Page 11 of Obsession

Once he disconnected, he hooked the phone back on his belt and turned to Emma. “I’ll be right back with my fingerprint kit.”

He retrieved the kit from his SUV and hurried back inside to find Emma drumming her fingers on the counter. “Are there any security cameras set up in or around the apartment?” he asked.

She blew out a breath. “No. There are only four tenants, three upstairs and one down, and she’s gone to visit her daughter, plus the owner, who is out of town as well. We talked about it at ourlast get-together, but nothing came of it. We should have bought one ourselves after our landlord refused. She’s older and doesn’t want to spend any more money than she has to.”

“How about someone else in the neighborhood?”

“Not that I know of, and their camera wouldn’t be pointed toward this apartment, anyway. I don’t know any of my neighbors very well either,” she said. “Maybe it’s like Greg said and the flowers are harmless.”

“Who’s Greg?”

“He lives in the apartment across the hall. Nice guy.”

“What did he say?”

Her face colored. “That I was pretty and it was probably just someone too shy to give them to me in person.”

That was possible. In fact, he’d like to think it was probable. Still, he wanted to check for prints. He removed the flowers from the vase and handed them to Emma, observing her stiff body. She hadn’t been this tense last night. “So, how are your parents?”

She frowned, then her shoulders relaxed slightly. “Good as they can be. Since you left, Dad became chief nursing officer at Merit, and Mom’s in Jackson. She’s an assistant district attorney and thinking about running for the top position when the DA retires.” Emma put the flowers in another vase and then sat across from him at the island. “I know what you’re doing—trying to make everything normal.”

He grinned at her and continued dusting the vase.

“They divorced, you know.”

“Yeah, I’d heard that, and I’m sorry.”

“When Ryan left, they had different opinions on how it should be handled. Then the strain of Ryan being accused of murder was too much.” She picked at a hangnail. “I think Dad would take Mom back in a minute, but that would mean he’d have to move to Jackson, and that’s the last thing he wants to do.”

His mother had kept him updated on Emma’s family, and he could see her dad not wanting to leave Natchez, just like he couldsee her mom not wanting to give up her career in Jackson. Even as a teenager, he’d seen the two had been as different as oil and water. Jack was laid-back, and Dina a classic type A overachiever and a workaholic.

He picked up the dark powder and bent over the vase, lightly twirling the side of the camel-hair brush over the surface. “Any chance they might get back together?”

“For a long time, I thought they would if I could find Ryan and bring him home. Looking back, I can see their marriage was shaky years before Ryan disappeared, but I believe that was the tipping point.”

She fell silent for a minute, and Sam looked up.

“You’re pretty good at that,” she said.

“There’s an art to it,” he said, pausing with the brush in his hand, “but I’ve had a lot of practice.”

She nodded and a few seconds later drummed her fingers on the counter again.

“This shouldn’t take much longer.”

Abruptly the drumming stopped. “Sorry. I’m not the most patient person.”

“No kidding.” He glanced her way, sending his heart into overdrive. No matter how hard he fought it, she still stirred his heart.

She hopped off the stool and grabbed a glass, filling it with water. “How about your mom? I see her at church, but we don’t talk,” she said from across the room. The shakiness in her voice told him he had an effect on her as well.

“She’s busy with Jace when she’s not at the newspaper.” His mom was a copyeditor for theNatchez Democrat. “He’s the light of her life.”

“I can understand that. I’ve seen him at church, and he’s a sweetheart.” Emma took a sip of water. “I didn’t see her last Sunday night.”

“She was busy.” Helping his deadbeat dad.

“How about your dad?”

---