Moving On

Chapter 22 - Part 1

Kate shifted closer to Tyler as she felt his hand running through her hair. "Mm ..." she moaned and took in a deep breath. "Are you up?" she asked with her eyes closed.

"Sorry to wake you."

"It's all right. I was half awake anyway."

She couldn't sleep. Her brain kept processing everything that had happened, and she couldn't think about anything but her new doppelganger.

She scooted closer to Tyler, listening to his steady heartbeat, allowing it to wind down her overactive mind. Then, realization hit her.

There was another possibility.

Kate hadn't been able to reach Lydia since they had gone up to the cabin. It was only over a weekend. But no matter how busy Lydia was, unless they were in one of their cold wars, she would at least reply to Kate with a text.

Maybe it had something to do with Detective Cooper.

Then again, their visit had happened so long ago, and they had nothing to go on. Why would anyone tell them to back off now?

As her mind churned through the possibilities, her concern for Lydia grew. And as that concern grew, she couldn't stay in bed.

She got up and picked up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Tyler asked.

"I need to check something with Lydia."

It was still way too early to call someone, but she dialed Lydia's phone repeatedly, determined to speak to her even if she had to spend the entire day doing nothing but hit the redial button.

When Lydia's drowsy voice answered the call, Kate shouted into the phone, "Don't you know you're supposed to call a person back when there's a missed call? What's wrong with you? Where have you disappeared to?"

"Sorry, I was busy," Lydia said after a moment.

"Busy? So busy that you can't take one minute of your life to send me a text?"

"Sorry."

Kate sighed, crawling back into bed. After venting the pent-up anxiety, she relaxed and told her sister everything that had happened the night before.

Then she questioned Lydia, asking her if she'd received any threats and if she'd been back to Detective Cooper's house.

Lydia assured Kate that neither had happened.

"I guess she didn't get any threats," Tyler said when she put the phone down.

"Nope."

He narrowed his eyes and continued. "Why do you look like you don't believe her?"

Kate gave him a wry smile as her head bobbed up and down. "Lydia's stubborn. You don't know how many times she got into a row with my grandparents in hope of digging out more information regarding my parents' deaths. She's never stopped asking. And now with the detective being the only lead, I'm afraid she wouldn't let it go so easily."

"Then why didn't she just tell you?"

"Because she knows I'll try to stop her, and she doesn't like to entertain people who don't hold the same view as she does."

"But the visit was some time back."

"I know. It doesn't make sense. Besides, he's an old man in a wheelchair. I don't think he'd get himself here just to throw a rock through my window."

"But?"

"The last time I spoke to Lydia, she told me she was concentrating on a cold case project and that was all. Now, she suddenly has so many reports to complete. I haven't seen her in weeks, so she could've gone back to the house a few more times or found something else. I don't know. It doesn't seem like her to let it go so simply. Like how Joanne doesn't seem the kind to throw rocks into someone's house in the middle of the night."