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John spun around.
“Watch what you’re doing.”
His father turned off the faucet as water overflowed from the kitchen sink, spilling down the front of the oak cabinets. He handed John a towel, looking surprisingly calm after the mess John made. He’d been slapped for a lot less.
His dad smiled. “I could go for some ice cream. You?”
John nodded even though his sloppy joe had crept back up to the top of his throat.
His dad clapped his palms together after returning the stained newspaper to the trash. “Great. Clean this up and let’s go out. How about Baskin-Robbins?”
“Sure,” John heard himself say.
“Don’t worry, John,” his dad said as if reading his mind. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll grab our coats.” His dad whistled as he waltzed out of the kitchen.
I’ve been worried for nothing,John thought as he wiped the water off the cabinets. When the police finally did catch the Green River Killer, they’d blame him for Sally’s murder too.
A ripple of pride flowed through John. How smart his father had been. Much smarter than John had given him credit for. John pulled the rubber plug out from the bottom of the sink. As he watched the water go down the drain, he saw Sally’s lipsticked smile when she’d grinned at him in the backseat. Then the image morphed, and her eyes took on a look of terror as his father chased her, naked, through the woods. John turned away from the sink, suppressing a shudder as he tried to erase the image from his thoughts.
Instead, he tried to make himself believe his father’s words:Everything’s going to be fine.Even as he tried, he knew he’d never be able to unsee that terrible moment. Sally’s horror would be forever stuck in his mind.
Chapter 4
HOLLY
Holly moved yesterday’s copy of theTribune, which was open to Meg’s article on page three, to the edge of the kitchen table, along with the tall stack of letters she’d received since the article had been published. Meg’s last high school photo before she dropped out was enlarged beneath the headline, “Refusing to Give Up: A Sister’s Fight for Truth.”
It had been a week since they’d found the latest suspected Green River Killer victim, now confirmed as nineteen-year-old prostitute Sally Hickman, and her case had already gone cold. With nothing new to report on Sally Hickman or the Green River Killer investigation, Holly had gotten permission for the first time to publish an article on Meg’s murder.
Holly looked at the article, her name beneath the headline. It should have felt like a step forward, a victory—but instead, it was just words on a page, and her sister was still gone.
Holly shifted her attention from Meg’s article to the one-hundred-page true crime book proposal she’d been working on over the last few months, detailing the brutal murder of popular late-night radio personality, Cassidy Ray. Two years ago, theTribune’sthen-primary crime reporter had been busy writing a piece on a newly discovered Green River Killer victim when Holly got a tip that Cassidy Ray had been brutally murdered—bludgeoned to death with her Golden Mic award—in her Capitol Hill mansion. After Holly’s article ran on the front page of theTribune,the story became a national media sensation.
Covering the high-profile case launched Holly’s career, quickly making her theTribune’smost-read reporter. Her byline soon dominated theTribune’sfront page, pushing the male, veteran reporters farther back in the paper, until she’d taken their spot as the lead crime journalist. When a literary agent approached Holly about writing a true crime novel about the case, she’d happily agreed to submit a proposal, even though she knew the chances of getting a book deal were slim.
Holly glanced at Meg’s smiling school photo in the open newspaper, then slid the proposal and sample chapters into the manila envelope addressed to her newly acquired New York literary agent. The pages detailed the radio host’s deadly love triangle and the murder trial that followed, which resulted in Cassidy’s assistant being found guilty of her murder, while Cassidy’s boyfriend walked free, despite a public outcry. “Here’s hoping.”
Her phone rang, and Holly went to answer it before sealing the envelope.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sweetie. Happy anniversary.”
Holly smiled. “Hi, Jared. Happy anniversary to you too.” Today was one year from their first date, and Jared had insisted on celebrating.
She fingered the necklace he’d given her earlier this week, a sapphire encased in a gold heart, part of his apology for losing his temper over her Green River Killer “obsession.” When she told Jared she feared they’d rushed into engagement, Jaredbegged her not to throw it all away over his one mistake. Instead of breaking it off, she’d decided to give things more time. Since then, he’d been overly sweet to her, clearly feeling bad for his blow up. Except for last night, when he snapped at her for going on about the lack of leads in Sally Hickman’s murder.
Maybesnappedwas too strong, she thought. But she could tell when Jared asked her to give it a rest, he was growing irritated. And she let it go, not wanting to set off his temper.It’s the same thing Mom used to do around Dad: clam up, change the subject, make herself busy to stay out of his way, apologize when she’d done nothing wrong.
As soon as the thoughts entered her mind, she forced them away.This isn’t the same thing.
“I made us a dinner reservation at Vito’s for seven,” Jared said. “I’m still finishing up at work, so how about I pick you up in an hour?”
“Perfect.” She checked her watch. It was just after five. If she hurried, she could take her book proposal to the post office before they closed. “I’ll see you then.”
“Also,” Jared added before she could hang up, “my mom wants to know if we’ve decided on a date yet for the wedding. I told her we’d let her know soon.”
Holly bit her lip. “I’m still thinking about it.”