Page 39 of Sin With Me

“Joan… Williams….” My gaze fixated on the printed letters. “Joanna Williams, 1960. Here it is.” I pulled out the file, and Kate immediately grabbed it from me. She ran to the spot in the attic where more light was shining through the window, splayed the papers out on a cabinet, and in the dim light, began reading throughthem.

“Is that your mother?” I asked, but she ignored my question and kept going through the papers, one after another, and then stopped. I saw the blood drain from her face and her lower lip quiver. She lost her balance for a moment, but she grasped the edge of the dresser to support herself. I wanted to help her. I wanted to hold her under her arm and tell her that whatever was happening here, that we could get through it together. Except there was no we. There never could be. To say that my life was complicated would have been an understatement, and to pull someone else along into my world would be close to sinning in its purest form. I couldn’t let anyone else get hurt because of me, especially someone as innocent as Kate. Sometimes I wondered whether I had blinders on when I looked at her, because truthfully, when I looked at her, I couldn’t see past her beauty and good heart.

“I had a brother,” she finally said. “He was killed here in Pace when he wastwo.”

Her hands were shaking.

“Kate, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I already knew my brother died; I just didn’t know it was here. His grave must be in the cemetery behind the church.”

I wondered why Joanna would have hid this information from her daughter who was a detective. Mothers usually hid information from their children to protect them. Was Kate really in that much trouble?

“I don’t know why, but I’m beginning to have that twisted feeling in the pit of my stomach – and I haven’t been drinking, in case you’re wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” I chuckled. “That’s your instinct, Kate.”

“I just don’t know what my gut’s trying to tell me. It’s… confusing.”

Why did it feel like I was the one confusingher?

“I’ve been here for four months, and I didn’t even know this was my little brother’s resting place.” Her eyes glossed over, and I pulled away from the files I was sifting through.

“Do you know how hedied?”

“No, my parents never talked about it. It was a bad time in their lives.”

“So maybe she sent you here to find other family members? Maybe this Jack is another one of them, I guess.”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” she asked with hope. “Jack must be a relative.”

“OrJohn.”

“No, she saidJack.”

I resumed flipping through the files when a familiar name flashedby.

“I think I found something,” I said before thinking. I should have kept my mouth shut and burned those papers. I should have done something… anything from revealing this to Kate. I didn’t want her afraid while she was trying to find her family roots.

“Mateo Cortez.”

She gasped and backed away from the dresser so quickly that all the papers spilled from itstop.

Fuck!

Something crashed to the floor. Actually, it was someone. When I turned around I saw Kate lying unconscious on the dirty boards.

“Whoa! Kate!” I ran to her side and lifted her feet up on top of a box, then fanned her face. She had a pulse and she was breathing on her own. Feeling drops of sweat trickle down my back, I realized that maybe we’d spent too much time in the hot attic. Her head moved slightly, and her eyes fluttered. I felt instant relief.

“Kate?”

“What happened?”

“You fainted. Come on, it’s too hot up here. We need to get you to a cooler spot.” When I tried to lift her, she pushed my hand to the side, rolled over, and got up on all fours, after which she began to crawl toward the spilled papers.

“No. I need to findout.”

“Kate, it doesn’t change anything. They’re longgone.”

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