Page 25 of Secrets on Sapphire

Rusty Nail

Sitting at the cold table waiting for her brother, she knew she couldn’t stand to come here much longer. He was being guided to her and she had to briefly look away. He was wasting away with grief and anger and she wasn’t getting any closer to solving what happened to Calista. He sat down and the two just looked into each other’s hazel eyes until the guard stepped away to give them the minimal amount of privacy possible.

“Well, did you look under the floorboard?” Tim quickly asked.

“Yes. It was all there. Can you please tell me what it is?”

Tim’s head fell between his shoulders. “I can’t. I don’t know if they’re listening.” He lifted his eyes and looked around the room at the guards.

“Tim, we aren’t talking on a recorded line. Tell me. I need your help. Otherwise, you may as well get comfortable because this will be your forever home.”

“You honestly haven’t found anything to figure out what happened to her?”

“Nothing. I told you about the last time I brought up her name and all it did was lead me to this floorboard,” Edie said through clenched teeth.

“Brielle?” Tim’s eyes were pleading for something . . . anything.

“Haven’t seen her. I hosted a book club meeting at the house and she didn’t show. She said she had something come up. I plan on stopping by her house today.”

Tim sat on the steel stool simply thinking. He opened his mouth and said “What about the other ladies? Any clues from them?”

“They know.”

“They know what?” Tim asked.

“They know who I am and what I’m doing here.”

“Who’s they?” Tim was beginning to fill with rage. What if they all had something to do with Calista’s disappearance?

“Just Harley, Taylor, and Sammy. They found the picture you had on the fridge from when the boys were born. I couldn’t lie to them. Those three loved Calista.”

“How do you know?”

“Harley tears up at just the utter of her name. Taylor was ecstatic at the thought of someone trying to locate her friend and Sammy apparently has been doing a search of her own. She’s a detective and has been pulling her resources to try and find out what happened to Calista.” Edie reached across the table and touched her brother’s hands. “We can trust them Tim. They promised not to share with Parker or Brielle.”

“Okay,” was all Tim could say.

“Tim. Please tell me why the things under the floorboard are so important.”

“We killed someone.”

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