Page 35 of Cold Case Discovery

She shook her head. “He claims he left his phone at my cabin, and he’ll show them to me later. I know he didn’t, and I know he won’t.”

“So he is hiding something.” Jack sighed. It just didn’t add up. What would Ry be hiding? He’d been too young to really be involved in any kind of murder or coverup. Besides, if Mark Brink killed those people...

“He’s protecting our father, for whatever godforsaken reason,” Chloe said, clearly trying so hard to be strong. For what, he didn’t know. Neither her father nor her brother really deserved that kind of dedication.

But even if they didn’t, their behavior connecting to cold case murders didn’t make sense either. “If Mark knew about the remainsbeforeRy dug, how did Ry warn him before he dug? And if Ry knew your father committed those murders and is trying to cover for him, why would he dig there or anywhere? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m not sure what my father or brother does always adds up.”

“Sure, but... We’re missing something here. The timing doesn’t work out for them to be purposefully covering up something Mark did that Ry knew about.”

Chloe sucked in a breath. “We should let the detectives handle it. I’ll tell them... I’ll tell them...” She couldn’t seem to get out the words. He hated why, but he understood it all the same.

“You don’t want to tell Laurel what you know.”

She looked up at him, her eyes still shiny, but clearly she had determined she wasn’t going to cry over this. “Ry needs to be maneuvered. You can’t just get answers out of him. And if there are answers to be had, I’m the best chance we have of getting them. If I involve the detectives, I just don’t think it’ll give us answers. Not without someone getting hurt.”

She shoved her hands in her pockets, looked at some place on the wall just behind him, as if it’d give him the illusion she was making eye contact.

“I know it’s wrong. I know I shouldn’t still want to protect him. But he’s not a murderer. Maybe Dad’s wrapped him up in this but only because he knows how to manipulate him. Not because Ry did anything wrong. I mean, he did. He lied. I just...” She seemed to run out of words, or maybe they were lodged in her throat. Because she just stood there, looking miserable.

So he moved over to her. He pulled her close, rubbed his hand up and down her spine untilsomeof that tension in her loosened. “Take a breath, Chloe. We’ll work through it. One step at a time.”

“I’ve got to stop laying this stuff at your feet. You’re the real victim here. You and your family.”

“Sounds like we’re all victims.”

She shook her head against his chest, but she didn’t pull away from him. She let him hold her.

He figured if anything made sense about the two of them, it was this. They both felt they had to do it all, hold it all together, and because they did, the other was the only person they knew how to lean on.

“You shouldn’t be comforting me. You’ve got your own awful stuff to deal with.”

“Yeah, but mine is old, and while it’s notdealtwith, you went with me on that drive the other night. You hate heights, and you sat next to me and listened to me talk. Things I can’t seem to admit to anyone else.” He held her closer.

“But—”

He pulled her back so he could look into her gaze. He hadn’t fully realized until all this had gone down how much she’d hidden from him in the past year. Old childhood hurts, insecurities. Trauma.

He’d had his own trauma, but he’d had a foundation to deal with it on. She’d had nothing but herself.

“All this bad stuff? It’s not math. There’s not a chart. You get to be upset. I get to be upset. And we’ll comfort each other however we can. Love isn’t a contest or a transaction, Chloe. It doesn’t work that way.”

Her chin wobbled, but she firmed it on an exhale. “I don’t know how love works.”

“Well, I guess you’ll figure it out as we go.”

She rolled her eyes, but not disdainfully. And she didn’t pull fully away. But the misery was still in every line of her face.

“We need to get to the bottom of this, Jack. I don’t want to go to Laurel, but you need answers. We all need answers.”

“So we’ll find them. Together.”

“How?”

Maybe he’d been avoiding it, but he’d known, since this morning, since Chloe’s safety had come into question, he couldn’t play hands-off anymore. Not and live with himself.

“By making this a Hudson Siblings Solutions case.”

---