She stood. “And?”
“They’re going to rule it an accident. She must have slipped on the ground, and when she fell, she… she broke her neck.”
Sydney covered her mouth in an attempt not to cry.
I drew her into my arms. She buried her face in my shirt and cried. We stood there for a while until she finally got it all out. As she was wiping away the last stray tears, she froze for a moment, her head tipped to one side in confusion. “But then how did the fireplace get shut?”
That was something we’d wondered as well during the investigation of the crime scene. “It’s easy to close, and there’s a lever on the inside to open it. From everything we can tell, Vickie opened it, closed it, then fell once she got to the room.”
Stepping back, she ran her hand over her face. “I need to go see Gladys. She has to be hurting.”
“I know. Do you need any help? I can drive you there?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t have any patients until midmorning, I’ll be fine.”
“If you want to stay here and get ready, the house is all yours.”
A small smile appeared on her beautiful face. “Thank you. Do you need me to swing by and get Mags on my way to the vet clinic?”
Brushing the wetness from her cheeks, I leaned down and kissed her. “I’m sure she would love to hang out with you. I’ll come by after my shift and pick her up.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“I’m so sorry, Syd. I wish I could make it all better for you.”
She wrapped her arms around me once more. “You do make it better, Mike. Simply by holding me.”
“That is something I have no problem doing,” I whispered as I kissed the top of her head.
No problem at all.
Sydney
Beatrice opened the front door, her cheeks wet from crying. “Oh, dear, Gladys is going to be so glad you came. Come here.”
I hugged Beatrice. Vickie’s disappearance had crushed the community, and for weeks, people had followed false leads. Every time they’d found nothing, I’d seen the devastation chip away at Gladys and Doug. It was heart wrenching. But none of us had ever lost hope that someday, Vickie would be found and returned to us.
“I can’t believe she was at my place all those years. I had no idea that passageway was there. If I’d known…”
I patted her back. “I know, Beatrice. I know. This isn’t your fault.”
She sniffled. “And someone took the evidence. Why would they take the evidence?”
“They took evidence?”
Beatrice dabbed her eyes. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but I heard Doug get the call an hour ago.”
I had been with Mike when he got the call. It left me feeling unsettled and on edge. “That’s terrible. We need to focus on being here for each other. It’s what Vickie would have wanted.”