Page 123 of Trouble Comes in Threes

I drew in a breath and sat back in my chair. “Well, thank you for your time, Scott. If you think of anything else, will you contact Darlene and have her let me know? She’ll pass it on to me, and we can set up another time to meet.”

“You ain’t gonna give me your number?” he asked in confusion when I stood.

I stayed next to the table. “No.” But if I were going to continue with this nonsense, then I’d have to get a burner phone.

What in the world was I thinking? I wasn’t going to continue looking into this.

Maybe if I repeated it enough times in my head, I’d convince myself.

Chapter Twenty-Five

As soon as I got in the car, after a moment’s hesitation, I called Dermot. He’d looked me in the eyes and told me he hadn’t murdered those men. I had no reason to distrust him, even if I had some lingering doubts. The call went straight to voicemail again. Why was his phone turned off? That worried me more than a little.

“Hey, Dermot,” I said after the beep. “I’m startin’ to get a little concerned about you. I have more information, but I don’t want to leave it in a voicemail. Call me back when you get this.”

I hung up and headed to the nursing home, eager to see my children.

The kids were in the living room when I walked in, sitting around Miss Mildred, who was still basking in their attention. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her this happy.

I hated that I was about to destroy that.

Hope saw me first and jumped out of her seat. “Momma! I made a cupcake with a bunny on top!”

I kneeled down and scooped her into my arms, hugging her. “That’s so awesome! I can’t wait to see it.”

She hugged me back, then squirmed. “Why you huggin’ me so tight?”

I kissed her cheek as I loosened my hold. Lifting a hand to the side of her head, I smoothed back some of her dark brown waves. Her dark brown eyes studied me, and for a brief moment, I saw her biological father in her intense gaze. My heart tripped, but I plastered on a smile. “I missed you.”

“I wasn’t hewa vewy long, silly.”

I laughed. “It doesn’t matter how long or short I’m away. I always miss you.”

Her mouth twisted to the side. “Will you be sad if I didn’t miss you too?”

I laughed again. “No. I’m glad you had fun.” The hug hadn’t been enough to calm my nerves, but holding her any longer would look suspicious. Besides, Miss Mildred was staring at us, her smile gone.

I drew in a breath, girding myself for her sharp tongue.

Holding Hope’s hand, I stood and turned my attention to Ashley and Mikey. “Did you guys have fun?”

“The mostest fun, Aunt Rose!” Mikey exclaimed. “I made a cupcake too, and it had dragon’s eggs on top!”

“Oh my goodness!” I said, pretending to be shocked. “Where did you get dragon’s eggs?”

Mikey started giggling, and Hope tugged on my hand.

When I glanced down at her, she said with a serious expression, “They awen’t weal, Momma.”

“What?”

“They just pwetend,” she said, empathy on her face. “I’m sowwy if you’wa sad that they not weal.”

I offered her a smile. “It’s okay. But real dragon’s eggs would be cool.”

“The coolest!” Mikey said excitedly, then turned to Miss Mildred. “Right?”

“You’d be the only boy in the world with them, so that would definitely be cool,” she said. Her smile was softer now, as though my presence had thrown a blanket over her happiness.

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