Page 80 of Her Dying Secret

Rosie’s bottom lip quivered. She dropped into a whisper again. “I can’t. It’s not safe. She told me to save myself.”

Noah’s brow furrowed. He took a couple of steps back toward Gretchen and Rosie. “You don’t need to save yourself. We’re here for both of you.”

It was the boy.

That’s how the truck ended up behind the boardinghouse with the room never used by Seth but stocked with prepackaged food. So uncharacteristic of Seth. Because it was the boy. In the office of the boardinghouse, Ryan Tramel had stirred his drink with a spoon and then placed it between the folds of a napkin.

Not Ryan Tramel.

R.L.

Not Rosie Lee.

Ryan Lee.

Rosie pulled away from Gretchen but kept hold of her hand. “Come on. Please. There’s a boat. I’ll show you.”

Carol Summers had told them that Mira disappeared for four years after meeting Seth when she was just eighteen. More than enough time to bring a pregnancy to term and give birth. Enough time to care for a baby until he was a toddler. Then one day his father disappeared with him. The cycle began. Mira stayed with Seth long enough to have Rosie because she was already tethered to him by Ryan. Always waiting for her child’s return, always searching for him, always hoping that one day she could be the mother she wanted to be, never knowing that Seth had turned that privilege over to Deirdre Velis.

Gretchen said, “Rosie, we have our own boat. We need to get your mother.”

Mira had been so young. Only eighteen or nineteen. She had truly been at Seth’s mercy—or rather, Deirdre’s, by proxy. Ryan must have grown up largely separated from her, bonding more with Seth and Deirdre. He probably spent almost all of his time with Seth. Was he there the day of the stabbing?

Rosie pulled on Gretchen’s wrist with all her might. “Please. We have to go now. He’ll kill her and you!”

If Seth had removed April from the Furnished Finds cellar and brought her to the produce stand where he knew he was going to meet Mira, had he intended to free her? To turn her over to Mira? But why give her up after a year? It made no sense. Why the sudden change of heart? Why suddenly risk both Mira and April turning him in? Unless…

What had Seth said when they’d arrested him? I didn’t want this for her. I didn’t know.

He didn’t know she was there. At least, not right away. When Seth left Hillcrest after April’s call to DHS, he had wanted to get away from her and protect Rosie. He already had the death of Shane Foster to hold over April’s head, to keep her in check.

Gretchen said, “Rosie, no one is going to hurt you or your mother.”

I never wanted this to happen. I never wanted her to suffer. But April was still looking for him and Rosie. Seth may have thought that their assured mutual destruction status meant she wasn’t a threat but Deirdre or Ryan—or both—may have felt otherwise. Mira had been ineffectual as a girlfriend to Seth and a mother to Ryan and Rosie. Neither Deirdre nor Ryan need concern themselves with her, but April could blow up all their lives.

“He’s going to kill everyone!” Rosie keened.

It was Ryan who had harassed April and vandalized her home in Newsham. He was the one telling her to stay away. That’s why she’d reported it to the police. She had told them it was a case of mistaken identity. Maybe Mira had never told April about Ryan.

It was Ryan who took April, whether of his own volition or at Deirdre’s direction, and then Seth found out later. Mira convinced him to free her. They’d met at the produce stand.

Noah said, “Rosie, no one is going to be killed.”

Josie tried to imagine Mira’s distress when she saw how badly April’s health had deteriorated. It wasn’t a simple matter of nursing her back to health. Had Mira and Seth argued? But if Seth hadn’t meant for April to be harmed and had intended to return her to Mira, why would he stab her and then Mira when she came to her defense?

Josie felt that uncomfortable ripple across her skin again. Trepidation. From the beginning she had wondered why Seth would let Mira and April drive away from the scene of the attack without finishing what he started. But there was that unknown set of fingerprints on the awl. Although the tool had certainly come from Furnished Finds, the unknown prints didn’t belong to Deirdre. She had a conviction for passing bad checks. She would have shown up in AFIS.

But Ryan Lee’s prints wouldn’t be on record anywhere.

“Rosie, we have your father in custody now,” said Noah. “He’s in jail. He won’t get out for a very long time. He can’t hurt anyone now.”

Seth let Mira drive away with April because he was more worried about getting Ryan out of there. Protecting his son. He didn’t want the authorities to take his children away.

Rosie looked up at Noah as if he’d grown two heads. “Not my dad. My brother.”

Josie rushed toward them, stumbling over more rocks. “It’s Ryan,” she said. “The teenager from the boardinghouse. Gretchen wasn’t there that day but?—”

Before she could finish, a soul-rending scream ripped through the air.

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