Libby felt like she’d been tossed around by a tidal wave. Could the sheriff actually suspect that she’d killed her own mother—and that she’d disposed of Nicole? Couldn’t he see her heart? She’d started to tell Tom that someone had just tried to drown her, but then she saw the suspicion in the sheriff’s eyes. He would think she was making it up to divert suspicion. What a mess.
It was none too soon for her when Sheriff Bourne’s vehicle left the driveway and headed back to town. Alec stood at the bottom of the porch steps with his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts. She’d been hoping to tell him about what she’d discovered from Pearl, but now she didn’t have it in her.
Her eyes burned, and she rushed up the steps before she could disgrace herself by showing how much the sheriff’s accusations had hurt her. Samson whined and trotted after her.
“Libby, wait! Tom is just doing his job.”
“His job is to find out who took my friend, not to railroad an innocent person!”
He mounted the steps to the porch and stopped in front of her. “Look at it from his point of view. Can’t you see why he would have some suspicions?”
She was in no mood for his placating tone. “While he wastes his time investigating me, the real criminals are walking free. Don’t you worry that the men might take another girl? Someone you know and love?”
That stopped him. She could see him processing her question.
“You’re saying you don’t think it was personal? That Nicole just might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time?” he asked.
“I don’t know what to think. You hear of human trafficking though. Who knows but that’s what these men intended? How did they know she would be there at that time? Maybe they just came ashore and saw a lone girl and decided to grab her.”
He stared at her. “You didn’t try to rent a boat until nine.”
“What?” She didn’t understand the sudden change of subject.
“The night Nicole disappeared. That means you didn’t leave Virginia Beach until a good two hours after you called 9-1-1. Why?”
“No. I threw some clothes in a suitcase and left right away. Then I got stuck in a traffic jam from a jack-knifed truck.” Her ire rose. “Do you want to check with the state patrol? I came as quickly as I could.”
There would be no end to the suspicion and accusation. She was going to have to do this on her own. The realization made her pulse jump. But it wouldn’t be impossible. She had years of experience uncovering the history of houses, interviewing previous owners, delving into the secrets of dusty pages. While this would be a different investigation, she had determination and love on her side.
“I can see I’m on my own now.” She turned to leave.
“You’re thinking about doing this yourself? You’ll just make Tom and the state detectives mad,” Alec said.
“What other choice do I have? The story Earl wrote is going to hit the papers soon, and we both know it’s going to be slanted toward my guilt. The state isn’t going to look any harder than the sheriff is. If I want to stay out of jail, I’m going to have to do this myself and find those men. And quickly. Before everyone in town is convinced I’m some kind of killer.”
“Let’s start with a sketch of what you remember.”
“Are you going to help me or accuse me, Alec? I’m having trouble keeping it straight.” If he doubted her, she didn’t think she could stand it. His opinion mattered way too much.
“I told you I’d help. We’ve already started. I haven’t changed my mind.”
She searched his face. “For my father’s sake?”
He nodded. “And for the sake of truth. Truth matters.”
She relented. Should she tell him about today’s attack? “It doesn’t seem to matter to anyone but us,” she said.
“What do you mean by that? Has something happened today?”
He had an uncanny perception. Where did it come from? She pointed to the rockers on the porch. “Let’s sit down. This is going to take a few minutes.” What would he think when she told him what their parents had done to her and Vanessa? Would he still idolize her father? And would he believe a diver had really tried to drown her?
A breeze lifted the strands of Libby’s light-brown hair, and the porch light glimmered on her tresses. A few bugs buzzed the lamp. Alec stretched out his legs in the rocker and petted Samson, who rested his head on Alec’s knee. The dog huffed with pleasure. If only people were so easily pleased. Libby had her legs tucked under her on the swing. He waited for her to explain what was going through that beautiful head of hers.
He noticed red marks on her ankle. “What happened there?” he asked, pointing.
Her gaze searched his face. She rubbed her ankle. “A diver tried to drown me a little while ago.” She studied the marks. “I didn’t realize he’d left marks.”
He sat forward. “What? Someone tried to kill you?”
She nodded. “Samson and I went for a swim. A diver in a black wetsuit dragged me to the bottom and tried to hold me there. I managed to get away, and Samson helped until I got to shore.”
He clenched his fists. “Why didn’t you say anything to Tom?”
She shrugged. “He has his mind made up.”
He pointed to her ankle. “You have proof.”
“I didn’t realize he’d left marks. And the sheriff would say I scraped it on something anyway.”
Alec leaned forward and studied the marks on her skin. “Looks like fingers. We need to show Tom.”
She rubbed her ankle, then shook her head. “He’d say I did it myself.”
“No, he won’t.” He grabbed the portable phone on the swing and called his cousin. When he explained what happened, Tom told him to take pictures and bring her into the office tomorrow.
She was watching him talk with shadowed eyes. “What did he say?”
“He believed me. He wants pictures tomorrow and said to take some tonight too. He wants to get to the bottom of this, Libby.”
She bit her lip and her head went down. Alec pulled out his phone and snapped several shots of her injury.
The screen banged open and Vanessa stomped out onto the porch. Her hands were curled into fists and her mouth was pinched.
