Page 63 of Deeper Than the Dead

Eve stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then she burst out laughing. “Did Bent put you up to this?”

Vera clutched her hands together to keep them still. She had started down this path. Couldn’t stop now. “It can’t be coincidence that the other female victims were posed exactly that way. Those crosses can’t be coincidence. I know how you feel about the dead. It makes me wonder if you knew they were there.”

Eve blinked. “You’re serious.”

“Sadly, I am.”

Eve stared at her. Silent. Unflinching. Unblinking.

Vera ordered herself to inhale to feed her starved lungs, but her brain wouldn’t obey.

Eve suddenly made a face that was somewhere between disappointed and irritated. “I thought you were a big-time, famous crime solver. Is this how you got your reputation? Picking the easiest solution?”

Anger fired in Vera, but surprisingly, she restrained it. “All right then, tell me why you chose that pose.”

Eve’s gaze narrowed. “I thought it was innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.”

Vera wanted to believe her. She really did. But the problem was, if not Eve, then who? Their father? Who the hell had put that cross necklace with Sheree?

Maybe it was their father, but that still didn’t explain how Eve had chosen that exact pose. Unless their father had taken her into the cave with him when he left the bodies or visited them. Eve could be protecting him.

Oh hell. Vera exiled the thought. Their father was not a serial killer! Eve might want to protect him if that were the case, but it could not be. Could. Not. Be.

“I just need to hear you say the words,” Vera urged. “Tell me you didn’t know about the other bodies. Tell me,” she pressed, “that this fascination you have with the dead isn’t a symptom of a deeper issue and that whoever is leaving these messages for us doesn’t know something you’re not sharing with me—like maybe that Daddy or someone else we know did this.”

“I don’t know any murderers.” Eve scrubbed her hands over her makeup-free face.

She’d never been one to wear makeup. Vera had always thought of her that way. Young. Innocent. Unpretentious. Was that why, until this investigation, she’d missed the possibility that she was hiding something? Some secret she’d kept all these years. Because she hadn’t wanted to see?

Or was Vera just overreacting to what she had missed in Memphis?

“How could you even think such a thing?” Eve demanded, when Vera said nothing. “What the hell?” She turned away, shook her head. “I can’t believe this.”

Vera nodded. “Okay. Then tell me how you decided on the pose.”

“I just posed her the way most dead people are posed. With her arms crossed in front.” Eve exhaled a big breath. “How could you think I would keep something like that from you?”

All the times she had noticed her sister doing odd things flashed like a bad movie reel in her brain. “I don’t know. With the way this investigation is building, I just have to be sure I am aware of everything, Eve.”

God, now she sounded like Bent.

Eve blew out a big breath. “I don’t think about killing people, Vee. I think about the dead and how I can help them.”

The difference was significant. Vera hated that she’d even brought it up, but she’d had to be certain—if that was even possible. She settled her gaze on Eve’s. Did this mean there were no secrets between them? Maybe. Maybe not. But at least she had opened that dialogue.

“I understand. I wasn’t suggesting you killed anyone.” Vera braced her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands. “Just please know that anything you need to talk about, I am here. You don’t have to think twice about telling me anything at all. Complete transparency is the only way I can protect us.”

Eve smiled sadly. “I wish you still lived here.”

Maybe this news would lighten the mood. “If it’s any consolation, I won’t be going back to Memphis.”

“Really?” Hope flared in her sister’s eyes. “You’re staying here?”

Vera shrugged. “At least for the foreseeable future.”

“I’m sorry if that means things went even further south in Memphis.”

Vera worked up a smile. “Thanks. Life sucks sometimes.”

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