“Hello?”
“Lucy? It’s Emma Sanderson.” Something within Lucy lay down to sleep as soon as she heard that voice again. Something she’d been holding up for a very long time.
“Hi, Emma.” She was speaking with her sister. Her big sister.
“A Bill something or other is assigned to our case now,” Emma started in.
“Because Ramsey’s going to your wedding. He’s no longer impartial.”
“I know. That’s what they said. This new detective arrested Frank, Lucy. Cal’s very upset. My mother is back to being certain that Frank is responsible for Claire’s disappearance. She’s beside herself, Lucy. Chris is with her, but I need to know if you can find out what’s going on. I didn’t know who else to call. I figured, maybe, since you’re going to be in town tomorrow, there’d be something you could do. Detective Miller would know something, wouldn’t he? Even though he’s no longer on the case?”
“You want me to ask him?”
“You said he was picking you up at the airport in the morning and…I just don’t know what to do, Lucy.”
The words, a mirror to her own, broke through the numbness Lucy had been fighting all day. Tears were streaming down her face and she hadn’t even realized it.
And she knew what she had to do.
“Can you bring your mother and meet us down at police headquarters?”
“In the morning, you mean?”
“No. Tonight. I’m in town, Emma. I flew in this morning.” She hoped to God her sister couldn’t tell she was crying.
“I’d rather come without Mom. I’m telling you, she’s a mess.”
“She needs to be there, Emma. I’ll explain when we see you.”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?”
She had no idea what it was. It just was.
“It’s messy, Emma, but we finally have some answers.”
“You found Claire.”
“Just come to the station.”
“Tell me if she’s alive, Lucy. Please. Don’t do this to me.”
Lucy was in way over her head. But she heard the plea coming from her sister’s heart. She remembered how it felt, before they’d told her about Allie.
Poor baby Allie. Who wasn’t her big sister, after all.
“Lucy?”
She looked at Ramsey. He’d been listening to the conversation and, shrugging, mouthed, “It’s up to you.”
“She’s alive.”
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God!” The first was a cry of relief. The second a scream. “And she’s here? In Comfort Cove? Are you serious? Oh, my God!”
The woman who’d always been so calm, so controlled and willing to settle for almost nothing was suddenly screaming in Lucy’s ear.
“Calm down, Emma,” Lucy said in as much of a professional voice as she could muster, but she wasn’t going to last much longer. She couldn’t hold back the sobs.
Ramsey slid the phone from her shaking fingers. She heard him say, “Emma? Ramsey Miller, here. Your sister is here in town, but she just found out today that she isn’t who she thought she was. She’s got another life, another family that she’s loved as her own for the past twenty-five years…?.”