?”
She smiled and seemed to slip into a fond memory.
“They’d loved each other since they were kids playing out in the front yard. Those two were inseparable until, well… they werethatcouple, you know, the one that was constantly the envy of the crowd. And when they had Gracie, well, they were a beautiful family, which is why this is all so bizarre.” She shook her head.
“My sister was harmless growing up. I was the one fighting her battles. I was even surprised she went into law at all. The ruthlessness of the profession never suited her, but she was damn good at it all the same. The best we had.”
She looked at me briefly, then out at the garden. “Dr.—”
“Luke,” I interrupted.
She smiled. “I don’t know what more I can tell you. I am still trying to figure all this out myself. My husband will be bringing Gracie here in a few minutes, actually.” She looked at her wristwatch.
“She’s agreed to see me?”
“Yes, despite the fact that I was against it.”
“Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Reagan.”
She nodded, and we watched as a sleek black Mercedes pulled up in front of the house. A teenager stepped out, a backpack slung on her arm, her black hair loose and hanging limply around her lank frame. She, too, looked like her mother, but there were obvious differences, her eye color the most visible.
Meredith stood and walked toward her. After a few words with her aunt, she glanced over her shoulder at me. Meredith made her way to the car to wait for Gracie.
Gracie approached the house tentatively, glancing up at the place like it was one of those horror houses kids were terrified to enter.
I stood and met her at the porch stairs. She took them two at a time, and when she reached me, she hooked a hand in her bag straps and picked up the other to wave at me.
“Hey,” she greeted. A typical teenager,I know because my niece was about her age.
“Hi, Gracie, I’m Luke, your mother’s doctor. Thanks for seeing me.”
She nodded, and we walked toward the garden table. I offered her a seat which she took, slinging her bag off and letting it fall with a thump on the ground.
“I don’t know what more I can tell you. That night is something I’ve been trying hard to forget.” She bit on her nails.
“Maybe you can tell me how you’ve been holding up?”
She looked a bit surprised. “I’ve been okay. If I’m honest, I miss them. Mere and Kent are cool, but they’re not my parents. Not by a long shot.”
“I get that.” I placed my elbows on the table. “My parents died when my brother and I were very young, and we lived with my aunt too. She was great, but she wasn’t my mom, you know?”
Gracie nodded her head and looked at the car.
“How is she?” she whispered.
“I wish I could tell you she’s better, I do, but your mom, it’s hard to assess how she is because she doesn’t let me in.” She stared at me attentively, hanging on my every word. And from just that, I could tell she loved her mother.
