Read Online A Bookmarked Death by Judi Culbertson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Judi Culbertson
Ads: Link
around me, nursing a glass of Yellow Tail Chardonnay. That was true enough. If I had never gone looking for Elisa and found her, she would’ve been having a triumphant graduation Friday and a wonderful party afterward. I could see the lights shimmering across Narragansett Bay, hear the laughter and congratulations. The live musicians assembled on the dock. Rejoicing and many gifts.
While we, her real parents, struggled on without her, doing our best, our lives forever marked by the tragedy of her death. But she would have been happy. Was that what Colin had been thinking when he’d advised me not to look for her?
I took an angry sip of wine, glad of its burn. We were not birth parents who had given Elisa up and regretted it later, though things could not have turned out worse if we had. My daughter, far from being grateful for being found, hated me. My husband was being threatened by the police.
I can’t stop you from coming.
Would she really be upset if I came to her graduation? Despite how I felt, I would not force myself on her. How would she feel about Jane being there? They had gotten along well enough that weekend at the house. In some ways Jane and Elisa were more alike than Elisa and Hannah in their direct approach to the world. Jane had been the only one not surprised when she had scored perfectly on the math portion of the SAT and been accepted by NYU, then gotten an important finance job.
No matter what happened, Jane would be okay. Even if Colin . . .
Why hadn’t he called me yet? Surely Carew and Olson had finished interviewing him. Had they taken him in for questioning? Arrested him? Out of nowhere I was haunted by the memory of the peeling paint on our back stoop. Did we really have anything to give Elisa that she hadn’t gotten better from Ethan and Sheila? Surely not money or exotic adventures, parties on yachts. Just a twin sister. And the truth .
Pulling my iPhone out of my bag, I pressed Colin’s number. It would be a short call, just to tell him I was on my way over.
But he did not pick up. Where was he? All my fears came rushing back, my terror stronger than before. Had he been taken away as a “person of interest”? Perhaps he had broken down and confessed, asserting it had been his right to retaliate. He was just arrogant enough to do that, just out of touch enough not to know the consequences. Why wouldn’t he know that you should never ever confess to anything? What would that do to the rest of us, left to flutter helplessly like cloth rags on the tail of his kite?
After my lie to Elisa, our relationship would be gone for good.
My voice hoarse, I left a message that I was coming and found my keys.
Chapter Nine
C OLIN WAS STAYING in a condo that belonged to a friend, another professor, who was teaching in Japan for two years. I did not know what financial arrangements they had made, but Colin had left the interior exactly as it had been when he moved in. The condo was part of an upscale complex, though not gated, three miles from the farmhouse.
Driving over, it was dark enough for headlights—but light enough at the complex to see that the two allotted parking spaces in front of number 47 were vacant. Colin’s dark green BMW convertible was nowhere to be seen. I prayed he had just gone out for food. I had the key and knew he wouldn’t mind if I waited inside.
I knocked on the door anyway. To my surprise, Colin pulled it back, looking scruffy in jeans and a red Seawolves sweatshirt. The mythical animal seemed to snarl at me as I stepped inside. Why had the university picked such an ugly animal as its mascot?
“I didn’t see your car,” I stammered.
“They took it. And my laptop. And my phone.”
“Really? Why? ” No wonder he hadn’t called me or picked up when I called. Thank God I hadn’t said anything about fleeing the country!
Colin closed the door behind me and sighed. “Just looking for evidence. Making sure I wasn’t doing Internet searches on how to
While we, her real parents, struggled on without her, doing our best, our lives forever marked by the tragedy of her death. But she would have been happy. Was that what Colin had been thinking when he’d advised me not to look for her?
I took an angry sip of wine, glad of its burn. We were not birth parents who had given Elisa up and regretted it later, though things could not have turned out worse if we had. My daughter, far from being grateful for being found, hated me. My husband was being threatened by the police.
I can’t stop you from coming.
Would she really be upset if I came to her graduation? Despite how I felt, I would not force myself on her. How would she feel about Jane being there? They had gotten along well enough that weekend at the house. In some ways Jane and Elisa were more alike than Elisa and Hannah in their direct approach to the world. Jane had been the only one not surprised when she had scored perfectly on the math portion of the SAT and been accepted by NYU, then gotten an important finance job.
No matter what happened, Jane would be okay. Even if Colin . . .
Why hadn’t he called me yet? Surely Carew and Olson had finished interviewing him. Had they taken him in for questioning? Arrested him? Out of nowhere I was haunted by the memory of the peeling paint on our back stoop. Did we really have anything to give Elisa that she hadn’t gotten better from Ethan and Sheila? Surely not money or exotic adventures, parties on yachts. Just a twin sister. And the truth .
Pulling my iPhone out of my bag, I pressed Colin’s number. It would be a short call, just to tell him I was on my way over.
But he did not pick up. Where was he? All my fears came rushing back, my terror stronger than before. Had he been taken away as a “person of interest”? Perhaps he had broken down and confessed, asserting it had been his right to retaliate. He was just arrogant enough to do that, just out of touch enough not to know the consequences. Why wouldn’t he know that you should never ever confess to anything? What would that do to the rest of us, left to flutter helplessly like cloth rags on the tail of his kite?
After my lie to Elisa, our relationship would be gone for good.
My voice hoarse, I left a message that I was coming and found my keys.
Chapter Nine
C OLIN WAS STAYING in a condo that belonged to a friend, another professor, who was teaching in Japan for two years. I did not know what financial arrangements they had made, but Colin had left the interior exactly as it had been when he moved in. The condo was part of an upscale complex, though not gated, three miles from the farmhouse.
Driving over, it was dark enough for headlights—but light enough at the complex to see that the two allotted parking spaces in front of number 47 were vacant. Colin’s dark green BMW convertible was nowhere to be seen. I prayed he had just gone out for food. I had the key and knew he wouldn’t mind if I waited inside.
I knocked on the door anyway. To my surprise, Colin pulled it back, looking scruffy in jeans and a red Seawolves sweatshirt. The mythical animal seemed to snarl at me as I stepped inside. Why had the university picked such an ugly animal as its mascot?
“I didn’t see your car,” I stammered.
“They took it. And my laptop. And my phone.”
“Really? Why? ” No wonder he hadn’t called me or picked up when I called. Thank God I hadn’t said anything about fleeing the country!
Colin closed the door behind me and sighed. “Just looking for evidence. Making sure I wasn’t doing Internet searches on how to
Similar Books
