Then she seemed to shut down and Cassie couldn’t read the expression in her eyes.
“That is correct, yes. She died. That is all I have to say to you.”
“No!” The word came out louder than Cassie had intended and she let herself go with it, allowed herself to shout, because this rudeness and disregard for feelings was completely out of line. After the hellish experience she’d been through, she was not going to allow this shop owner to bully her into believing her version. Not without giving her the proof she deserved.
“I will not accept this,” Cassie shouted, and the woman stared at her, startled and defensive.
“You are causing a commotion. Please leave,” she muttered.
She turned, and Cassie saw that she was going to open the door behind her and slip through it. Locked in the safety of her back office, she would probably summon local security or police to get Cassie removed.
Her gaze homed in on the side of the counter, where there was a gap big enough to squeeze through. Cassie darted toward it, and a moment later, she was at the door and grabbed the handle even as the woman reached for it.
“What are you doing?” Mirabella tried to push her away, but she was clumsy with shock. Her voice was shrill.
Breathlessly, Cassie stated her case.
“I’m not looking to use force or cause any trouble. But I want complete and truthful answers. I deserve them. I haven’t come all this way to have you try and leave the room while we’re speaking!”
She could hear the outrage in her own voice. Mirabella’s gaze slid to the side.
“You are a stranger, and I owe you no further information,” she insisted.
Scenarios spun through Cassie’s mind as she considered the woman’s words.
She was hiding something. She was being deliberately obstructive and withholding what she knew, and she was doing this purposely. Cassie had no idea why, and wondered if Jacqui had been involved in serious trouble.
“She’s my sister,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “I don’t think that qualifies as being a stranger. I have traveled the whole way here to try and find her after she called me. I’m her family. I don’t care what happened between you and her. I deserve answers and I’m not letting go of this door until I get them.”
She saw Mirabella glance at her tightly gripping fingers. The woman was smaller and shorter and there was no way she could prize Cassie’s grasp away from the door, because she was holding on with all the determination she possessed. Short of leaving her own shop, she had no way of getting rid of Cassie now.
She gave an impatient sigh.
“This is wasting my time and I have things to do.”
Cassie jutted her chin.
“I have nothing to do and I can stand here all day, until you tell me what happened to my sister, and where she is, and why you said she was dead.”
Even though she was trying to remain calm, she could hear the outrage in her own voice. To tell a dreadful lie like that was completely unacceptable.
Mirabella’s face crumpled, and with a flash of triumph, Cassie knew that the boutique owner was going to capitulate, and that her persistence had won.
“All right. I will tell you, but then I must ask that you leave,” Mirabella snapped.
“I will.” Cassie lowered her hand. She felt breathless with expectation.
“Jacqui Vale worked here for the summer, which is when we are busiest. She stayed on until the end of November, after I sprained my foot and required an operation to fix it.”
Cassie nodded as the boutique owner continued.
“She was a good worker and we became friends. When she left, she asked me for a special favor, which I told her I would honor.”
“What was that?” Cassie asked, but her optimism had dissolved, and in its place she felt a sense of foreboding, because there was something about Mirabella’s tone that was worrying her.
“She asked me not to give out any of her personal information to anyone who came looking. As a favor, she begged me to tell people that she was dead.”
“But—why?” Cassie felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “Do you know what was going on in her life? Did she have an abusive ex, or were people looking for her?” She continued, “I’m different, obviously, being her sister. Of course she’d want you to tell me.”
Mirabella shook her head and with horror, Cassie saw an expression on her face that she could only interpret as pity.
“I have no idea about her circumstances. But when she asked me for the favor, she told me ‘if anyone looks for me.’ Even, and in fact, especially, if that person was her sister, Cassandra Vale. She said no more than that, and did not tell me why.”
For a long while there was only silence in the small shop.
Cassie stood, wordlessly staring at the boutique owner. She felt as if her world had collapsed. Now, looking into the woman’s eyes, she didn’t doubt the truth of what she was saying.
Why? Why had Jacqui said such a thing, and why was she so frightened of being found?
What had happened in her life?
Had it even been Jacqui who had made the calls, looking for her?
Cassie frowned as she battled to make sense of the events leading up to this moment. Of course it was Jacqui, it had to be, there was nobody else who would randomly call her from Europe, and she’d followed a clear trail while tracking her down.
Now, it had resulted in a dead end. Her sister had disappeared, and could be anywhere. She was hiding from Cassie.
“Do you know where she went? Do you have any idea at all?”
The woman shrugged. “She was heading south, I believe. She was going to take the train, but I don’t know where she was planning to go.