She glared at Libby through narrowed eyes. “Don’t think this changes anything! You’ll never be part of this family.”
“This isn’t my fault, Vanessa. Mom and Dad did this, not me.”
“Don’t call him that! He was Daddy, always.”
Alec found their conversation impossible to decipher. “What’s going on?”
Libby sighed and leaned back. “It appears Vanessa and I are full sisters.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” He eyed them both. There was a definite resemblance. They’d look alike whenever Vanessa lost the petulant expression she usually wore.
Libby tucked her hair behind her ears. “When our parents divorced, they each took a child. Our mother wanted nothing to do with our father and insisted this was the way it had to be.”
“That’s nuts,” Alec said. This situation gave credence to her story of an atypical mother. “And neither of you knew?”
She shook her head, then glanced up at Vanessa. “Sit down, Vanessa. Standing over me like that isn’t going to solve anything.”
“Neither will talking.” But Vanessa took a hesitant step forward.
Alec left the chair and moved to sit beside Libby on the swing. Vanessa shot him a grateful look. He liked being this close to Libby. The vanilla fragrance on her skin was enticing. “Did you remember another sister at all? Weren’t you three when your parents split?”
Vanessa knotted her hands together. “I remember an imaginary friend. Her name was Bee.”
“Bee. Lib-BEE,” Alec said. “Maybe that was your nickname for her.”
Vanessa frowned and shook her head. “I’m sure she was imaginary. She had a monkey named Fred.”
“I had a monkey named Fred,” Libby said in a low voice. “I still have him. He was a sock monkey.”
Vanessa straightened. “He had an eye missing.”
Libby nodded. “And his ear had been chewed by the cat.”
“I remember that,” Vanessa said in a stunned voice. “Do you remember me at all?”
Libby frowned. “I don’t have very many memories from childhood. Things were so rocky and constantly in flux. I have only snippets of things, and most of them aren’t pleasant.”
Vanessa’s face clouded and she looked down at her hands. “You’d think you would remember a sister!”
Alec could feel Libby tense beside him. “Stress can damage memories, Vanessa,” he said. “Doesn’t mean she didn’t love you.”
“I don’t care if she did or didn’t,” Vanessa snapped.
The screen door opened again and Pearl came out. Her feet were bare under her housedress. “I thought I heard voices out here.” She chewed on her lip as she glanced at Vanessa. “Everyone doing okay?”
“Don’t tiptoe around it, Aunt Pearl,” Vanessa snapped. “How could you keep this from me?”
“If you would have opened your door, I would have talked to you about it.”
Alec got up to offer his seat to Pearl, but she waved him off so he sat back down. She leaned her bulk against the porch post. “I’m not staying. This is something the girls have to work out on their own.” Her gaze stayed on Vanessa. “I just wanted to assure Vanessa that this is true. I was there. I tried to talk them out of it, but your mother was adamant.”
“My mother,” Vanessa said, her voice stunned. “I just realized. Tina wasn’t my mother!” Her voice broke, and her eyes filled with horror.
“She loved you as much as she loved Brent,” Pearl said. “You know she did.”
“I can’t believe this,” Vanessa said. She turned to stare at Libby. “Tell me about our mother. And what was her name? I don’t even know her name!”
“Her name was Ursula.” Libby held her gaze. “My childhood wasn’t like yours, Vanessa. We moved around a lot. Mom was always looking for the rainbow over the next hill. She married again and divorced, then we had a revolving door with men coming and going. She was never happy. She always wanted more and more but never got it. Possessions were important to her, maybe because of her childhood. Still, she loved me more than her things, more than her men. But maybe not more than her beer. In spite of that, my childhood wasn’t bad. Just constantly disrupted.”
Vanessa winced and turned her attention back to Pearl. “Why did Tina agree to the deception?”
Pearl patted her shoulder. “You started calling her Mama as soon as they were engaged. It just gradually happened. I think your father thought you’d be happier if you didn’t remember another mother and sister.”
Alec had idolized Ray Mitchell forever. To find he had such feet of clay was indescribably shocking. This kind of tangle was going to be hard to unravel. Alec doubted the women would ever manage to be close. It would take a miracle from God’s hand.
Vanessa jumped to her feet and rushed back into the house. Pearl followed, calling Vanessa’s name. The seaside cicadas filled the silence as Alec and Libby were left alone on the porch.
Alec stretched his arm across the back of the swing, not quite daring to embrace her, though the thought strangely crossed his mind. “How are you dealing with this?”
She leaned back and her hair brushed his arm. “I don’t quite know what to think. It’s hard to realize I have a family but that I’m about as welcome as a bedbug. But I don’t care about any of this, really. I’m finding it hard to care about anything since Bree found Nicole’s belongings. I don’t want to believe she’s dead.”
He hugged her. “I’m sorry, Libby. I wish I could change things.”
She swallowed hard and sighed. “Thanks for being here, Alec.”
“Does Brent know yet? About you and Vanessa?”
She shook her head. “He’s been gone all day. I suppose Vanessa could have called him, but if she did, I don’t know about it.”
Headlamps pierced the darkness. “I think that’s him now.”