The split-second urge to lean over and push his hair out of his face, though, that’s new.

He looks up and my cheeks burn as I wonder if I blanked out for a second and actually did it.

I think of the bones at Dean House and wonder how long they’ve been there. Bella’s voice from my dreams is still whispering, always whispering the same words: It wasn’t an accident. It makes me clench my hand into a fist. Feeling a bond with Sean—feeling sympathy—isn’t why I’m here.

“So what have the police said to you—about the body they found in your garden?” It comes out too loud, my tone harsh. I want to be angry with him. “Have they linked it to the old murders?”

He frowns. “They haven’t told us anything. They just wanted to know how long it is since we lived there, if anyone else has lived there since.” He stops. “And they wanted to know if Dad had been in contact.”

“What’s this—filling Tess in on the fiasco that is the police investigation?” Jack says, walking into the kitchen. He goes to the fridge and pulls out a beer. I want to snap at him for making himself so much at home. He laughs and shakes his head. “Oh, of course now they’re interested in finding Dad, but when he went missing? They did not give a shit.”

“But…did he really go missing?” I ask. “I thought he packed a bag and contacted you and…”

“A couple of texts to say he had to get away. And then we never heard from him again. Fuck knows what happened to him—he said he was off to Germany to work with a mate, but there was never any sign of him leaving the country, no activity on his bank account. We told the police all that back then and they did a half-assed search, but they were basically—he’s a grown man, no risk to himself or others, who left of his own volition. In other words, fuck off and stop bothering us.”

“I never…I’m sorry. I assumed he’d kept in touch.”

“Oh, don’t pretend you ever gave a shit,” Jack says, striding out of the room, beer in hand.

I recoil. “So he’s changed, has he?” I say to Sean.

“Tess…”

“Maybe you should mention to the police that he was lurking around spying right around the time Nicole Wallace got murdered.”

Sean steps back, face pale.

“Oops,” I say. “Did you forget what you just told me screws up his alibi?”

Pushing past him, I step out into the night.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16