The Sister’s Secrets: Rose

‘That’s understandable,’ Patrick said. ‘But without a body there’s no way we can identify her.’

‘Then, potentially, she could be alive,’ Rose said.

‘She didn’t come out of the water,’ Shane said. ‘At least that was what you reported, correct?’

Rose’s heart sunk in her chest, enough that she thought her ribs were going to cave in.

‘Listen, Rose.’ Patrick got up from his chair. He rounded the desk and sat down next to her. ‘There was nothing you could do. It’s a tragedy, but you shouldn’t worry about it. If we find out anything, I’ll be sure to let you know.’

‘Is that how it works around here?’ Shane asked him.

Patrick glanced at Rose and pressed his lips into a thin line. ‘Rose is upset. We take care of our own around here.’

‘But sharing confidential information like that, to a civilian?’

Rose gritted her teeth, listening to them speak as if she wasn’t in the room.

Patrick rubbed his hands together as if he were trying to start a fire out of thin air. ‘Rose isn’t on trial here,’ Patrick said.

Shane carried on as if he hadn’t heard the chief. ‘If you know something, tell us. Otherwise, all we have to go on is your word. And right now, it looks like a suicide.’

The rush of the ocean filled her ears and the room tilted. A flash of the girl under the water filled her vision. Heat surged under her skin and tears pricked behind her eyes.

Rose stood from her chair. The legs scraped against the tile floor. ‘I’m sorry I came.’ Her fingers brushed over her eyes, wiping away her tears. If she could pick one thing she hated about herself, it would be breaking down with intense emotion.

Once she was in the hallway, she dashed toward the exit. She avoided eye contact with the female officer in the lobby and shoved through the front doors.

By the time she reached her car she was out of breath. Why was this girl affecting her so? Why couldn’t she accept that she’d committed suicide? There was nothing that told her otherwise. Rose was there. She saw the girl jump. But without the body, a shred of hope bloomed in her chest.

Where her life once made sense, now it was a jumble of questions. Was she the only one fighting for this girl? With the push back from Patrick and Shane, Rose knew she had to be careful if she wanted some answers.

And she would get them with or without their help.

The library had closed around seven o’clock that night. If the girl walked from the library to the pier, someone had to have seen her.

Rose’s skin prickled as she pulled into the parking lot for the second time in two days. It wasn’t completely for the memory of nearly mowing the girl down, but for the possibility of finding out who she was and why she thought that ending her life was more important than life itself.

The sun had started its descent in the sky, and she knew Missy would call soon. It had been some time since the two of them met up. Rose missed her friend. Seeing her at work wasn’t the same as being with her outside of The Siren. Most of their conversations revolved around Pearl. Rose’s top priority was building their friendship back up to where it used to be before Pearl had started her steep descent.

A shiver rolled down her spine as she thought of her mother. She hoped that if Mom had any lucid moments she wouldn’t accuse Rose of abandoning her in that place. Would she ever remember how much Rose tried to keep their family together? It started after Dad died. The threads between the three women left behind whittled away until they frayed and were too thin to grasp. First, Mom checked out of her life, followed by Reen’s unexpected departure.

As she entered the library, Rose’s shoulders dropped slightly. There was something about this place that made her feel more at home than her actual house. Several stone columns reached up to the two floors with elegantly curved capitals at the top. A wrought-iron railing was the only segregation between the first and second floors, giving an opportunity for those in the stacks to have access to the patrons below.

The sound of Rose’s footsteps echoed across the open space.

The openness reminded her of The Burrow as a whole, where nothing divided the citizens from each other. Which led to thin boundaries. That was why she was determined to learn all the secrets of the girl who’d jumped. She seemed to be the only one who believed there was something more to it.

There wasn’t much time to get the answers she wanted, so she didn’t waste any time heading over to the circulation desk at the center of the main lobby.

The librarian, Mrs. Henshaw, glanced up at her. A smile pulled at the wrinkles around her mouth. She dropped her pink-rimmed glasses to her chest, and they hung there, held up by a thin-corded rope around her neck.

‘Back so soon?’ Mrs. Henshaw asked.

Since Rose started coming to the library, Mrs. Henshaw hadn’t aged a day.

Rose leaned against the top of the desk, picking at her cuticles. How was she going to start this conversation?

Mrs. Henshaw was a stickler for the library hours, and she’d close shop soon. ‘I wanted to ask if you heard about that young girl who jumped off the pier last night.’

The librarian clicked her tongue. ‘A tragedy.’

Rose’s ears perked up. ‘She was last seen in front of the library. Yesterday afternoon.’ She didn’t want to implicate herself more than necessary, so she left out the important detail that she was the one who’d seen her.

‘Oh, dear.’

‘You didn’t see her?’

‘No. But I would have remembered a new face.’

Rose glanced behind her, wondering if any of the volunteers had seen the girl. The children’s section was on the same side as the parking lot. Someone had to have seen something through the wide front windows.

‘Why do you ask?’ Mrs. Henshaw said, cutting through Rose’s thoughts.

There was no way she could answer that question honestly without explaining her strange obsession with the girl. ‘No reason.’ She cleared her throat and the tremble in her voice. ‘Curiosity, I guess.’

Mrs. Henshaw bobbed her head. ‘There are plenty of other places to do such a thing. I’m glad she wasn’t one of our own.’

Rose’s breath hitched in her throat, catching for a moment before she was able to release it. Like at the precinct, she’d asked the wrong question. If she knew why the girl came to The Burrow, then Rose would be able to track that back to who she was. The wide-eyed girl flashed in her mind again, wandering around the town before taking her life. What happened that forced her into that decision?

‘Well, I need to start closing up,’ Mrs. Henshaw said. ‘Can I help you find something?’

‘No,’ Rose said. ‘I was going to return something, but I forgot and left the book at home.’

Mrs. Henshaw pressed her lips together. She reached over and patted Rose on the arm. ‘It will get better, dear.’

Rose slowly turned away from the woman, her eyebrows knitting together.

It wasn’t until she reached the car that she realized what Mrs. Henshaw had implied. While every cell in her body wanted to rush back and tell the woman that she wasn’t losing her memory, she thought better of it. It was easier for her to think that Rose was losing her mind like Pearl, instead of knowing that she was on a hunt to find a dead girl and any clue to the girl’s past.

Chapter 4 (#ulink_fef13805-21ad-5a92-88eb-723d1d9cd6e9)