As Jamie reached for one of the bags from the cart, he picked up the other one and walked with her to her Camry. Jamie opened the back door and put down her first bag. Teddy handed her the second one, and she placed it on the floor.
“It’s just wrong,” he said as she shut the door. “And after all these years and what happened with Emma? What do you make of it?”
She shrugged. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about both attacks, Emma’s and Marissa’s, with him. But when she finally glanced at him and saw how tortured he looked, she let her guard down a bit. “I don’t know.”
“I think it could be the boys. Those senior boys,” he said.
“But Marissa says it was someone else. The boys are friends. It just doesn’t sound like them.”
Teddy nodded. “But doesn’t it seem unlikely that there would be a repeat, you know? A babysitter at my house? Doesn’t it read that it would be someone who knows what happened to Emma, and maybe thought it would be fun to do the same thing to scare Marissa?”
“Fun?”
“I’m just saying, whoever scared her was in disguise. She might not have recognized them. Maybe they didn’t mean to scare her that bad.”
“With a knife?”
Teddy looked pained. “She’s not sure about the knife. . . .”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard she can’t really recall it . . . what kind it was.”
“Well, why would she? When you’re frightened and you think someone is going to kill you! Harm you. And besides, I think the police have determined it wasn’t the boys.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He sighed heavily.
“I don’t know what to think,” Jamie admitted.
He seemed to appreciate that as he looked at her hopefully. “Come and have a coffee with me,” he urged, pointing to a small café in the same strip mall as the grocery store. “Have you got a minute? I’d sure like to talk to you.”
Her first instinct was to turn him down. She only wanted to talk over the frightening events with close friends. But she’d told Cooper she was in on delving into Emma’s cold case and Teddy Ryerson was part of that cold case. It was his house they had broken into both times. And since she and Teddy had already greeted each other and discussed Marissa’s attack, maybe this was the time to learn something more.
“Half an hour,” he said, pressing.
Jamie smiled and shrugged. “Okay, sure.”
The café was foremost a bakery that sold a few assorted sandwiches. Teddy ordered them each a medium-sized coffee and brought them to a table by the window. He’d been texting while he was waiting and now said, “Serena’s in River Glen. I told her where we were. That okay with you?”
“Of course.”
“So, how’s it been, coming back?” he asked. He sat across from her, his brown hair having been tousled by the breeze. He looked very young and seemed somewhat tense.
“Different, but okay. Good and bad, I guess. Kind of what I expected. What about you? I know you were married and your wife died of . . . leukemia?”
“Yeah, that was hard,” he admitted. “I still miss her. So do the kids, of course. Serena’s been a real help.”
“That’s good.”
“I’ve tried dating some, since. Don’t know if you’ve heard. It’s a small town.”
“I think Vicky Stapleton mentioned that you were seeing a friend of hers.”
Teddy looked surprised. “Who was that?” he asked.
“Bette Kearns.”
She watched the flush crawl up his neck to his face. “Ummm . . . I know Bette. She’s in a tough marriage. Don’t get the wrong idea about me, Jamie. I . . . uh . . . try to leave married women alone. Bette made some investments with me, and I . . . okay, I listened to her problems to make a sale. And I like her. We’re friends.”
“No judgment.”
“It isn’t really like that.”
“What about your parents?” she asked. “I heard they moved to Palm Desert or somewhere.”
“No, they’re back in the Northwest. My dad’s in Bend with his wife, Kayla, and my mom’s in Bellevue with Jay.”
“Much closer. Makes it easier to see them.”
“There she is.” He’d been looking out the window and now he waved to Serena, who saw him and lifted a hand to let him know she’d seen him. She entered the café a few moments later. In a black trench coat and high-heeled boots, Serena had the height of a runway model.
She came directly to their table and sat down beside her brother. They had a similar look: blondish hair, blue eyes, darker eyebrows. “Hi, Jamie,” she said.
“Hi.” Jamie smiled.
Teddy said, “We were just talking about Mom and Dad.”
“What about ’em?” Serena frowned.
“That they moved closer to us,” he said.
She made a face. “Not sure what I think of Kayla.”
“We don’t like her much,” Teddy admitted to Jamie with a rueful smile.
Jamie said, “We don’t like my dad’s wife either.”
Serena looked at her sharply. “Your stepmother?”
Jamie nodded. She’d just brought Debra up as a means of being part of the conversation.
“Emma doesn’t like her?” she asked.
“No.”
“I haven’t seen Emma in a while,” said Teddy. “How is she?”
“Oh . . . okay . . . I don’t know how well you know her now, but she’s fine. Happy, I think. She loves her job, and we just got a dog. . . .” Jamie went on to explain about Duchess, and a little about Emma and the Thrift Shop.
“How’s Harley?” Serena asked, once she’d finished.
“Good. Scared, some, after what happened to Marissa.”
“Man, I wish they’d figure out who broke into my house,” said Teddy.
Serena said, “I thought the back door was open.”
“I don’t think Marissa latched it,” Teddy agreed. “I just meant that I hope they find whoever got in and threatened her with a knife. They didn’t take anything that I can tell. I don’t get it.”
“Maybe they were after her,” Serena suggested.
“Why would they be
