“His build? His eyes?”

She widened her eyes. “Blue. He had blue eyes. Cold blue eyes.”

“Could the man in the mask have been Colin Morse?” I asked.

Felicia trembled. “I… I don’t think so. I only met Mr. Morse once, but he was taller than this man. I don’t remember the color of his eyes, but I don’t think they were blue.”

I had only met him once myself, and I couldn’t remember the color of his eyes. “Do you remember his eye color, Tal?”

He nodded. “Not blue. They’re greenish brown. You sure this guy had blue eyes, Felicia?”

Felicia gulped. “Yes, I’m sure. I’ll never forget him.”

“Did he tell you why he wanted you to do this? Was he trying to frame someone?”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. He didn’t tell me why, and I didn’t ask. I didn’t think to. He had a knife to my throat, Mr. Talon.” Felicia burst into tears.

Talon clearly wasn’t in the mood to coddle Felicia, so I went to her and placed my hand on her forearm. “Calm down. You’re safe here. We just wish you had told us when this happened. We could’ve installed a security system in your home, to make sure your parents were safe while you were gone.”

“I could never ask you for such a favor,” she sobbed.

“I don’t know how we would have handled it at the time,” I said, “but we would have believed you, and we would have helped you.”

“I know that. I was just so”—she hiccupped—“frightened.”

I looked at Talon. “We need to get a system installed at her home. Pronto.”

“Agreed,” he said.

“Then you’re not going to let me go?”

Talon shook his head. “No. But we are going to ask you a lot more questions about this. Can you deal with that?”

She hiccupped again as she nodded.

“I have some private investigators working on this. I’m going to have them question you. Perhaps the police also. This is important, Felicia. Do you understand that?”

She nodded, still sobbing. I got up and grabbed the box of tissues from the counter and set it down in front of her. She took three and blew her nose.

“Do you understand?” Talon said again.

“Tal…” I began.

“Joe, look, this is serious. She might have information that can lead us to the perpetrator.”

“Yes, she might, but right now, hounding her isn’t going to get you anywhere. She’s not in any condition for it.” I secretly hoped he wouldn’t bring up the DNA test right now. I wasn’t sure Felicia could handle it.

My phone buzzed again. Goddamnit, another fucking text from Brooke. Just what I didn’t need at the moment. She was supposed to be out there talking to Melanie, and she’s fucking texting? I set my phone down harshly on the table.

“Anything wrong?” Talon asked.

“No.” I turned to Felicia. “You need to get hold of yourself. Pull yourself together. We’re not going to let you go, but if anything like this ever happens again, you need to come to us.”

“Yes, of course. But he threatened me and my parents. Said if I said a word to you—”

I stopped her with a gesture. “We know what he said. But you need to trust us if something like this ever happens again. You need to trust us to protect you. We will protect you.”

And for the first time in twenty-five years, I actually felt like I could protect someone I cared about.

“If you’ll excuse me,” I said, pocketing my phone, “I need to have a word with the ladies outside.”

Chapter Twenty–Six

Melanie

Conversation with Brooke had grown stale. The only thing she wanted to talk about was her glory days of modeling, so I let her talk. I had nothing to say to her anyway.

I breathed a sigh of relief when Jonah walked out the sliding doors onto the deck. Thank God. I hoped they were done with Felicia and that we could go home. I smiled to myself. I was thinking of Jonah’s home as my home.

When I looked up at him, his facial features were tense, his gorgeous full lips set in a line.

“Jonah?” I said tentatively.

He softened. “Hey, sweetheart. Have you two had a nice”—he cleared his throat—“talk?” His gaze riveted to Brooke’s phone sitting on the table.

“Oh, yes,” Brooke said, gushing. “Melanie here is a wonderful conversationalist.”

Ha! I’d hardly said two words. But I smiled. “Yes, we’ve been just fine.”

“Let’s go home,” he said, holding his hand out to me.

I took it and didn’t look back at Brooke as we walked to the kitchen. Felicia was nowhere to be found. Just as well.

I said a quick good-bye to Talon, and then we were on our way home.

 

Once we walked in the house, I turned to Jonah, taking his hand. “Can you come with me? I want to show you something.”

“Of course.” He followed me to the guest room where my folders were still splayed on the floor.

I was about to do something I had never done. I was going to show someone else the suicide letter from Gina. I had never put it in her official file since it was private correspondence between her and me and had nothing to do with our sessions. I had no idea if she’d left any other notes. Her parents never mentioned any to me, but they hadn’t talked to me much except to accuse me of not recognizing that she was suicidal and then to file a charge against me with the medical board.

If what I suspected was true, Gina did not leave any other suicide notes.

Because she had not committed suicide.

“Jonah, I’m going to trust you with something. Something big.”

“You can trust me with anything.”

I cupped his cheek, his stubble rough against my still-sore fingers. “Thank you. Thank you so much for that.”

“I love you, and I trust you. I want you to know that you can trust me with anything.”

I combed through the files until I found the letter, which had been in the back of Gina’s file. I handed the piece of pink stationery to him.

As he read, I went over the letter in my mind. I had long since memorized its contents.

Dear Dr. Carmichael,