“I need to be alone.” As much as he wanted to hold her tight and never let go, the stronger urge was to flee. “I’ll text later.”
“You okay?” Her gaze searched his face. “You’re not okay. I’m going with you.”
“Eve,” he began. “I—”
“Anson. Whatever this is, I’m here for you. If you don’t want to talk, that’s cool. If it will help to tell me what’s troubling you, I’ll listen.” Her hand curved around his, and she gave it a squeeze. “What I won’t let you do is face whatever this is alone.”
* * *
“I’m almost at the end of my list.” June tightened her hold on Cameron’s arm as they left the park and headed toward the side street to his car. “Once I cross off these last few names, I have nowhere else to go.”
“At least you’ll know you gave it your all.” Cameron knew it was a meaningless platitude, but he wasn’t sure what else to say.
June had done everything in her power and more to find who’d hit and killed her sister.
“I followed every lead.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “I turned over every stone.”
“The problem is, there weren’t that many stones for you to turn over.”
June nodded her agreement.
They reached the car, but instead of getting inside, June rested her back against the passenger door. “I keep hoping that someone saw something, anything. Everything I’ve read about solving crimes says that often all it takes is finding one clue or someone recalling one little thing to crack an investigation wide open.”
Cameron saw no need to mention that she didn’t have that clue or that someone. From the dejected look on her face, she already knew that. “Where do you go from here?”
“I’m going to contact the last three names on my list this week. Then, if I still have nothing, I’m going to have to speak with my mother. I’m going to tell her I was unable to find any answers, and it’s time to give up hope of finding the person who ran down Aubrey.”
Cameron moved to her side, resting his back against the car’s shiny surface as she watched two sisters playing in a yard. At least Cameron assumed they were sisters. Both had red hair, and the older one, who looked to be about seven, was a head taller than the other girl.
They were running through a sprinkler in their swimsuits and shrieking.
His family had used sprinklers, Cameron recalled, eons ago when they’d lived in Silver Creek. His lips curved, remembering how he and JR would lift the oscillating sprinkler to focus the spray directly on Nyla’s face.
Nyla had always been fierce. Her shrieks of outrage and threats to do them great bodily harm had usually drawn their mother—and occasionally their father—outside.
The mistake he and JR had always made was in sticking around. If they hadn’t been there when Mom or Dad arrived, Nyla wouldn’t have told, and they’d have gotten away with it.
A thought struck Cameron, and he turned to June. “Did the PI or your contact with the police give you the names of any bystanders?”
“Bystanders?” June pulled her brows together. “It was miserable out that night. There are no sidewalks in the area, and according to police, that roadway didn’t get much traffic.”
“There are always people who like to gawk,” Cameron told her. “I read somewhere that perpetrators of a crime often go back to view the scene.”
“I’ve heard of that in relation to other crimes.” June’s eyes now held a speculative gleam. “I’d never thought to ask Gary if there were any gawkers around that night.”
“It’s another avenue.”
She turned and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“What did I do?”
“You allow me to hope, for just a little while longer, that I might be able to find an answer after all.”
* * *
“If you don’t want to give me their names, could you at least contact them and, you know, take a second look?” June ignored Gary’s exhalation of breath.
She knew he wished she’d let this go, but she couldn’t. Not until she’d turned over every last stone.