Page 67 of She Didn't See It Coming
“What about Derek Gardner?” Lizzie persists. When Jayne remains silent, she continues. “What about other people in the building? Have you found anything? Do you have any DNA from the crime scene?”
Jayne studies the younger woman curiously. “I have nothing more to say.” Once she’s gone, Jayne turns back to Kilgour and raises her eyebrows at him. “She’s pretty intense, don’t you think?”
Kilgour says, “I remember her wanting the K-9 unit. I don’t recall her suggesting a cadaver dog, in particular.”
“It’s an odd thing to say though.”
He shrugs. “She’s pissed off at us, thinks we’re not doing our jobs. It was just a parting shot.”
“She acts like she thinks she knows how to do our jobs better than we do.”
•••
Donna is waitingon pins and needles when Lizzie arrives back home, anxious to hear news about her granddaughter. She sees immediately that Lizzie is in a mood. It’s in the way she tosses off her jacket, kicks off her shoes. It’s in the expression on her face. She’s angry about something. Donna’s nerves almost fail. Is Sam not going to let them see Clara anymore? Did they have an argument? “What’s wrong?” she asks her daughter.
Lizzie flings herself into an armchair and says, “Those detectives are useless. I stopped by the police station on the way home and they still wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Donna takes a deep breath. She knows her daughter is anxious for information, they all are, but this is how the police work. “You have to let them do their jobs,” she says.
“Are they?” Lizzie asks. “Doing their jobs? How do we even know?”
Donna says, “We have to assume they know what they’re doing.”
“Why? The world is full of incompetent people barely doing their jobs. Why should the police be any different?”
Before Donna can say anything else, Lizzie gets up and storms into her bedroom, slamming her door. Donna watches after her, worried.
Jim, who’d heard it all, comes up behind her and says, “She’s just upset. It’s a lot to deal with.”
She never even got a chance to ask her about Clara. Lizzie will calm down, Donna tells herself. She’ll ask her about Clara later.
But she’s worried about Lizzie. She seems…different. Not herself at all.
44
What Paige feels the most, on Saturday afternoon, more than grief, is loneliness. She misses Bryden. And she misses Sam, and Clara. She knows it would be wiser to stay away.
She remembers the way Sam had been the last time she saw him, on Thursday in the park outside the condo with Clara. Maybe now he’s had time to calm down, to come to grips with his new reality. He might be starting to cope, trying to see a way forward. She wants to be there for him, and for Clara. Bryden was her best friend.
She decides not to text him first in case he tells her not to come. She gets in her car for the short, familiar drive to Sam’s condo. She arrives at the entrance to the underground parking and uses the keypad to call his apartment.
“It’s Paige,” she says. She senses a hesitation, but then he buzzes her in.
On her way up in the elevator to the eighth floor she tries not tothink about what happened to Bryden. She does enough of that late at night, waiting for sleep to come.
She knocks on the door, and Sam opens it. For a moment he stares at her. She suddenly wants to kiss him, but she knows Clara is probably here somewhere. He lets her into the apartment and closes the door.
“Clara’s at Angela’s,” he says.
She nods, studying him. He’s showered and put on fresh clothes—jeans and a casual, buttoned shirt. He’s even shaved. It’s a good sign. She reaches out and gently caresses his cheek, meaning to comfort. His hand reaches up to clasp hers.
“Don’t,” he says.
“It’s going to be okay,” she whispers.
“Is it?” he says, his voice low.
•••
