“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I’d discovered,” Jolene said. “Midge found me. She got Angel...me to some people who located a couple interested in adopting me illegally. It’s still a shock and it’s going to take me a while to...”

“It’s okay,” Dulcie said, understanding. They were strangers. Sisters, but strangers. In time maybe...

They turned as Midge came out of the house. “You want to know who killed Laura?” She sounded angry. “Ask Ronda Carpenter. But don’t let that timid act of hers fool you. That woman is capable of murder. She and Laura were the best of friends until she lost her baby.” Midge seemed glad to finally unburden herself of this news. “I heard Ronda and Ben fighting that night. Could hear them clear up at the house from that old trailer they lived in on our property. Who knows if Ben pushed her or she fell like she swore later, but she lost her baby and Laura Beaumont was dead by that evening. So you tell me who killed Laura.”

With that Midge went back into the house and slammed the door.

“Are you all right?” Dulcie asked.

“Please stop asking me that,” Jolene said as Dulcie drove them away from the Atkinson Ranch. “I know I’m Angel Beaumont, but still, it’s as if everyone is talking about someone else.”

“I only asked because it’s hard for me to hear these things about our mother,” Dulcie said, her eyes on the road. “I thought it might be for you, too.”

Jolene stared out the window. “I want to go by her house.”

Dulcie shot her a look. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I have to see it. You said yourself that we need to find the killer. If I saw him that day, going to the house might make me remember.”

“You don’t know what kind of reaction you might have.”

“If you don’t take me, then I’ll go alone.”

They drove in silence to the old farmhouse. As Dulcie pulled up in front, she let out a curse. “I locked that door,” she said, cutting the engine. “Someone keeps leaving it open. Don’t you dare say ghosts.”

Jolene wasn’t about to say it but if there were ghosts, then they would most assuredly be in this house, she told herself as she got out.

The house loomed in front of her. She stood, waiting to feel something, some sense of having been here before, to hit her like a brick, to make her remember.

She could feel Dulcie watching her expectantly as she walked toward the house. At the front door, she hesitated, some of her courage deserting her.

“You don’t have to do this,” Dulcie said at her side.

Jolene stepped in and grimaced at the smell, but was determined not to let Dulcie see how truly afraid she was.