Page 52 of Silent Trail

Sheila, call me as soon as you can. There's something very important I'd like to speak with you about—something we should keep between the two of us, at least for now.

"You coming?" Natalie called out the window.

"Just give me a moment," she said as she tried to make sense of her father's words.

Natalie hesitated, her gaze searching Sheila's face for any sign of distress. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Sheila reassured her, keeping her father's request for secrecy in mind. "Actually, why don't you two go on without me? I'll ask one of the other officers to drive me home."

"Are you sure?" Finn asked, concern etched in the lines around his eyes.

"Positive," she said. She did her best to offer a reassuring smile.

With a nod and a wave, Finn and Natalie drove off, leaving Sheila alone with her thoughts and the urgent message from her father. The weight of his words settled upon her shoulders as she stood at the edge of the bridge, her heart pounding.

What, she wondered, could her father need to tell her so badly?

EPILOGUE

Sheila paced along the edge of the dilapidated bridge, waiting for her father to pick up the phone.

"Come on, Dad...pick up," she muttered under her breath, her fingers tapping an impatient rhythm on her thigh. She had called him back just a few minutes after he'd called her, so why wasn't he answering—especially if this was 'very important'?

The early morning air was cool against her skin, and the scent of damp earth filled her nostrils. Her breath formed small clouds in the gradually lightening sky. It was hard to believe that she had nearly fallen from this bridge less than an hour earlier.

Finally, Gabriel Stone's voice came through the line, sounding gruff and serious. "Sheila, thanks for calling me back."

"Of course, Dad," she replied, her voice tense with worry. "What's going on? You sounded really serious in your voicemail."

"Are you sitting down?" he asked.

"Is it Jason?" Sheila asked, fear gripping her chest tightly. "Did something happen to him?"

"No, no, it's not that," Gabriel reassured her, but his cryptic manner only served to heighten her anxiety. "I just need to talk to you about something important."

"Would you please just spit it out? This suspense is killing me."

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line before Gabriel finally spoke, his voice low and contemplative. "You know how I've spent my free time painting lately?"

"Yeah," she said cautiously, unsure where he was going with this.

"Well, that's not the only thing I've been doing. I've also been working on Henrietta's murder investigation."

Sheila's heart skipped a beat, her mind reeling from the revelation. Memories of her mother flooded her thoughts, leaving her momentarily breathless. "You...what? But why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want to give you false hope, make you feel like there was any guarantee of figuring out who killed her."

Sheila was silent for a few moments, thinking over the implications of what her father was saying. "But now you're bringing it up, which tells me there's been a development, right?"

Her father hesitated for a moment, clearly weighing his words. "I can't say for certain yet, but I think I might be onto something. It's not a guarantee, Sheila, but it's a start."

As she processed her father's words, Sheila felt a mixture of emotions welling up inside her: hope, fear, and a fierce determination to uncover the truth behind her mother's death.

"I haven't told Natalie, though," he added.

"Wait, why not?" Sheila asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

Gabriel hesitated before explaining. "I was going to, but then there was the shooting and all, and Nat..." He paused and sighed. "She's still recovering from what happened—not just physically, but emotionally as well. She needs time to adjust to the change, and bringing up her mother's death…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It would only put more strain on her."

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