Castle's Fortress. Rhonda Lee Carver

her chain of words as she set the coffee down. Maybe they should have met somewhere private. Fall was losing her nerve by the minute.

      “One straight black and mocha for the Miss. Can I get you anything else? We just pulled the blueberry muffins out of the oven.” The twenty-something woman made no effort to hide her attraction to Jake. Grinning from ear to ear, she showed off her pearly whites against bronzed skin, while subtly thrusting her size C’s forward. The woman certainly knew how to use her womanly attributes.

      Fall resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably in the chair, feeling like a third wheel.

      “No thanks, Angela. We’re good for now.”

      First name basis? Were they friends? Fall wished she didn’t have a pinch in her gut. Jake didn’t show any sign in his expression that he knew the waitress intimately, but Fall didn’t doubt he could pull off a good poker face when needed.

      It was none of her business, though. She pulled her thoughts back on track. At least the disruption gave her enough time to remind herself this was the world Jake lived in. He moved in circles she had no knowledge of and never would–a world so unlike her own back in Marietta. From what she’d heard through the rumor mill, Jake didn’t attach himself to just one woman. So maybe what she’d told Ms. Holbrew earlier wasn’t far from the truth. A man of his caliber probably did have women lined up.

      “You were saying?”

      Clearing her throat, she knew she just needed to spit it out. “I need your help, Jake.”

      He leaned forward in his chair. One corner of his mouth lazily fell and his eyes tapered at the corners. “My help? Do you need money? You said your sister is missing. I could hire a PI to look into the case. I have a guy that is trustworthy and capable. I could make a call.” He started to reach for his phone.

      “No, Jake.” She should have expected him to assume this had something to do with money. Capital was of no consequence to Jake, made obvious by the fancy suit and watch. A part of her cringed that he’d supposed she’d come for financial gain. “It’s not that simple.”

      Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she paced her breathing. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it would burst. “Renee has been missing for a month now. She’d been working the night shift as a bartender at Max’s. She closed up one evening and walked out to the parking lot with a friend, Jonelle, who also works there. Jo didn’t see anything unusual.” She’d repeated the words so many times over the last few weeks in search for Renee that now they fell from her lips like a part in a play. “When Renee didn’t show up for her next shift, the owner called me. Her car was in the lot, but she wasn’t around. No one has seen her since.”

      “How does this relate to me, Fall? Or Crystal?” He glanced at his watch again.

      She wondered if it was a habit to check his watch when he wished to move on. He definitely rushed her, whether he meant to or not. It unsettled her. And it angered her.

      “Renee disappeared in the middle of the night, just like Crystal. There one minute, gone the next. No witnesses. No evidence. Simply vanished.” She brought her fingers to her mouth, hoping to hide the trembling of her lips.

      “Crystal’s been gone for twenty-three years,” Jake said. “They found her murderer–” Her long, ragged sigh stopped his words. “It’s true, Fall. Her killer is behind bars.”

      Tossing her head in frustration, she searched his expression. How could he say the words without any sign of emotion? “You don’t believe that, do you?”

      “They found the evidence. You saw it yourself.”

      “I saw an image through an aperture of time.” A lump developed in her throat. She swallowed, but it remained. She sipped at the coffee, hoping it would help.

      His thick brows knitted into a V. “I was there, Fall. Something possessed your body that night at the abandoned house.” His hand raked into his hair. He glanced around the room and lowered his voice. “When you awoke in the hospital you gave the police an account of what happened to my sister the night she died and where they would find her buried. You also told them about the cross necklace.”

      “My father wasn’t the only one who owned a cross and gold chain, Jake. Count how many people in a day you could find wearing a similar necklace. It isn’t that odd.”

      “They believed your father must have divulged his guilt to you and that’s how you knew so much. And his DNA? What logical explanation is there? They found traces of his genetic material on her body, underneath her fingernails.” He sat back in the chair, frustration evident in the dark depths of his eyes and the thin line of his lips.

      Fall didn’t back off. He needed to hear what she had to say. “The sheriff’s department did very little in investigating the case. They should have called in the State Police, who were better equipped to handle a case of its severity.” Old emotions were unleashed inside her as she spoke of the past. “They convicted Charlie before he went to trial. When he went to prison for life, the whole town breathed a sigh of relief. They’d wanted closure to Crystal’s murder so they could return to their serene lives.”

      “Do you blame them? Murders don’t happen in Marietta,” he snapped.

      “They never thought much of my parents anyway.” She wrapped her hands around the mug, soaking up the warmth. “You can’t deny there were missing pieces to the puzzle surrounding Crystal’s death.”

      “I can see that you’d want to defend your father, Fall.”

       Sympathy filled his eyes and it turned her stomach. The last thing she wanted was Jake Castle’s pity. “The evidence was stacked against Charlie with the results of DNA testing. I agree it was overwhelming. And I knew where the body was buried–” She looked past his shoulder, thinking back on the memory. “It was all the proof the townspeople and the court needed.”

      He rubbed his temple. “DNA is hard to deny. Nobody would have believed a ghost told you where Crystal was buried. They thought you made up the story to make it easier to tell the truth. How else would you know that Crystal was in those woods unless Charlie somehow let it slip to you?”

      She brought her gaze back to his face. He sounded like he didn’t believe her story either. Her shoulders slumped. “Charlie worked out of town during the time of Crystal’s kidnapping. He had left the night before she went missing. You remember, don’t you? He came back from his trip two days after the search ended.”

      “But his boss said he hadn’t shown up at the construction site for work for three days.”

      “Because he was laid out drunk in his motel room.”

      “Or so he said.”

      Fall pushed her cup away, her frustration building. “I believe him.” She knew her father had lost many jobs because of his love for the bottle.

      Stroking the back of his neck, Jake shook his head and sighed. “Fall, it’s in the past. I don’t want to rehash the memories. I’m sorry about Renee. I am. However, her disappearance and Crystal’s murder are in no way related and over twenty years apart. I know you want to believe Charlie’s innocent, but you have to let your guilt go. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

      Anger surged through her like a heated branding. “Do you think it’s been easy living with the guilt, knowing I helped put my father behind bars? Don’t you think the people of Marietta see Charlie’s genes every time they look at me? My father going to prison destroyed Mom and shattered what little family I had.”

      “Charlie Winters was a lousy father and a drunk.” His lip curled. “You were better off without him.”

      His words cut through her and it took her a moment to gain her balance. “Maybe, but at least with him around we had heat in the house, milk and peanut butter in the kitchen, and hand-me-down sneakers.”

      He clenched his hand into a tight fist as if he wanted to slam it down on the table.