The Running Girls(23)

Randall shuddered as the sense of déjà vu returned. On that day, he’d reluctantly agreed to allow Warren to take him to the crime scene, and had looked on in horror at the sight of his wife’s remains. It had all ended for him then. He’d become another person, in so many ways; the person he’d once been erased by what had happened to Annie.

He needed to get back, to escape the taunting weather. He half expected to stumble across Annie’s remains as he staggered along the powdery sand back to the relative safety of higher ground. There were other people in the area, and he sensed them watching him. He was convinced they were judging him on every step he took, his bad leg catching behind him as he stumbled along the path, and he had to fight the sense that they were about to give chase.

And then all of a sudden he was back home, breathless and scared. Had he imagined it all? For now, he didn’t care. Discarding his damp clothes, he lit the fire and wrapped himself in the blanket, hoping his memory would continue to fail until he reached the point where he remembered nothing.





Chapter Twelve


Laurie called David the moment she woke. Her fitful sleep had been disrupted by thoughts of him with Rebecca Whitehead, and she’d called without thought, determined to get some answers, only to regret the decision as she heard the phone ringing.

“Hey,” said David, answering after four rings. “Everything OK?”

They tended not to speak during David’s time away unless it was longer than a couple of weeks. David would always only be either working or asleep, but still, it felt like an unhealthy habit they’d slipped into. Laurie caught the familiar sound of static she always heard on these calls, and could at least rest knowing he was away at the refinery and not cozied up with the head of HR in her fancy old house. Though the possibility of that, however far-fetched it might be, angered her and she pulled the phone away from her ear for a second, noting how stubby her forearm looked. She jammed the phone back against her head. “Just checking in with my husband, if that’s OK?” she said, squirming at the sound of her neediness.

“Of course it is,” said David. “You sure you’re OK, Laurie?”

Why couldn’t she just come out with it? As a cop, she was used to interrogating in the worst of situations, so why was she unable to find the words Are you having an affair? Was it because she thought it was a ludicrous notion, or was she worried what he might say? “I didn’t know that Frank had a brother,” she said, the words falling from her mouth before she knew it. “Your uncle, Maurice?”

“What’s this about?”

“Just something I’m looking into.”

“You’re looking into my dad’s brother?”

“He was in town the other day.”

David went silent, the sound of machinery humming in the background. “Was he? Why?”

“I went to see your dad. Frank told me Maurice paid him a visit, and that they went on a trip to Maurice’s church.”

Another pause. She pictured him on the other end of the line, taking deep breaths, disappointed in her once again. “Why did you go to see my dad?”

It dawned on her that David wasn’t the only one who’d been deceiving. She hadn’t wanted him to find out she’d been seeing Frank this way and regretted ever making the call. “He’s a released convict. Police business.”

“Jesus, Laurie,” he said. “Why can’t you ever let the past go?”

It was Laurie’s turn to go silent. She thought he was referencing Milly, and the question felt like a gut punch. “What can you tell me about Maurice?” she asked, not willing to argue with him.

“He took him to his church?” said David, his voice deeper than before, a sign he was pissed with her.

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, maybe because they’re brothers.”

“I’ve never even met him. Mom always clammed up if he was ever mentioned. I always suspected something was up, but whenever I asked either of them about it, they refused to say anything beyond he was a preacher somewhere between here and Houston. What’s all this about?”

“Just curious.”

David’s breathing was heavy down the line and Laurie wondered what thoughts were going through his head. “I better get going,” he said, after an overlong silence.

“OK,” she said, waiting for the line to go dead before placing the phone on the side counter. She was shaking, her left bicep pulsating as if electricity had been shot through her veins. Talking to David had accomplished little beyond putting them both in fouler moods. It had been the wrong time to call, and the wrong way for her to tell him she’d met with his father. Not only would David be furious with her, he would feel helpless and alone at the refinery, which may as well have been on the other side of the world.

As for his revelation that he’d never met Maurice Randall, that didn’t come as much of a surprise. Frank had said as much when he’d explained that Annie had never wanted to see the man. The real question was, why was this bothering her so much?

The fallout from their call, and her lack of sleep over the last few days, had sapped her energy and she decided against a run. She’d work from home instead, having arranged to meet at the Harringtons’ at 8 a.m. He was staying the night in Houston, keen to chat with Glen Harrington’s work colleagues in the morning ahead of the press conference scheduled for later in the day.