“Of course, anything.”
“Tell me more about you. I need to know why you’re here. Why did you come to the city?”
Even though she thought it odd he was asking now, she knew the time had come to tell him.
“I came here to find the person who murdered my sister.”
35
He knew he was staring.
“You came here to find who murdered your sister?”
“Yes. I told you that my grandma and granddad raised me?”
“Yes, but you didn’t mention a sister.”
“Technically, she was my half-sister. Apparently, my mom isn’t big on raising her own kids. Having kids, yes. Taking care of them, no. She kept me until I was four before dropping me off with my grandparents. My sister, she only kept until she was three. I was thirteen when she came to live with us. I’ve always watched out for her. My grandparents did their best but they didn’t have the energy by the time she came along. They were living off their pension. My granddad took a job driving a taxi when she came to live with them to help. Unfortunately, Nowhere is pretty small and most of the people that live there are older.”
That explained why all her friends looked to be in their eighties.
“Deedee hated living in Nowhere. I don’t blame her. There were no young people around. We had to take a bus for an hour just to get to school. I did my best to take her places, the park, to sports things, but she just seemed to grow up resenting all of us. My granddad died several years ago. My grandma got sick with breast cancer a few years ago. I was working a lot to pay her mounting medical bills as well as taking her to appointments. I neglected Deedee. She needed me and I wasn’t there.”
“Baby, what happened to her wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it? I was working late at the library. Deedee was supposed to be with Grandma. When I got home, Grandma was passed out on the floor. I called an ambulance. I wondered where Deedee was but I didn’t have time to go find her. When I finally got home from the hospital it was after midnight and she wasn’t in her bed. I started to panic. I called her. I drove the streets looking for her. All my neighbors were elderly so I couldn’t wake them to help. She was gone. It wasn’t until I got home, I found the note from her. She said she’d had enough of living in some tiny town filled with old people. She’d only just turned seventeen.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“I reported her missing, of course. But the cops didn’t have much to go on. And I couldn’t just leave Grandma. I was torn between my runaway sister and my sick grandmother. If I’d had the money, I would have hired someone to find her.”
“So this was before you won the money?”
“Oh yes. After Grandma died, I was in a lot of debt from her medical bills. I’d lost my job. I was going to have to sell the house. I didn’t have anyone who could help. Then I got a knock on the door. It was the police. They told me that DeeDee’s body had been recovered. That she’d been murdered.”
She took in a long breath. “They couldn’t tell me who did it, but they did say that she’d been working as a prostitute and they figured she’d been killed by a customer.” Her breath hitched. “My baby sister. She’d left because she was searching for a better life and then she ended up in hell.”
“Oh, baby doll.” He came and sat beside her, lifting her onto his lap.
“I was in shock. I think I just sat there and nodded like a lunatic. I don’t even remember them leaving. Three days later, there was another knock on my door to tell me I’d won two million dollars. I didn’t even ask questions. It was like a Godsend. I paid off all her medical debts.”
“That’s where the rest of the money went?”
“Oh, I also helped out a few of Grandma’s friends.”
He bet she did. She was always taking care of everyone else and forgetting about looking after herself.
Now she didn’t have to. Because she had him.
“And then I decided I was going to come here. That I was going to find out who killed her. I know it was stupid. I mean, how was I possibly going to find the killer? I’m such an idiot.”
“Stop that,” he growled at her, placing a finger over her lips. “No calling yourself names.”
“But I’m just some country bumpkin from Nowhere, Nebraska. I have no idea what I’m doing. I worked in a library. I grew up surrounded by people who think a late night is if they’re not in bed by eight. My sister ran away from me because my life was so boring. I was stupid to think I could ever do any of this. I just kept moving forward because stopping or looking back would be failing. I failed her once. I couldn’t do it again. I just couldn’t.”
“Hush, baby. Hush.” He gently rocked her. “You didn’t fail her. You had far too much on your plate. And no one to help you.”
“I’ve got to keep myself together. Because there’s no one else to do it all. I don’t have the option of falling apart.”