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“What’s to ask?” Millie demanded, as if the very idea was insulting.

“Myrna slipped on some ice and broke her leg while she and I were visiting the Coleman cousins. Found out she was pregnant when we took her to the doctor. Gerald drove her home so she could recover. We told everybody she was laid up in bed, couldn’t come down the stairs.

I stopped by every day to check on her. People dropped off casseroles and pies, but you know how ornery she could be.

There weren’t that many clamoring to see her in person. ”

Jude knew that part, at least, was the truth. “It was really that simple?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Millie shrugged off the lies.

“Gerald told everybody Emmy Lou came out before he could get Myrna to the hospital. Uncle Rudy rustled up a birth certificate. I put the announcement in the paper. Taybee’s Mama donated one of her old baby pictures.

Aunt Pauline let Myrna take a year off school to be with her.

Emmy Lou was big for her age, but Uncle Enoch reminded everybody the Colemans run large. ”

Jude had forgotten how easily Cliftons lied for other Cliftons. “And just like that, I disappeared.”

“That’s the deal you made.” Millie stabbed her finger at Jude’s chest. “All right, little miss. It’s my turn now. You broke your word. Gerald’s dead, but Myrna’s still here. At least her body is. Why are you back? State your purpose.”

Jude wanted to laugh in her granny apple doll face. “I don’t answer to you.”

“Who else is gonna listen? It’s just me and Nate now. Everybody else is dead. Nobody knows you dropped her off and never looked back.”

Jude struggled to keep her voice down. “Do you know how many times I wanted to come home?”

Millie snorted in disbelief.

Trying to justify herself to this noxious old woman was an exercise in madness, but Jude couldn’t stop herself.

She had stalked Emmy for years through the North Falls Herald and Celia and Tommy’s Facebook pages.

She had made so many plans, bought so many plane tickets, written so many emails and letters that she’d never sent.

“I knew that she was happy,” Jude said. “I knew that Dad kept his promise to stay sober. That he took care of her. That Mom loved her unreservedly. That Tommy and Celia enveloped her in safety. That she had a beautiful, amazing son—my grandson. And I sacrificed what I wanted, what I longed for, what I needed to heal myself, because I didn’t want to blow that up. For her sake. For Cole’s. For theirs.”

“Well, aren’t you a saint?”

“You’re goddam right I am.” The anger sparked on its own.

Millie had only known Martha the child. She’d never met Jude the woman.

“Why do you think I haven’t told her? She just lost Gerald fourteen days ago.

For the past six years, she’s been losing the only person she’s ever known as her mother.

I’m not going to walk in after four decades and try to replace Myrna.

She doesn’t deserve that. Mom raised a beautiful, smart, wonderful girl.

She’s earned whatever peaceful death she can have. ”

“Look who suddenly wants to be a good daughter.”

“If you can’t see that I have always loved my parents, then you don’t understand how love works.”

Millie cocked a thin eyebrow. “You’re never gonna tell her?”

“What would be the point?” The question had been on Jude’s mind since she’d arrived in Clifton.

She had decided that she was the only person who would benefit from the truth, which meant there was no benefit at all.

“If I can be in Emmy’s life as her sister, that’s enough.

And if you’re looking for me to pay penance, you of all people know that sometimes knowing a secret is harder than keeping it. ”

“I guess you learned that psycho-babble horseshit over in California.” Millie was scowling again, but at least she was backing down.

“I’ll give you one bit of advice, toots.

You better mind your p’s and q’s around that girl.

She’s smarter than you. She’s gonna figure out what happened. And then what are you going to do?”

Jude gave up. “I don’t know, Millie. She’s got a lot of shit going on in her life. Maybe we can help each other.”

“Oh, no!”

They both turned at the sound of Myrna’s voice.

“Look!” She was pointing at the television. “Chester fell off his horse.”

“He’s okay!” Millie shouted. “He’s getting back on! He’s fine!”

Jude barely heard the exchange. Myrna was finally awake.

She was looking at Jude. A polite smile was on her lips.

Jude smiled back, but there was no glimmer of recognition.

Her mother could’ve been looking at a member of staff or a stranger who’d happened by.

The moment lasted no more than a second.

Myrna’s gaze skipped back to the television.

“Stupid to get your hopes up like that.” Millie never missed a chance to twist the knife. She stumbled toward the remote to adjust the sound to a more tolerable level. “She doesn’t know you from Adam’s housecat.”

