Page 110 of We Are All Guilty Here

Jude’s smile felt bittersweet. She had forgotten what it felt like to share Henry with someone. “It’s good to see you, Ceals.”

Celia smiled back, but she didn’t return the sentiment. “Why are you here?”

“Because—” Jude silently chastised herself for not preparing a better answer to the most obvious question. “Because I got the missing child alert for Paisley Walker, and I clicked on the link and saw the photo of Emmy with Dad.”

“That sounds like a sequence of events rather than an explanation.”

Jude laughed because it was easier. “I heard you’re a high school principal now. It suits you.”

“You knew that before you got here, though.” Celia opened the fridge and started pulling out Tupperware. “You’ve been following us on Facebook.”

“Tommy ratted me out.”

“He didn’t have to. You think I couldn’t put together the clues?” Celia took a plate from the drainer. “You always hated the name Martha and loved Paul McCartney, plus there was no way you’d go by Judean. And Archer, well that’s from Isabel Archer, isn’t it?The Portrait of a Lady. You did your junior paper on Henry James.”

Jude had worked with seasoned agents who weren’t as clever. Of course, they hadn’t grown up with Jude like Celia had. “Why didn’t you ever message me?”

“Probably for the same reason you never messaged me.” Celia placed two biscuits on the plate, added some bacon. “I met Paisley Walker at ninth-grade orientation. I don’t remember what she looked like or what she said, but there’s a photo in the paper of me shaking her hand like I do with all the incoming ninth-graders.”

Jude could hear the sadness in her voice. “What do you know about the family?”

“Elijah handles our car insurance.” She popped open the microwave door. “I don’t like him, but he’s who everybody else uses. You know how it is.”

Jude did. North Falls people used North Falls businesses. “Taybee told me to heat those up in the oven.”

Celia placed the plate in the microwave. She closed the door. Then closed it again. Then again.

Jude didn’t want to laugh, but she did.

“I’m going to hell for that. Taybee really has been a massivehelp these past few years.” Celia turned off the oven. She sat in Henry’s chair. Motioned for Jude to join her. “All right, out with it. Why are you really here?”

Jude took her time sitting down. “My job is to find missing children. There’s a child missing. I thought I could help Emmy.”

“Emmy’s not the kind to take help.”

“She’s so much like Gerald.” Jude couldn’t keep the sense of wonder out of her voice. “She sees clues the way he did. Cuts through the bullshit. Knows how to get to the truth. And she’s as prickly as Myrna. I haven’t been talked to like that in a very long time.”

“Emmy is the best of both of them, but she’s always been her own person.” Celia shrugged, but she was clearly proud. “Did Tommy tell you about Gerald’s cancer?”

“Milo filled me in at the funeral home.” Jude had worked past the shock of her father’s death only to be hit with a second wave of sadness. Gerald had known he was going to die, and he still hadn’t reached out to her. “Who’s Dylan?”

“A very nice man whom Emmy left because she couldn’t handle Gerald dying of cancer and Myrna slipping away at the same time.” Celia clasped together her hands on the table. “Tommy did his part. I tried to do mine. The old biddy’s forgotten everything but for the fact that she hates me.”

Jude said, “I told myself there might be some kind of resolution.”

“Gerald wasn’t the only reason you stayed away.”

“No, he wasn’t.” Jude picked at the frayed place mat. The melancholy threatened to return, and with it the grief of all that had been lost. “The last thing I said to him was that I hated him.”

Celia’s eyebrows went up.

“I didn’t say it. I screamed it,” Jude admitted. “I told both of them that I wouldn’t step foot back in Clifton until they were dead.”

“Well,” Celia said. “Gerald left Myrna out of that part of the story, but that’s pretty much what he told Tommy and Emmy.”

Jude knew that her father didn’t make those sorts of mistakes. He’d been trying to protect Myrna. “What explanation did he give for my fake death?”

“The car accident that almost killed Bubba Rawley. Geraldneeded you gone so he didn’t have to arrest you. Millie wanted to file charges for you stealing her cars. He told people you were dead, and they believed him.”

---