Page 47 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

“Coco, hush!” Cissy commanded, and for once the little white scruff stopped yapping, cowering behind Cissy’s ankles and peering around her legs as Cissy opened the door to find that Paterno wasn’t alone. The mannish-looking woman detective, Janet Quinn, was with him, and Cissy could tell from their expressions they were not the bearers of good news.

Would it never end? Last night she’d been subjected to Jack’s less-than-warm-and-fuzzy family, the night before Gran had been killed, and now…Oh God, what if something had happened to Jack?

Her knees threatened to buckle, and her heart lost a beat as she recognized the detectives’ grim expressions for what they were.

“What?” she said, her voice hoarse.

“Can we come in?” Paterno asked. His tone was almost kind.

“I-uh-yes, of course.” She backed up on rubbery legs, then somehow guided them into the living room. B.J. was asleep upstairs, thank God, but Jack…Where the hell was Jack? Now that he’d invaded her life again, she’d come to expect him. “What is it?”

“There’s been another death.”

Cissy inhaled sharply. She couldn’t believe it. Not Jack. Please, God, not Jack! “Who?” she whispered.

“Please, sit down,” Paterno said, and she dropped into a chair, letting the force of gravity pull her into the deep, soft cushions.

“Rory Amhurst was killed earlier tonight.”

Cissy blinked. “Rory…? Killed?”

“Murdered.”

She felt cold inside. Numb. “My uncle in the care center.” She was shaking her head. This was crazy. “There must be some mistake. No one would want to harm him. He’s…well, he’s not all there.”

But both the detectives were nodding. “I know,” Quinn said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“But this is wrong. No—” She couldn’t believe it. First Gran, now Rory?

“Do you have someone who can stay with you?”

“What?”

“You probably shouldn’t be alone.”

“No, I’ll be fine.” It was an automatic response, knee jerk, a lie, and everyone in the room knew it.

“Do you remember the last time you saw your uncle?”

“Uh…no…well, yeah, maybe around Christmas. I took B.J. to visit him. We brought him some Christmas cookies. I don’t really know him, not well. All my life he’s been at one home or another.” The numbness was wearing off now, and her mind was starting to piece things together. “You think this has something to do with Marla’s escape,” she guessed and read a silent acknowledgment in Paterno’s eyes. “You think she’s behind his death? That’s what you’re saying.”

“We don’t really know what happened. Yet.”

“Just like you think she killed Gran?”

“It’s possible.”

Cissy shoved the hair from her eyes and tried to think straight. “You’re insinuating that she broke out of prison and now is on some kind of killing spree, annihilating members of her, of my, family?”

“We don’t know what her involvement is at this point.”

“But you think it’s something.”

Janet Quinn said, “Marla Amhurst Cahill is the link between Eugenia Cahill and Rory Amhurst. She’s related to both of them. As are you.”

Cissy felt a chill deep in her soul.

---