But still . . .
“We’re going to spread Mom’s ashes today, and I doubt our father can make it,” said Jamie.
“All you can do is ask,” Emma said in an eerily on-point mimicry of their mother’s words and tone.
“You’re right about that.”
Ten minutes later, Jamie watched her sister mount the rear steps to Theo’s Thrift Shop’s back door and disappear inside. She drove home slowly, reviewing their conversation. Talking to Emma was like starting ten different conversations and never finishing even one. Was her comment about her guy classmates even true? The boys’ statements had been vetted by the police, and Cooper had even gone on to become part of law enforcement himself.
You really, really don’t want him to have any part of it.
“Let it be Race, or Dug, or any of the others,” she said aloud.
If it was even true.
Which was unlikely.
Most people had initially believed it was the Babysitter Stalker who’d attacked Emma that night. Jamie had wanted to be in that camp. But further information on those other attacks had poked holes in that theory, and it didn’t appear to be so. Jamie had wanted that version to be the truth so she wouldn’t have to look at anyone close to Emma: her friends, her boyfriends, anyone.
How did she know how you felt about Cooper?
Was it more obvious than you believed?
The thought made Jamie cringe inside even now, decades . . . a lifetime . . . later.
She spent the rest of the day on her laptop, researching her next moves. She could get an Oregon Reciprocal Teaching License, which was good for a year, while finalizing other requirements. The school year had already started, so it was unlikely she would get a full-time job somewhere, but currently, substitute teaching was all she could probably handle anyway.
She drove back to the school at three to pick up Harley, who was standing outside the front doors with a group of girls, huddled under the front overhang, though the rain and hail had been replaced by fretted clouds. This was promising, Jamie thought. Harley made friends fairly easily when she wanted to. It was the wanting to that was hard to define.
She got out of the car and started heading Harley’s way. Maybe the fact that school had only been going a few weeks was working in her daughter’s favor. Relationships hadn’t gotten cemented in concrete yet.
It didn’t bode well, however, when she realized Harley was a few steps away from the group of about six girls, with others coming outside and joining in, their voices growing louder as more kids exited the school. Jamie felt oddly exposed as she walked across the parking lot and toward the steps, wondering if she’d be heard over all the excited voices if she yelled to get Harley’s attention.
“Hey! There you are!” a voice cried above the rest. “Jamie!”
It was coming from behind her. Reluctantly, she turned around, recognizing Icky Vicky’s voice. In her navy suit and shoes, she was hurrying toward Jamie. Her blond hair had fallen out, or been taken out, of its chignon and fell around her shoulders. Jamie remembered her at the Stillwell party, riding a guy’s leg while his hands groped her familiarly with a lot of moaning and hard breathing. Jamie had enjoyed sex with Paul . . . for a while . . . but it had never been so eager and overt. She’d always been a little embarrassed and would have died a thousand deaths to have people walking by when she was with someone. Yet Vicky hadn’t seemed to mind, and clearly didn’t think much of it anymore.
“I want to meet your daughter. Tyler would be heading right to football practice, but we have a dental appointment. Is she out here yet?” Vicky looked toward the front steps.
Harley was actually engaged in talking to another girl and was smiling. Jamie marveled a bit. How long had it been since she’d actually enjoyed something?
“She’s the tall one with brown hair talking to the dark-haired girl in the blue sweater,” Jamie said, the weight on her heart lifting a bit. She hadn’t even known it was there until now. If Harley could make this work, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad in River Glen.
“Oh, with Marissa Haynes, well, Dalworth. Marissa’s a really nice girl. I keep hoping Tyler picks someone like her instead of Dara Volker.” She barked out a short laugh. “Dara’s a slut, unfortunately, and Tyler thinks she’s a hottie, which she is. I should know, right?”
This was an unexpected nod to her high school reputation and there was no right way to answer it. Besides, she’d said something that had definitely caught Jamie’s attention.
“Marissa Haynes?” Jamie asked carefully.
“Oh, I know. She’s Cooper Haynes’s stepdaughter. Her real last name is Dalworth, but she took Cooper’s. You remember him from high school?”
Chapter Five
Jamie didn’t have a chance to answer as Vicky went on. “He and your sister were an item once, like in junior high . . . maybe high school. I’m not sure Cooper ever got over Emma. All the guys liked her, but after what happened, you know . . .” She shrugged lightly. “Anyway, Marissa is great, and so’s her mom, Laura.”
Jamie was just digesting that Cooper was married when Vicky added, “I don’t know if he was the cause of the divorce, but Laura’s been seeing someone else for a while. David Musgrave. He and Laura are looking to buy on the west side of River Glen, but Marissa stays with Cooper a lot, too, because he lives in the old Haynes house.”
East side of town. Like Jamie’s mother’s house.
“You know a lot about them,” observed Jamie lightly.
Vicky pretended to look rueful. “I shouldn’t have said all that. It’s just . . . you and I are such old friends!”
That was probably stretching it a bit, as Vicky
