Dead End

“Great. Appreciate it.” Brendan kissed her on the cheek. “You take care, A

“Evan.”

“Sorry. His name slipped my mind, honest to God. That wasn’t intended as an insult.”

She smiled as she got into the car. Brendan and his sister, Mia, were probably the only members of the Shields family for whom that might be true. Andrew and Grady had made no effort to disguise their disapproval of A

“Call me if you have any questions after you get my memo,” she told him as she started her car.

“Will do.” He stepped back from the car as she pulled from the parking spot. A

The highway ahead was clogged as a result of an unfortunate combination of volume and a three-car accident. A

It was turning out to be a wonderful, su

Well, it had been an unusual week.

First, there’d been the wedding, and all that it entailed. It wasn’t every day your sister got married.

A

“I never did like that pompous ass,” A

But Mara had fallen for him, and nothing A

And what a mistake it had been. From early on in their marriage, Jules had betrayed his wife with an endless string of his college students who’d fallen for him in the same way Mara had. By the time Mara had discovered his affair with a fellow faculty member, their daughter was five years old. Mara asked for and was granted a divorce. The day after it was finalized, Jules took Julia

Well, he wouldn’t get that chance again. Even with his plea bargain to testify against Reverend Prescott, they were going to keep his sorry ass behind bars until he was so old he wouldn’t even remember his name.

Any of them, she thought dryly, recalling that Jules had taken several aliases while on the run.

She stopped at a red light and watched a young woman casually push a stroller across the street. Life in these small towns… A

And why not? We spend too much time hurrying along, not noticing our surroundings, not-

The light had turned green, and the driver of the pickup behind her apparently wasn’t of a small-town mind. This was a reality she understood. She pulled away from the light and wondered if the accident on the interstate had been cleared away yet. She turned on the radio and sca

Her finger paused on the station where Bono sang about “one love.” Dylan had been a huge U2 fan and had loved that song. Hearing it never failed to bring back the memory of a drive they’d once made to the Outer Banks, when he’d played the CD over and over so many times she finally threatened to toss it out the window as they crossed the Wright Memorial Bridge.

Thoughts of Dylan led inevitably to thoughts of Evan.

Initially, A

But she’d been genuinely surprised at Evan’s suggestion that they take one last look at Dylan’s death. While she refused to delude herself into thinking that they’d solve the case, the fact that Evan understood, that he made the gesture, endeared him to her even more. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d told him that finding him, realizing that she could find love again, had stu

She was so deep in thought that she missed the call on her cell phone. She picked it up and looked at the screen. Co

“Hey, sorry. I missed your call by about one ring,” she told him. “Where are you?”

“Now, you know that if I told you, we’d have to kill you.”

She smiled at the overused quip, which, in his case, could be true.

“Did you talk to Grady? I saw Brendan this morning. He said Grady was trying to reach you.”

“We spoke. He just wanted to know if I’d be around this week.”

“Are you?”

“No. I won’t be around for a while.”

“Okay, I won’t even ask.”

“Thank you.”

“So what’s up?”

“I just wanted to congratulate you and Mara on the wedding. You did a great job putting it together. Everything was just terrific, A

“Thanks, Co

“Well, that’s another thing that I wanted to talk to you about. I think I need to apologize on behalf of all the Shieldses for having maybe misdirected some of the focus.”

“Meaning?”

“You’re sweet, A

“I doubt he felt slighted.”

“Knowing Aidan, no, I’m sure he didn’t. But looking back over the night, one thing seemed to lead to another…”

“It’s okay, Co

“I just feel a little embarrassed about it.”

“Co

He laughed.

“Anyway, it’s done. Don’t give it another thought.”

“Must have made things uncomfortable for the new guy.”

Ah, she thought. That’s what this is really about.

“Evan was fine with it.”

“That why he left early?”

“He’s a homicide detective, Co

“Oh. Okay. Just wanted to make sure we didn’t somehow mess that up for you.”

“Not at all. As a matter of fact, he’s made an incredibly generous offer.”

“What’s that?”

“He thinks we should take another look at the circumstances surrounding Dylan’s death.”

A long silence followed. Finally, Co

“He understands that something inside me will be unsettled as long as Dylan’s killer has gotten away with his murder.”

“And he thinks he’s going to be the one to solve it? Is he aware that it’s been investigated more than once? That we’ve all looked into it?”

“He knows all that, Co