Page 59 of Obsession

While she’d come to terms with her parents’ divorce, a part of her still wished they could get back together. Wasn’t that almost every child’s dream for divorced parents, even an adult child?

29

Sam pulled up to Ricco’s and texted Emma he was there. A few minutes later, she emerged from the restaurant and hurried to his SUV.

“Thanks,” she said as she climbed into the passenger seat and laid an envelope on the console. She sounded relieved.

“How’d it go?”

“It started off rocky, but it got better.”

“How so?”

“We actually talked, and I asked her if she thought Ryan killed Mary Jo.”

“That had to have been hard.” Emma had never been an in-your-face person, and even as a teenager, she never bucked her parents. “I assume she convinced you she didn’t.”

When an answer wasn’t forthcoming, he glanced at her. Emma had a faraway look on her face. “Actually, yes,” she said with a sigh. “I’m so far out of the loop. I just found out my parents are getting together once a month for dinner.”

“Any chance of them getting back together?”

“Mom says not, and she’s probably right. They are both so different, and they want different things out of life. They seem to get along better since the divorce than when I was growing up.”

He hoped that wasn’t true of his parents. After they were on I-55, he asked, “The Trace or Highway 61?”

“How about the Trace? That way we can swing by and check on the dig site at Mount Locust.”

“Good idea,” he said. Clayton was off tonight, leaving only one deputy at the site.

“Just watch for deer.” Emma picked up the envelope and clicked on the reading light on the passenger side.

“Is that the private investigator’s report?”

“Yeah, and Mom was right. There’s not much in it.”

“Who was the investigator?”

She pulled out the sheets. “Harry Bell signed it.”

Sam frowned. “The name sounds familiar.”

“It says at the bottom of the page he’s a former FBI agent.”

The name and a face clicked. Harry “Bulldog” Bell. “He taught a class at Glynco, Georgia, when I went through the academy there.” He exited off onto I-20 west, then a few miles later took the Trace exit. “I wonder if your mother lost part of the report?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Harry Bell was a good agent and an excellent teacher. I can’t see him doing a half-baked investigation ... or report.”

“Really?” she said. “But it wouldn’t be like my mother to lose something like that.”

While Emma sifted through the papers, he turned on the overhead light. “See if it looks like anything’s missing.”

She was quiet except for the turning of pages for a minute. Then she looked up. “The pages aren’t numbered, but what’s at the bottom of some of the pages doesn’t line up with what’s at the top of the next page. And the sheriff’s file on Ryan that Mom said was included isn’t here.”

“See if there’s a number to call Bell.”

“There are two—looks like an office number and one for a cell.”

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