Never Die Alone

Bria

“It was their birthday. I mean, it is their birthday and oh, God.” Selma didn’t budge from her spot on the porch as her eyes filled with tears. She dropped her face into her hands and hiccuped a sob. “I know it hasn’t been all that long, but I just know something has gone wrong. I can feel it in my bones, you know?”

Bria

“Something’s happened. Oh, God.” Selma clamped a bony hand over her mouth for a second, then let it fall. “You don’t think . . . I mean, it’s impossible that the two of them together were . . . kidnapped.” Her voice trailed off as she considered the horrible possibility.

Bria

Sensing the dread in her new companion, Bria

“Coffee?” Bria

“Yes, that’s . . . that’ll be fine.” Selma struggled against tears as she dropped onto a bar stool at the counter.

“So why don’t you start over? At the begi

“As I said, today is their birthday.” Selma’s voice was a dry whisper. “Their twenty-first.”

Oh, God.

That was why the fear in Selma’s pale eyes was so real, so visceral.

Bria

“Don’t!” Selma ordered, her voice surprisingly fierce, her blue eyes sparking. “Just don’t . . . don’t patronize me. Okay?” She sniffed and ran the back of her hand under her nose. “We’ve been friends too long for that.”

Fair enough. “Okay.”

“Good. We both know what this could mean.” Her chin wobbled and she closed her eyes. “You, especially.”

That much was true. They both knew that Bria

But Bria

“Didn’t you go there? Sweet Mother Mary, they turned twenty-one and I can’t find them!” Selma’s voice cracked. “And what if . . . what if he’s out there? You’ve worked on this for years, right? You don’t believe that monster they call the 21 Killer is Donovan Caldwell. You’ve said as much.”

Bria

That was about to change. It was time to go public with her concerns about his imprisonment and what she now knew. During her last visit to the California prison, she’d told him that she would take care of things. She was going to make sure the truth was known. But her campaign did little to bring Donovan out of his depression.

“No one will ever believe I didn’t do it,” he’d said morosely on the other side of the thick glass in the prison, the phone pressed to his ear. “It’s true, I didn’t like my sisters. I admit it. But I didn’t kill them. I didn’t!” For a second there had been fire in his eyes. “And the others that they think I murdered?” Phone pressed to his ear, he’d let out a bone-weary sigh. “No way. I didn’t even know them.”

“I know. I know. I believe you and I swear, I’ll help,” she’d promised, but the look in his eyes had been that of a doomed man, one without a sliver of hope. “You just have to be patient.”

“I can’t. I’m going crazy in here.”

“Please, just hang on,” she’d said, her heart heavy at the thought of leaving him pe

“I don’t know if I can,” he’d said before the guard had ended their short conversation.

With fierce disappointment, Bria

Now, Bria

“Because you think he’s i

“It’s unlikely that the killer would have come here,” Bria

“Yes, right.” Selma rubbed her eyes, as if lost for a few seconds. “As I said, it’s their birthday, you know, the big one and”—she cleared her throat—“I was hoping to celebrate with them this weekend, but they had other plans. They were going to meet up with friends, go out on Bourbon Street, and didn’t want their mother tagging along. I get that, and told them we could do the family thing later. Di

The De