It wasn’t until we got home later that afternoon that the consequences of me recognizing the guy would come to light.
Written on the windows at the back of the house in red spray paint were the words ‘Mouth shut whore.’ The lock on my back door had been forced by what looked like a crowbar from the gouges in the wood, but it was the grave that’d been dug in the grass that scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
In a matter of hours, we’d relocated to Carter’s place, with Reid moving into ours to watch the fish and keep an eye out in case the visitor came back. No one had asked him to do it, he’d offered because he “took offense at someone trying to intimidate a woman and a little kid.”
Once night had fallen and Shanti had fallen asleep watching cartoons in Carter’s den, the mental and emotional toll it’d taken on him became clear.
“I know you’re going to hate this idea, but I need you to listen first. I don’t want you and Shanti here until this guy’s been found, so I was thinking, we could go and stay with my grandma—”
I was already shaking my head. “No, I can’t go back to Florida, Carter. I just can’t.”
Picking me up and placing me on his lap, he leaned down, so we were eye-to-eye. “Mi-mi doesn’t live in Fernandina Beach anymore, baby. She moved back home to Alabama once I went to the academy.”
“What?”
“Mi-mi’s from Alabama, a place called Daphne. The only reason she and Aunt June moved to Fernandina Beach was that they thought it’d be easier for me to stay in a place I knew after my parents died. She hated it there, so as soon as she could, she moved back to her house in Alabama.”
“I didn’t know any of this. What about your aunt?”
“June hated it there, too, so she moved back to Daphne at the same time. They figured having both of them around me would make me feel more secure and settled, that’s why she stayed.”
They’d both given up so much for Carter. It was what I’d always thought family should be like when I was a kid, given that my parents didn’t give up anything for us.
“They sound like amazing people.”
“They’re both definitely something, that’s for sure, which is why I’d feel better if we could go and stay with Mi-mi. Just for a little while.”
It was tempting.
“What about Shanti’s arm? She’s still got almost four weeks left with the cast on it.”
“If we’re there that long, June can arrange for it to be taken off. She used to work as a nurse before she retired to become a full-time app developer two years ago.”
“She left nursing to develop apps? As in the kind we have on our cell phones?”
“Yup. She released one two years ago that focused on the stock market and allows users to buy and sell shares and Bitcoin. Once she knew she was going to be able to afford to live doing it, she quit nursing.”
How did I not know any of this?
“What about your grandma? Did she finance a third-world country, too?”
Carter burst out laughing. “She wishes she did. My grandpa owned a fishing vessel and did well. Somehow, he had a built-in radar for where the fish they were after were biting. Sure, he had some bad seasons, but the good ones were more frequent and set them up so that the bad ones didn’t pack as much of a punch. Mi-mi says they were born blessed.”
I tried to recall ever seeing any of his family members at the games he played with Callum, but no one stood out. “Did they ever come to watch your games?”
“Every last one of them. Mi-mi came with pompoms she made from plastic sacks and newspapers, and June had a t-shirt with ‘Sqwish’ printed on it.”
“Oh, my God,” I squealed, clicking my fingers at the recollection. “I remember her t-shirt. No one could ever figure out what it meant.”
“The sound of the ball going through the net,” he replied dryly. “At least, that was the sound of it, according to her, which was probably why no one could figure out why she wore it to each game.”
Now that I was thinking about the t-shirt, I could remember her and an older woman screaming whenever Carter had the ball. “Was your grandma the one who used to jump up onto the bleachers and scream her lungs off whenever you guys were winning? I’m sure she had pompoms.”
He sighed, wiping a hand down his face. “That’d be her, and she also had ones with silver ribbons in them for the biggest games.”
I snickered. Oh, yes, she had. He was leaving out something crucial that’d just come back to me. “What about her hair?”