Page 36 of Cold Case Discovery

CHLOEHADHELPEDthe Hudson clan with cold cases before, but mostly in a very supplementary way: getting them information they couldn’t get themselves, responding to active threats connected to their cold cases. But she’d never been involved in a full-fledged Hudson Sibling Solutions meeting.

It wasn’t all that different from a family dinner. Everyone shoved together in the living room instead of the dining room. The low buzz of conversations, bickering and the most recent addition of a baby occasionally fussing while everyone arrived and got settled.

Carlyle was missing because she’d made up an excuse to use Ry to do some evening chores with her and Izzy out at the dog barns. Jack had offered to let Ry be part of the meeting, but Chloe had nixed that idea.

She loved her brother, wanted to protect him with all she was, even to the point of risking things she shouldn’t risk, but she couldn’t trust him withanything. Especially this. She might want to protect him from the repercussions of what he’d potentially done, but she wouldn’t do it at the expense of finding the truth.

She didn’t really think Ry had done anything wrong when it came to the skeletal remains, but she could see how any involvement with their father could mean he was mixed up insomethingwrong.

“This meeting better be about what I think it’s about,” Anna said, with baby Caroline situated on her lap.

The fringe conversations began to die out, and all eyes turned to Jack. Chloe had always known he’d taken on too much here with his family, felt a responsibility that was maybe bigger than necessary.

But she’d never so clearly seen it in action—everyone he loved turning their attention to him, looking tohimfor answers. Since he’d been eighteen years old. Her heart ached for the young man he’d been.

“The case regarding the skeletal remains—that, I’ll point out, have not been positively IDed yet—has changed on us, gotten more complicated, and now it includes a potentially current threat.”

“No one is threatening me,” Chloe muttered, because for all that was mixed up and wrong, some mutilated snake on her porch with absolutely no information didn’t lend itself to her being worried. The dolls in the chest were an old “joke” from her father. She didn’t have any actualfearof a threat, but she waslettingJack take care of her.

Or trying to anyway.

“I think a mutilated snake on your porch is threat enough, whether we know what it’s threatening or not,” Mary said primly.

“Maybe it doesn’t connect. The snake. Mark Brink. The remains. But the timing feels like too much of a coincidence,” Jack continued. “I still want us supporting Bent County detectives in all facets we can, but things have changed enough, I think we should launch our own investigation.”

Chloe expected there to besomereaction from the Hudson siblings. A grim kind of excitement or relief that Jack was okaying what he’d previously forbidden.

But there was silence. Dahlia snuck a look at Grant. Palmer suddenly found the ceilingveryinteresting. Anna studied Caroline’s socks as if they had the answers to the mysteries of the world on them.

Jack sighed. “So go on and get everything you’ve been gathering in secret and against my wishes. We’re looking into it now. As a team.”

“Thank God,” Anna muttered. She looked over at Hawk, who got up and left the room. One person from every couple did the same, slowly returning with arms full of things. One by one, they dropped files, notebooks and printouts onto the table in the center of the room in front of Jack. Chloe’s eyes widened as it became a tower of papers that nearly toppled over. She snuck a glance at Jack.

He didn’t look the least bit surprised. Resigned, a little disapproving, but maybe even just ahintof pride.

Chloe realized then that he’d known they were doing it. Behind his back. Even though he didn’t want them to. And he wasn’t angry about it.

Something about him knowing and just...letting them, even when he didn’t want them to. It settled in her like warmth. Everyone painted him as so rigid, and hecouldbe on the outside, but on the inside...

He was someone else entirely. And she loved him so much, it turned intoanxietyinside her. Because love could so easily be taken away. Especially with a last name like hers.

“I haven’t put it in my notes yet, but Imayhave eavesdropped when Detective Delaney-Carson interviewed Ry again,” Anna said. She looked over at Chloe. “He’s lying.”

Chloe nodded. “I know.” She swallowed. She didn’t want to share withallof them what she’d found out, because she wasn’t sure they would agree with Jack that they shouldallwork together.

And she wanted to protect Ry, but in the audience of everyone whose parents might be buried on her family ranch, she felt the need to be honest. Even at Ry’s expense.

“He admitted to me he’s had written contact with our father. I haven’t figured out what they talked about yet, but I’m going to.” She took a deep breath. “And I’ll make sure to share it with you as it pertains to the skeletal remains, but I also understand this is complicated. Well, thatImake it complicated. Threats or no, we’re looking at my father and a ranch my name is on. I understand if there’s a thread of mistrust here, and I don’t have to stay.”

Jack gave her a sharp look, but it was nothing on Mary’s.

“Chloe Brink, I have known you since we were in kindergarten. And not once, in all that time, all those different phases of our lives, have I ever thought you wereanythinglike your father or your brother.”

Before Chloe could respond to that, Palmer spoke. Because Chloe knew that for all Jack and Mary were on her side, it wasn’t unanimous. Palmer had made it quite clear he had his doubts about her.

“It doesn’t matter if she’s like them if she’s more worried about protecting them than getting to the truth,” Palmer said. He didn’t budge when both Jack and Mary glared at him. He sat where he was, looking right at Chloe. “I don’t have anything against you as a person, Chloe, but your involvement is complicated.”

“I agree. That’s why I’m saying I don’t have to be here.”

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