Trail of Secrets. Sandra Robbins

“On the force? But that was years ago.”

      Seth nodded. “Twenty-five years, in fact. One morning he was called to the banks of the Mississippi River just south of downtown where a woman’s body had washed up. She looked to be in her early thirties, and she’d been shot. There was no identification on the body, but Dan felt sure that as pretty and as well dressed as she was, someone would report her missing.”

      “Did they?” Callie asked.

      Seth shook his head. “When he didn’t hear anything, he went by the medical examiner’s office and learned she didn’t fit the description of anyone who’d been reported as missing in Memphis. That made him wonder if she was from somewhere else. He asked about her personal effects, and they gave him an envelope that only contained a locket she was wearing. Inside was the picture of a little boy who looked to be about five or six. Then he asked to see her body. That’s when something strange happened to him.”

      “What?”

      “He said he stood there and looked down at her and there was something about her face that reminded him of your mother.”

      “My mother?” Callie’s question was barely more than a whisper.

      “Yes. He said your mother had died a few weeks before, and you had just come to live with him. You’d cried the night before for your mother, and he wondered if the little boy in the picture in the locket was crying for his mother. So he made a pledge to the dead woman that he wouldn’t rest until he’d found her family and returned her body to them. When no one ever came forward to claim the body, Dan bought a burial plot and a tombstone and had the woman buried at his own expense. For the past twenty-five years, every time he read or heard about a missing woman, he’d check it out to see if it was his victim, but it never has been.”

      “He had her buried and a tombstone placed at her grave?”

      “Yes.”

      “What name did he put on the tombstone?”

      “Since he didn’t know her name, he decided to give her one. He thought she deserved more than Jane Doe. She needed a special name, so he put the name Hope on her tombstone.”

      “Hope?”

      “Yes. He said it was a name that fit his feelings toward her—hope that he could return her to her family. Through the years, every time he grew discouraged and ready to give up, he’d visit her grave. Seeing that name on her tombstone would remind him that somewhere there had to be somebody hanging on to the hope that their wife or mother or daughter would be returned to them. And he’d promise her again that he wouldn’t give up. He would find her killer, and he’d return her to her family.”

      Callie nodded. “That sounds like Uncle Dan. He’s got such a good heart. All he wanted to do was help someone, and now it looks like his good intentions may have put him in danger.” She was silent for a moment. “I can’t believe Uncle Dan never told me about this case.”

      “It became a very personal cause with Dan to return her to her family. He knows you have issues over your father’s death and his involvement in law enforcement. He wanted to distance you from the things in his life that haunted him so you could be happy in the life you’d chosen. He tried to do everything he could to make that happen.”

      “I know.” She unclasped her hands and rose to her feet. “And yet all that time he was trying to make my life better, he was obsessed with returning this woman to her family. I wish I had known so I could have made it easier for him.”

      Seth stood and faced her. “Don’t blame yourself, Callie. This is the way he wanted it. But now that things have turned dangerous, you need to know what’s at stake. I only hope if he has found out something, he’ll be able to tell me what it was. I’d like to bring closure to the case that Dan has never been able to walk away from—and I’d like to see whoever did this to Dan brought to justice.”

      She nodded. “I hope you can. What happens if he dies? Will anyone else take the case?”

      “I work in the Cold Case Unit now with two partners, and we’ll keep it on our radar. After all, that’s our job, working cold cases.”

      She bit down on her lip and thought for a moment before she spoke again. “You’re right. That’s what you do. But it’s not what he does anymore.”

      Seth regarded her with a questioning gaze and frowned. “What do you mean?”

      She balled her hands into fists and clenched them at her side. “Uncle Dan hasn’t been a policeman in over twenty years. He shouldn’t have put himself in danger like this.”

      Tears flowed down her face, and Seth rose to his feet. “What are you saying, Callie?”

      “I’m saying if he lives I’m going to insist on some changes. First of all, I’m sure there will be a long recuperation time. I think it would be best if I took him back to Virginia with me. I can see that he gets all the help he needs, and I’ll be there to take care of him. Maybe there he can put this case behind him.”

      Seth shook his head. “As long as there’s breath in Dan’s body, I don’t think he’ll be able to put this case out of his mind.”

      “You don’t understand!” she cried out. “I lost my father when he tried to stop a guy on drugs from robbing a convenience store. Now it’s possible this murder that happened twenty-five years ago is the reason my uncle is fighting for his life. I can’t lose him, too, like I lost...”

      She stopped, and a look of panic crossed her face. Seth nodded. “Were you going to add me to that list, too? Were you going to say like you lost me because you couldn’t bring yourself to marry a policeman?”

      Callie jumped to her feet and clenched her fists at her sides. “This is no time for us to discuss our past, Seth. My uncle’s survival is the most important thing now.”

      After a moment, he nodded. “You’re right, Callie. Whatever we once had died two years ago, but I don’t think Dan will give up on this case as easily as you did on us.”

      She glared at him before she dropped back in her chair, propped her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. Seth stared at her and then glanced up at the clock. Eight-thirty. He sighed. It was going to be a long night.

      Four hours later, Seth stopped pacing the floor and turned toward the door when it opened. Callie glanced over her shoulder, then slowly rose to her feet. Seth moved to stand next to her.

      The doctor stepped into the room and stopped when he saw them. Tired lines etched his craggy face, and his wrinkled, green scrubs hung on his slender frame. He pulled the surgery cap from his head and sighed.

      Beside him, Seth heard a mewling groan in Callie’s throat, and he grasped her arm to steady her as the doctor walked toward them.

      TWO

      It’s bad news. I know it is.

      The thought wouldn’t quit running through Callie’s mind as the doctor came closer. She wished she could put her fingers in her ears and not hear what he was about to tell her, but that wasn’t practical. She felt Seth grab her arm, but she couldn’t turn her head to look at him.

      “Miss Lattimer?”

      “Yes, I’m Callie Lattimer.”

      The doctor stopped in front of her. The green surgery mask dangled from his hand. “I’m Dr. Singer. I’ve just finished operating on your uncle.”

      Callie hadn’t thought it possible, but her heart rate increased. “H-how is he?”

      Dr. Singer rubbed his hand across the top of his head. “He made it through surgery, but he’s not out of the woods yet. He’s fortunate that the EMTs arrived so quickly, especially since he almost quit breathing on us. But on the way here they were able to stem some of the blood flow, which is very important in wounds of this nature. Another favorable factor in his case