Jude had to swallow her grief before she could speak. “Does she know you?”

“No, but I look older than her grandmother and she doesn’t want to be rude.”

Jude could hear the sadness in Millie’s voice. It must’ve been hard to survive everyone who’d ever mattered in your life. She tried to mend fences in the Clifton way. “I’m honestly shocked you’re still standing.”

Millie cackled. “No more than me.”

“I,” Myrna corrected. “No more than I.”

Emmy’s light laughter preceded her into the room. She gave Jude her usual nod. Her uniform was wrinkled. Her sprained wrist was in a brace. She was holding an ancient Whitepages phone book to her chest.

She said, “Mom will never forget to be pedantic.”

Jude smiled, but she saw Emmy look toward Myrna with the same hope for recognition. There was none. There would never be again. She really was gone.

Emmy cleared her throat exactly as Jude had. She placed the phone book on the table. Told Millie, “You left this in the car.”

“I guess I’m in the right place for losing my marbles.” Millie Frankensteined toward the chair and practically collapsed into the seat. “Tell Kaitlynn to bring me some horseradish when she picks me up. Oh, and sweet pickles, but not the big jar. I don’t want them wasting in the fridge.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Emmy motioned for Jude to follow her out into the hall.

As usual, she dove straight into work. “The marshals are transferring Walton Huntsinger to Atlanta. He’s agreed to speak with the Texas Rangers about the Hidalgo case.

Apparently, the victim was a state senator’s daughter.

There’s a lot of heat over there to get her case solved. ”

Jude closed the door so she didn’t have to yell over Gunsmoke .

“I spoke to my contact at the Center. They’ve got three other possible cases that correspond with the trips that Walton took with the Tooth Troopers.

DNA was tested in all of them. If we get a match to Walton, that will bring us up to nineteen total victims.”

“Jesus,” Emmy whispered.

“It’s going to get worse,” Jude warned her. “Walton’s been hurting people for a long time.”

Tension knotted Emmy’s brow. “What about Virgil?”

“The FBI is using face recognition software to scan CCTV footage from smaller airports within a 500-mile radius of Clifton County. They’ve already found Virgil flying out of Augusta Regional and Punta Gorda in Florida.

He was using a stolen driver’s license that belonged to a con serving time in Calhoun State Prison.

The photo was a damn good match. He didn’t pick it up by happenstance. ”

“Calhoun is close to the Alabama border.”

“We’re coordinating with the State Bureau of Investigation,” Jude said. “The GBI is interviewing staff at Calhoun to find out who sold him the license.”

“Do Virgil’s clandestine trips track with Walton’s?”

“Some of them,” Jude said. “But you should know that up until recently, Virgil traveled to show his horses. I think he went solo. There’s no doubt in my mind that he left a string of unsolved cases.

It’ll be harder with Virgil. He knew about evidence handling.

I’m sure he covered his tracks. We might not ever find out how many girls and women he hurt. ”

Emmy’s jaw tightened, the bone sticking out the same way Myrna’s used to. She looked down the hallway. Virgil’s betrayal was a wound that would not soon heal. Jude could see the delicate strands of her eyelashes when she blinked away tears.

“Okay,” Emmy said. “I’ve got to get out of this building.”

Jude expected one of her abrupt departures, but Emmy nodded for Jude to follow her up the hallway.

They bypassed the elevator and headed toward the stairs.

They’d both been raised by a woman who didn’t believe in dawdling.

Jude held onto the railing so she could safely navigate her way down.

She’d left her motorcycle boots and jeans back at the motel.

The heels and pantsuit were a vestige from her previous life.

Emmy took in the outfit as she rounded the landing. “Does Hillary Clinton know you stole her look?”

“Does Andy Taylor know you stole his?”

Emmy shot Jude a blank stare. “Who’s Andy Taylor?”

“Congratulations. You’ve finally found a way to hurt me.

” Jude followed her down the next flight of stairs.

“I was at Dooley this morning talking to Dale Loudermilk. He wouldn’t give me the time of day if I showed up in jeans and a biker jacket.

This is how he expects a female agent to dress, so this is how I have to dress. ”

Emmy had stopped at the next landing. “What did he say?”

“We mostly talked about music, but I’ll get him to crack eventually, and he’ll tell me what else he knows.”

“I guess you have a right to sound sure of yourself.”