Cooper sensed this could become an everyday event. “I can stop in tomorrow,” he said.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
He couldn’t tell for certain if she was really scared, or if she was just trying to get him to be with her. “I’ll make sure one of the patrols keeps a watch on your house tonight.”
“You’re really not coming?” She sounded like she was about to cry.
“What about one of your girlfriends?”
“Oh, never mind. But I do have something to tell you, so be here tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
She certainly has a way of ordering you around, Cooper thought.
Almost immediately, his phone rang again. He looked at the screen suspiciously, but this time it was Jamie.
“It’s Alain Metcalf,” she told him. “You were right. Emma’s lover was Dr. Alain Metcalf. She basically admitted it. . . .”
* * *
Saturday morning dawned gray and gloomy. It was after eight when Jamie staggered out of her sleeping alcove. She hadn’t done anything the night before to speak of, but Emma’s revelations had left an indelible mark on her brain, and her dreams had been bits of vivid moments that all seemed to be of a violent nature.
She took a long, hot shower, washed her hair, and then dressed in jogging gear. It had been so long since she’d been on an exercise regimen that her clothes were loose on her frame. She hadn’t realized she’d lost weight. It was a product of worry.
She ran down the block and around the neighborhood. She thought about going up Stillwell Hill, but decided she needed to work up to that. She circled back on a route that took her past Deno’s Pizzeria. Tonight, maybe she’d order in pizza for Harley, Emma, and Camryn because she would be babysitting at the Ryerson house.
One night, she told herself.
Her mind fretted about Elgin DeGuerre, David Musgrave, and her mother’s supposed nest egg for Emma. Nothing to do there but wait. Teddy had emailed her and alluded to the fact that if DeGuerre and Musgrave didn’t come up with the money—the supposed money, as Teddy was more convinced than Jamie that there was more—government regulators, the justice system, the SEC, and God knew who else would be called in.
The day passed excruciatingly slowly. Emma went to work around noon, putting in a half day, and Harley and Marissa seemed content to hang around in their pajamas and play on their phones. Harley raised the expectation of getting her permit, but the DMV was closed on Saturdays.
She spoke to Cooper twice. It felt anticlimactic somehow that Emma’s boyfriend and attacker had been literally unmasked and yet no justice could be served upon a dead man. Cooper and the River Glen Police Department were actively trying to determine who’d gone after Marissa and Bette, and whether Gwen had chosen to commit suicide by poisoning herself with tetrahydrozoline, but Emma’s story appeared disconnected from present-day issues.
Camryn showed up at six p.m. with a pizza in hand. “I stopped at Deno’s,” she said.
“That’s what I was going to do!” Jamie exclaimed. “Great minds think alike.”
“I wish you were joining us, but I guess that’s why I’m here.”
Theo dropped Emma off and came in for a few minutes to let Bartholomew and Duchess chase each other around. The two dogs had been careful of each other at first, but they seemed to be building a fast friendship after being introduced to each other a number of times.
“I can’t stay,” Theo said. “I’ve got to go buy Halloween candy. I have no decorations up and it’s next week.”
“Don’t I know it,” said Camryn. “I’ve been gone practically every weekend.”
Marissa had left around noon, and Harley had been on her phone ever since, texting her friends. “Put that thing away,” Emma said. “Bad things are on cell phones.”
“Not always,” Harley said, but she did stuff her phone in her pocket.
When Theo headed out, Jamie went to her car. She drove to the Ryersons’, thinking how much the weather was the same as that last evening she’d babysat for them. Now that she knew who’d attacked her sister, she wondered how different things might have been if she hadn’t convinced Emma to trade places with her. Maybe her toxic romance with Metcalf would have ended up the same way. Or, maybe things would have been vastly different.
She thought about Metcalf attacking her in a ski mask and wondered if he’d gotten the idea from the Vancouver home invasion, which had taken place earlier that year, or maybe he was influenced by Halloween, or maybe he just had the gear in his vehicle.
Teddy opened the front door in a skeleton costume and a Day of the Dead mask. Jamie was immediately taken aback, and he swiftly removed the mask. “Sorry. I was chasing the kids around.” Then, “It’s a costume party.”
“No problem.”
Her heart rate had momentarily hit the stratosphere. Behind him, Serena was sharing candy with the twins. Disturbingly, she was dressed in ski gear, although it was a woman’s outfit, which molded against her long legs, and the jacket was pink. Her ski mask was on her head, not over her face, and topped by a pair of goggles. The twins said hi to Jamie by Anika shyly raising her hand while Oliver left the candy to come over and meet her with a hearty handshake.
Serena said, “I hate costume parties. I never have anything to wear, and I don’t want to put on those smelly costumes from the rental stores.”
“Parties are fun,” Oliver objected, frowning at his aunt.
“Oh, come on.” Teddy smiled at his sister. “You always have a good time.”
“You always have a good time,” she contradicted him. “I have an okay time.”
The kids both went back to their candy until Serena shooed them away from her gift, saying they wouldn’t sleep well if they kept loading up on sugar. They then raced each other to their bedroom to play.
“The women at this party keep changing,” Teddy revealed, his gaze following after his children.
