Cooper stayed at work until after five, writing up notes on the attack on Bette Kearns and also what he’d learned from Race Stillwell. Though by necessity a reevaluation of Emma’s case was on the back burner, Cooper hadn’t given up on it entirely. He needed to talk further with Dug. Neither Race nor Dug was giving him the full story there. He also wanted to go over what had happened at the Ryersons’ the weekend before with Marissa. He believed she’d known the senior boys were the ones pranking her, though she’d refused to actually name them, at least so far. Maybe, with the advent of Tyler Stapleton in the mix, she would finally reveal all. Without the burden of trying to protect her friends, she might be able to remember something more about the intruder who’d scared her into the bedroom.
Cooper had checked with the crime scene techs earlier and they had nothing for him yet on what they’d discovered, if anything, at the Kearns home. There was a backlog of work at the lab, but Cooper had put a rush on the case because Bette was in the hospital and possibly still at risk from an unknown, at-large assailant. He called the lab again and was passed around for a while before being told that there were no fingerprints and the blood on the floor was all Bette’s. In other words: nada. At least so far.
He’d called Jamie once during the day, suggesting he pick her up at six-thirty for a seven o’clock dinner in Portland. Rather breathlessly, she’d accepted, and he’d asked her what she was doing.
“Being a mom and a sister” had been her answer.
Now, he was reaching for his coat when his cell rang. He pulled it from his pocket and squinted at the screen. Laura.
He chided himself for his immediate inner groan. He wanted to see Marissa again, and he was going to have to get past Laura to do that. “Hi,” he said into the receiver.
“I’m not moving. We’re not moving. Lawrence Stapleton has canceled the contract with us. He’s selling the house—our house—as a spec!”
“Your Staffordshire house? Don’t you have some legal recourse?” Cooper asked.
His words brought a bubble of hysteria to her voice. “You’d think so,” she said, half-laughing, half-sobbing. “But when you haven’t paid, you don’t get to buy!”
He was only partially understanding her. She was either too upset to notice, or she was happy to keep him in suspense. Either way, he wanted to ease out of the conversation. “Is Marissa there?”
“I’m calling you for help!”
“What can I do?” he asked, biting back his first response, which would have been to point out she had the floor.
When he put it to her that way, she couldn’t seem to go on. Finally, she said, “David doesn’t have his part of the money. We can’t buy in.”
“Aren’t you selling your house?” he asked.
“You know I had to refinance when you and I divorced.”
They had split the equity in the house, but to do that, they had needed to pay off the current mortgage with a new, larger one in Laura’s name. Even so, a number of years had gone by since their split and in this time of rising home prices, the house was undoubtedly worth more than it had been.
“I can’t do it on my own. David’s been helping me, and now . . .” She choked out a sob.
“I’m sorry, Laura. I’m just not sure how I can help you.”
“I need a hundred thousand dollars,” she blurted out. “Until David gets things straightened out.”
He squinted at the phone. “I don’t have that kind of money, Laura. You know that.”
“You inherited from your father.”
“A house. Not cash.” He paused a moment, then asked, “What does David need to straighten out?”
“It’s not for me to say. Those are David’s problems,” she said bitterly.
Distant alarm bells went off in his head. “David has financial problems?”
“I didn’t say that,” she said. But she had, in a way.
“Well, I can’t help you, in any case. Isn’t Vicky Stapleton your real estate agent? Her husband’s your builder. If you just need some time to work things out with the loan, I would think she’d be your best advocate.”
“She can just sell it to somebody else.”
“If you talk to her—”
“David lost his job,” she cut him off.
Cooper frowned. At Elgin DeGuerre’s law firm? “I thought David was taking over the business from DeGuerre.”
“We all did.” She sounded both angry and resigned.
“I’m sorry, Laura. I wish I could, but I can’t.” A beat, then he added, “But if Marissa’s there, I’d like to talk to her.”
He heard the click and was left with dead air after she hung up on him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jamie changed into black slacks and a blue sweater. She freshened her makeup and fought with her hair, finally leaving it down and giving it a few tweaks with the curling iron to add some life.
Downstairs, she was glad to have the house to herself, although Harley and Duchess were upstairs, but sequestered in Harley’s room. Theo was once again bringing Emma home, so she had a few minutes to wait.
She’d overheard Harley on the phone with someone. At first she’d wondered if it was Greer, but then had determined it must be Marissa. She couldn’t tell how things were going there, and when Harley suddenly jumped off the bed and headed for the door to catch her eavesdropping, Jamie had her own phone in hand and had hurriedly tiptoed to the top of the stairs, acting like she was just reaching the landing as the door flung inward and Harley stood in the doorway.
“What?” Jamie had asked
