Blood On Her Hands

Chapter 45

Vincent and I hopped in his car in the hopes of finding Nancy for ourselves. We were driving all over town, stopping at all of Nancy's favorite lunch spots and clothing stores. No one had seen her, including my aunt and uncle who said the last time they saw her was the night before. I tried to tell myself that it was me who the drug traffickers were after but Darren said that Nancy was being followed too. I knew there was a possibility that she was already captured or left somewhere beaten and bruised. I hated that possibility. 

Vincent said the police were starting to call local hospitals. 

 We drove out of the busiest part of town and onto the back roads just in case. I kept an eye out for Nancy's car while I chewed the tips of my fingernails.

From the driver's seat, Vincent gave me one of his sideways glances again. I couldn't take it anymore. 

"What is up with you?" I said, tearing my gaze from the window. He jumped back a little and his skin flushed red. 

"Nothing." 

I stared at him. He was back to focusing on the road, his expression overly solemn. It was the textbook reaction to someone yelling "Quick! Act natural!" 

"It's definitely something. You've been acting strange since we decided to try and get Darren to confess. It's like we're strangers again." 

A muscle in his neck spasmed. "We've been busy. That's all." 

With all the secret keeping in my family and relationships, I was fed up. I was going to get Vincent to tell me what was up even if I had to interrogate him like I watched Mac do. 

"It feels like you've been ignoring me or not telling me something." 

He bit his lip, his features pinched. "It's silly." 

"Your feelings aren't silly." 

He released a breath through his nostrils. His ears were turning red. "It's just . . . this will be over soon." 

"What will?" 

"This investigation. We won't be working together anymore." He glanced at me. "I won't see you anymore." 

I felt my own face start to redden. "So you stopped talking to me ahead of time?" 

"It makes it easier to say goodbye." 

I hadn't thought too much about what would happen after the case was solved. It was such a big obstacle that it was hard to focus us on anything else. Now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't imagine never seeing Vincent again. How was I supposed to go from texting him daily to deleting his number? Could I even see the Waffle House the same way after having lunch with him there so many times? Our relationship was much more than the case. It had outgrown it.

I frowned. "Why do we need to say goodbye?" 

His eyebrows twitched as if he was trying to work something out. Did he think I wouldn't want to see him after the case ended? 

"Oh!" he exclaimed. He pulled off to the side of the road and reached into the glove compartment in front of me. 

I had a hand on my chest, startled at his sudden outburst. "What? What is it?" 

"I almost forgot to tell you. This was recovered from your house as potential evidence but pictures were taken so I can give them to you." He pulled out a stack of opened envelopes tied together by thread. He placed them into my hands. "They're letters from your father." 

The paper felt like hot coals on my skin. Nancy told me that he wrote back to me only to be intercepted by our aunt and uncle. She said the letters had been destroyed.