Don't Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks #1)(45)

By the time Caden finished, both their moods had changed. Hearing all the little details about his sister made Sawyer think of her own sisters and how difficult it would be to lose either one of them so tragically. He walked her to the door and said goodbye.

On her way back to her car, Sawyer peered through the window of the blue Honda Civic parked in the driveway. A crystal dangled from the rearview mirror. There was a calculus workbook on the back seat and a binder. She looked over her shoulder toward the house and saw someone peeking through the curtains.

Was it Caden or his uncle? She couldn’t tell.

As she continued on her path toward her car, the reporter stepped out of the van and tried to block Sawyer from walking past. “You must be a friend of the family,” she said. “You were inside the house for quite a while. How is the family holding up?”

“Isabella Estrada was brutally murdered yesterday. How do you think they’re doing?”

As Sawyer drove away, she thought about her job. Objectivity, accountability, fairness, and truth were the key ethical responsibilities of every journalist. But sometimes reporters—broadcasters, particularly—went for emotion when they interviewed the victim’s family, throwing compassion and concern out the window, which only made things worse.

She glanced at the time. It was 4:00 p.m. She had a long list of people she wanted to talk to. Caden had mentioned Amanda Harrington as being one of Isabella’s good friends. Sawyer also intended to talk to Chief Schneider and get the facts. For instance, who found Isabella? When, and what time? Were there any witnesses who might have seen someone in the vicinity around the time of the murder? Were there any suspects?





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

From a few blocks away, he watched Sawyer disappear inside the Estrada home. It made sense that she’d go there first to get answers to her questions. But he couldn’t lie. He was surprised they’d invited her inside their home less than forty-eight hours after their only daughter had been strangled and strapped to a tree.

If only he were a fly on the wall.

Who was she talking to? What sort of questions would she ask them? And what could they possibly tell her about Isabella that would enlighten her audience? Teenage girls were self-centered and only cared about themselves. He was doing the town a favor by getting rid of ones like Isabella, who were never held accountable for their actions. It was sickening to watch the way parents rushed in to save their darling daughters from the tiniest of problems.

He was the person Sawyer should be talking to.

The thought made him chuckle. Isabella was dead because she happened to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Any young girl would have worked. The only reason he’d killed her was to try to keep Sawyer Brooks in River Rock as long as possible. The funny part was that it had worked.

Seeing Sawyer again after all these years had jump-started something within, sparked the fire that he was certain had been building since the day he was born. He’d been obsessed with Sawyer since the first time they had met. He would do anything to keep her close. Someday he might find the courage to tell her how he felt.

Not today, though.

He needed to give her time to get to know him, show her he could be trusted, and that he was worthy of her love.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Before Sawyer got to the main road, she pulled onto the shoulder and used her cell to do a search to find an address for Amanda Harrington.

Derek Coleman’s name and number popped up, since she’d talked to him recently. Should she give him a call and let him know she might be staying in River Rock longer than first planned?

No. It was Saturday. She didn’t want to bother him on the weekend. But if she called him on Monday, she would be interrupting his work.

She was doing what she always did—overanalyzing. Without giving it another thought, she pressed the screen with her finger, put the phone to her ear, and wondered what she would say if he answered.

“Hello?”

Damn. It was him.

“Is that you, Sawyer?”

“Oh, hi, sorry. I was a little distracted. Obviously. I just wanted to let you know—”

She heard a voice in the background. A woman calling his name.

“Hold on,” he said to Sawyer while he told whoever it was to go on without him and he’d be right there.

“Don’t let me keep you from whatever you were doing,” Sawyer said. “I can talk to you later.” He was obviously with a woman. She sounded young and carefree, probably had zero anxiety, and was lovely inside and out. This was awkward. She never should have called.

“I’d rather talk to you than play badminton with my sister,” Coleman said. “I’m at my parents’ house.”

She heard chatter and laughing in the background. “Are you having a family reunion?”

He chuckled. “You could call it that. Every time we get together, which is much too often, it’s like a reunion. I have four sisters and two brothers. Between those six, I have fourteen nieces and nephews. Ten of those are females. The males are outnumbered.”

“Females are the future,” she said.

“So I’ve heard.”

Stay on track, she reminded herself. “I called to let you know I might be staying in River Rock longer than planned.”

“When will you be returning?”