Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(9)

Fletcher remained as happy as ever, but Deidre smiled less and less in the

pictures, especially as her stomach grew larger and rounder, and it became

apparent that she was pregnant. One shot showed Deirdre deep into her

pregnancy. Fletcher had his arm slung around her shoulder and was smiling at

the camera, but Deirdre’s expression seemed more like a grimace than a grin,

as though she had screwed on a smile just to have her picture taken.

And finally, I saw the first and only photo of Finn.

It must have been taken a few days after he was born, because he was just a

tiny, blanket-wrapped bundle, cradled in Fletcher’s arms, his sleeping face

turned toward the camera. Fletcher was positively beaming, his face stretched

into an enormous grin. Deirdre was standing next to him, looking at Finn, but

her eyes were empty, and her face was strangely blank, as though she were

staring at someone else’s baby instead of her own son.

That last photo made even more cold worry pool in my chest, as though my heart

were made of the same jagged icicles as Deirdre’s rune.

“It’s like a chronicle of their relationship,” Bria murmured, studying the

photos as I handed them to her one by one. “Only without saying how or when

they finally broke up.”

“I’m guessing that part didn’t make for such a pretty picture.”

Bria set the photos aside, and I fished out the other objects in the box. An

engagement ring with a hole where the diamond should be. An empty, cracked,

heart-shaped perfume bottle that still smelled faintly of peonies. A blue

cameo of a mother holding a child, split down the middle into two pieces.

“Mementos Fletcher saved from happier times?” Bria suggested.

“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe they’re a message.”

She held up the cameo pieces. “What kind of message does a broken pendant

send?”

“Not a good one.”

A soft blue baby blanket was also tucked into the box, with Finn’s name

stitched across the bottom in white letters. I lifted up the blanket,

expecting it to be the final thing in the box, but two items were buried

underneath it, two letters in sealed envelopes, one addressed to me and the

other to Finn.

I gasped, but Bria was looking through the photos again, so she didn’t notice

my surprise. I dropped the blanket back down where it had been, hiding the

letters. I loved my sister, but I wanted to read Fletcher’s words in private,

wanted to have some time to myself to think about them and digest them. Not to

mention Finn’s letter. I didn’t even know what to do with that right now.

“That’s it?” Bria asked. “Just a baby blanket? That’s all there is?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “Why?”

She shrugged. “All this stuff is interesting, for sure, but there’s nothing

here that’s earth-shattering. Overall, it seems a bit . . . disappointing.”

“You’re not the one with a suddenly not-so-dead mother.”

“True,” Bria said. “But Fletcher has left you clues and letters before. Far

more detailed ones. This seems like a keepsake box more than anything else. I

just thought there would be something more. Records, certificates, maybe even

a diary that would tell you about Deirdre, like why she apparently faked her

own death and left town and why Fletcher went along with it.”

I shrugged, making sure not to look at the baby blanket and the two letters

buried under it. “The old man always left me the information that he thought

was the most important. In this case, maybe he thought it was the pictures.

Maybe he wanted me to see Deirdre as she was back then.”

“Well, you knew Fletcher best. Maybe things will make more sense after

you’ve gone through everything again.”

Bria bit her lip, dropped her gaze to her hands, and started twisting her two

rune rings around on her fingers, something she only did when she was thinking

hard or worried about something. Her own giveaway, just like quietness was

mine.

After a few seconds, her hands stilled, and she looked at me. “So what do we

tell Finn?”

I scrubbed my hands over my face, but the motion did nothing to ease the dull

ache in my temples. “I don’t know. I was hoping that I’d be able to track

her down and do some reconnaissance before I told him anything. But so far,

she’s been a complete ghost. No driver’s license, no property or tax

records, no trace of a Deirdre Shaw anywhere in Ashland.” I gestured at the

box, photos, and other items. “Even with all of this, all I really know about

her is that she’s not dead like she’s supposed to be.”

“You have to tell Finn that his mother is alive,” Bria said in a soft voice.

“He’s already going to be upset and hurt that you didn’t tell him the

second you found out. The longer you wait now, the worse it will be. You know

that.”