For Her Eyes Only Part 2

“But I’m not really a witness. At least not the kind that will help you solve the case. I saw Olivia being stabbed, but I never saw the woman’s face who did it.”

Stone frowned. For some reason, he’d been expecting her to furnish recognition as to the attacker’s identity.

“Then, how do you know it was a woman?” he asked.

She closed her eyes, doing a mental playback of what she’d seen. “Because…”

She paused, trying to focus. The hands. Those long, tapering fingers. And the polish. She was wearing red nail polish! Suddenly it dawned.

“She was wearing nail polish. Red nail polish. And I think maybe perfume. Every time I see it happening, I smell gardenias.”

Stone’s frown deepened. “What else, Jessie? Think.”

“That’s all,” she said. “I didn’t see her face, I swear. My focus seemed to be entirely on Olivia.”

“Okay, don’t worry about it,” Stone said. “The main thing is, keep what you saw to yourself.”

Jessica nodded, and then remembered. Brenda! She’d told her sister, Brenda.

“Uh, Stone…”

“Yeah?”

“Brenda knows.”

His stomach tied itself into a miserable knot. “Damn.”

She frowned. “Well, I had to tell someone, and she is my sister, remember?”

In spite of the fact that no one could overhear their conversation, a flush heated his face as he glanced over at Stryker’s desk. The accusation in Jessie’s voice had been no accident. He’d dated one sister and made love to the other. It was a mess he could have never foreseen. But it was over two years ago. What he had to remember was to keep his personal life out of his job.

“Okay, so she knows,” Stone said. “But tell her to keep her mouth shut about everything, okay?”

If it hadn’t been so awful, Jessica might have laughed. “I already disappoint and embarrass her on a daily basis. There is no way she’s going to shoot off her mouth about what I said.”

Stone spoke before he thought. “You’re wrong. I know she used to feel responsible for you, but you were never a burden.”

Jessica was stunned. “But I’m a grown woman. I’m responsible for myself,” she muttered.

“Maybe you are now,” Stone said quietly. “But when your parents died, you were what…seventeen?”

Sudden tears burned Jessica’s eyes. “Just about,” she said softly.

“Well, then, did you ever think that it might be difficult for her to change how she thinks a big sister should act?”

Jessica was speechless.

“Jessica?”

She sniffed. “What?”

“As soon as I know something final, I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you,” she said, and hung up the phone.

The quiet in her house seemed threatening. With a shaky sob, she rolled herself into a ball and pulled the sheet up over her shoulders. She would call Brenda, but later, when she would be able to talk without crying.

* * *

Jessica was on her knees in the dirt, pulling weeds from her flower bed when a car pulled into her driveway. She braced herself on one knee and turned to see Brenda getting out of the car. From the way she was dressed, she must have come straight from work. But it wasn’t what Brenda was wearing that concerned Jessica the most. It was the expression on her face. In that moment, Jessica thought, She knows about the autopsy.

Jessica stood, and then pulled off her gloves and tossed them on the front porch step. Waving a hello, she tried hard to smile, but her chin quivered instead. Moments later, she was in Brenda’s arms.

“Oh, honey.” It was all Brenda could think to say.

“Stone called you, didn’t he?”

Brenda stepped back and cupped her little sister’s face with her hands.

“Yes, thank goodness, but it should have been you. Why didn’t you tell me, Jessie? I shouldn’t have had to hear this from him.”

Jessica led her up the steps to the porch swing. “Want something to drink?” she asked as Brenda plopped down in the swing.

Brenda caught her by the hand and pulled her down beside her in the seat.

“I want you to talk to me.”

Jessica sat down in a slump, staring at a swirl in the wood beneath her feet.

“I already told you what I saw. You didn’t believe me then, why believe me now?”

Guilt fell hard on Brenda Hanson’s shoulders as she looked at her baby sister’s face. The gamine features. The ragamuffin hair. That smudge of dirt on the side of her face. Mentally, she knew Jessie was a grown woman, but in her heart, she would forever see her sister as younger, and weaker, and waiting for someone to carry her over the rough spots in the road.

“Be reasonable, Jessie. Would you have believed me if the situation had been reversed?”

Jessica sighed, then looked up, grinning an apology. “Probably not.”

“Then, am I forgiven?”

Jessica threw her arms around her sister’s neck. “Of course, and I’m really glad you’re here.”

Brenda returned the hug. “Get dressed. I’m taking you out to dinner.”

Instinctively, Jessica’s hand went to her hair. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m pretty tired. Maybe we could just—”

Brenda grinned. “Stuff the excuses, baby sister, and quit worrying about your hair. You know…in an odd, disheveled sort of manner, it suits you.”

Jessica made a face and got up. “Where are you taking me?”