“No,” she says instantly, narrowing her eyes. “Did you really come here just to kill my mood?”
“No,” I repeat, running my fingers through my hair. “I went home and showered and planned to not bother you two until tomorrow but I couldn’t relax so...”
She raises a brow, fighting back a smile. “You came to see us… for comfort?”
“You could say that,” I hedge.
Jo chuckles. “It’s okay to admit that we give you comfort. We’re not here to manipulate you, Sterling. We wouldn’t benefit from that anyway. People need a place to go where they can drop their guard. Sometimes that place is another person.”
I roll her words over in my head. She has a point; she and Vinny do make me feel safe. They like what my body does to and for them and they don’t expect some big, emotional revelation either. They have each other for that, which is perfect because I’m not sure how emotionally invested I can be in anything other than the case right now. It’s taken over my life, and I don’t think I’ll be able to let it go until I have answers.
Trauma or not, they’ve always had each other. The killings didn’t affect me so much when we were younger, but now it’s become my whole world.
“See that,” Dad says, pointing off towards the cafe. I’m back in town for a weekend and instead of giving me the chance to see some old friends, he’s monopolized all of my time. “These kids are trouble.”
I follow his finger and breathe out a sigh. What does he want me to say? The town is small, and everyone knows Vinny Ajello. He draws attention without having to try because of who his father is.
But I know that’s not what he means. He’s looking at the trio. Emeric is there, and if there’s any truth to the rumors, he’s supposed to be getting a new foster brother. I don’t know how I will ever be able to handle the riveting drama taking over this small town.
Vinny wrapped his arm around Joelle, her long hair swept into two braids that are falling out. The three of them seem to be laughing together, and from where I’m standing they all just look like normal teenagers.
“They’re going to eat,” I reply, bored. He’s taken over my whole day to drive around town because he’s currently on break too, and somehow my degree in journalism gets ignored anytime Dad thinks he’ll be able to convince me to apply for the FBI. “Nothing interesting about that.”
“Everything is interesting if the people completing the actions are interesting,” dad says, and I glance at him. It sounds like nonsense to me. “Besides, the Ajello Family is at the top of the list for the murder of that local girl.”
I had heard about that but only because it made all of thirty seconds in a “happening now” video about Citrus Grove. “Right. Natasha something?”
“Odell,” Dad agrees, and if I couldn’t see him I’d think he was reading off the name from the certainty in his voice. “Killed with a decent amount of violence. She was a mess when they discovered her.”
My nose wrinkles at the statement. Dad always did have a strange way of describing things, but I guess he cleans up his lingo for when he’s working a case. It always comesacross as a little careless to me. “What does that have to do with the Ajellos?”
“Don’t be dumb,” he tells me, glaring through the corners of his eyes. “Massimo is usually better at keeping his job outside of town, but mistakes happen. I’m sure she’s a casualty of the family. Maybe she didn’t pay up, or was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“That’s a lot of speculation, Dad,” I tell him dryly.
“Speculation leads to solutions,” he says. “They’re all a violent sort. That girl was massacred. Only someone deranged could be responsible for that. Why not blame the family?”
My brow twitches as my phone buzzes, and I glance down at the message. I hadn’t thought about that moment in time in ages. It feels so… obscure.
Now though, I’m second guessing the timeline. Was Alastair in Citrus Grove at that point? He had to be if he confessed to the murder of Odell, and they accepted his confession.
“You seem on edge,” Jo says, distracting me. “Sex usually helps people relax.”
I purse my lips and eye the room. Vinny still hasn’t come down the stairs, and I can’t help wondering what his call is about. Dad’s paranoia always made Vinny seem like such a big threat, but from what I’ve seen he’s only ever dangerous when he absolutely needs to be. He’s otherwise too obsessed with Jo to constantly pose a threat to anyone else.
“I have a lot on my mind,” I tell her.
“I don’t know those names,” Jo says, shrugging her shoulders. “So if you think there’s a connection to Porscha or something I can’t help you. Other than Uncle Wayne we never had any family, and she never spoke with him.”
Nodding, I flip my phone over and let the message from Jensen sit on read for now. “Right. There’s a report about your grandparents.”
“Yeah,” she says, her voice all business. “Died in a car crash a couple months before I was born. Porscha always said Wayne blamed her for their parents commuting down to Tallahassee to see her around appointments.”
“Porscha was only seventeen when she had you. Why wasn’t she staying with your parents?”
“Oh, they were up in Montgomery,” Jo says, waving a hand like that explains everything. “She got pregnant on one of their trips to Florida, made friends with some local girls, basically gave my grandparents hell from what I’ve heard. They were driving back in the rain and lost control on the highway, flipping twice. Once they passed Porscha emancipated over going into her brother’s care and permanently moved to Citrus Grove.”
I run that information over in my head. I’ve already read all the files, none of this is new to me. It’s just interesting to listen to Jo deliver the story in such a monotone way. She’s truly detached from not only her grandparents, but her entire family tree.
