Page 103 of Fatal Betrayal

"I can't argue with that." She wiped her mouth and took her empty plate to the sink. "I want to take a quick look through the boxes and see if I want anything. I know I wrote about Hannah's case in my journal. Maybe there's some clue I've forgotten about."

"Good idea. I'll clean up, so your dad will never suspect anyone was here."

* * *

As soon as Andi opened the first box, she had second thoughts about going through the reminders of her life. But it was Hannah's case that made her dig through the odds and ends of her childhood that she'd left behind. And sure enough, there was a stack of journals that she'd labeled as Andi's case files.

She smiled at her own silliness. She really had thought she was some kind of girl detective, but she'd accomplished next to nothing as a child. Still, it had prepared her for her current job, which she was pretty good at.

She found Hannah's case in the third book. She took it over to her bed and sat down.

Cooper came into the room. "Did you find it?"

"Yes."

He sat down next to her. "Let me help—like the old days."

Cooper sitting on her bed next to her felt nothing like the old days. Not after the night they'd shared. And having him so close felt like a big distraction.

"Maybe I should read it first, and then you can read it," she suggested.

He gave her a knowing smile. "You're suddenly not thinking about the case anymore, are you? You're thinking about this bed, about me and you, last night…"

She felt her cheeks warm at his words. "Wrong. I wasn't thinking about any of that. And don't distract me."

"Sorry. Read me what you wrote."

Clearing her throat, she looked at the journal and started reading aloud the notes that she'd made.

"Hannah disappeared between eight and ten o'clock at night. Gemma, the nanny, discovered Hannah missing at nine-forty-five but hadn't checked on her since she'd put her to bed at eight." She paused, looking at Cooper. "I forgot the nanny discovered Hannah missing. Just like Kristine."

"That's right. And Gemma was from Sweden. She'd come to the US with two girlfriends after college and they worked for a local agency. She'd been with the Montgomery's for a year when Hannah disappeared. But even though she was the last person to see Hannah, Gemma was never considered a person of interest in the case."

"You read the case files, too."

"I was able to do that, yes," he admitted.

"I won't ask how that happened." She flipped to the next page. Gemma had a boyfriend—Nate Forrester. He worked at a bar called Benji's."

"Burnett wrote only one thing next to Nate's name—alibi checked."

"I'm not sure I need to go through this journal. You know more than I did then, Cooper."

"Keep going."

She looked further down the page and Kyle's name jumped out at her. She closed the book. "I don't want to do this."

"Afraid to show me what you wrote about Kyle?" he challenged.

"What purpose will it serve? It will just make you unhappy."

"Give me the book, Andi."

She hesitated, then handed him the journal. "I'm going downstairs to look for some cash and see if I can get into my father's computer. That will be a lot more helpful. And then we need to go." She paused at the door. "If I can find the spare key, we can take my father's car. That way we won't have to drive with the bullet-shattered glass."

Her words fell on deaf ears as Cooper read through her journal. She couldn't remember exactly what she'd written, but she had a feeling the wall between Cooper and her would be coming back up very soon.

She went downstairs and into the office. Her father's laptop was on his desk. She opened it up and saw it required a password. He'd never been too clever about passwords. She tried a couple of his old favorites and found gold on the last one. As the computer opened, the display showed a background photo of her father and his latest girlfriend, who was wearing a skimpy bikini and looked to be in her twenties. Her father was never ever going to change.

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