Page 19 of Forever Dark
“Not really.County takes me around a lot, too many people to get to know, but I guess it seems small to a big-shot FBI agent.”
The line might have been playful.It might not.
Selena chose not to test it.“Can we go to the murder scene first before speaking with the ex-boyfriend?”
“Are you sure that’s best?”Connor said.“Forensics already combed it.I can give you the updated report.”
Selena sighed.“Connor.This is my ball park.I’ve dealt with cases like this thirty times over.We need to do things in a very structured way so I know I don’t miss anything.”
“Okay, big shot.I’ll drive you.”
The thought of being in a car together, forced to go over old times, made her feel agitated.“It’s okay.I have a car.I’ll follow.”
Connor closed the file.“Suit yourself.”
He stepped to the office door, opened it, then paused with his hand still on the knob.When he turned back, whatever edge had been in him a moment ago was gone.
“I’m glad they sent you,” he said.
Selena smiled, small and real despite herself.
Something about being in the room with him again felt off-balance, like stepping onto old boards that still held weight but not quite the way she remembered.She rose from the chair, told herself to focus on Brenda Colter’s death, and hoped she could solve the case quickly before any more of the past had a chance to get into her head.
CHAPTER FOUR
Twenty Years Ago
St.Bartholomew’s stood in full summer light, its stone walls pale against a blue sky streaked with meandering white clouds.The church bell had rung half an hour earlier for noon Mass, and now the place had settled into its afternoon quiet.Flowers spilled from beds along the front path.Fresh-cut grass lay in green lines where someone had mowed that morning.Bees moved lazily through a patch of lavender near the side wall.Nothing about the church felt dark.It felt rooted.Safe.The kind of place people trusted with their vows and grief and children’s names.
Selena walked along the side path with Connor at her shoulder, a folded wedding brochure in one hand and irritation beginning to gather in the other.
Connor had his sleeves rolled to his elbows and his tie shoved loose, as if even dressing properly for a meeting with Father Wells had been more concession than he liked making.Sun caught in his brown hair, which he’d at least slicked back instead of letting it dangle over his face like he usually did.His boots scuffed at the ground.At twenty-one years old, he moved with the loose, confident energy of somebody who believed the world would either bend or get out of his way.
Most days, watching him felt like watching weather.
Today, that weather was turning argumentative.
“You’re not hearing me,” Selena said.
Connor looked over at her.“I’m hearing you just fine.I just don’t agree with you.And you don’t like that.”
“It’s not difficult, Connor.”
“It is if you’re me.”
She stopped walking.
Connor took two more steps before noticing, then turned back with a half-smile already preparing itself, the one that usually got him out of trouble with everyone except her.
It almost worked.
Almost.
Behind him the church rose high and handsome, its front steps neat with age and care, the stained-glass windows burning softly where the sun found them.Selena had loved this place for as long as she could remember.Baptisms, Christmas services, funerals, school pageants in the hall downstairs, candlelight Mass on winter nights.It was woven through her life so completely she could not imagine standing anywhere else in a white dress.
“That’s where I want to get married,” she said, pointing toward the church doors as if he had somehow missed the building.“Right there.In that church.”
Connor spread his hands.“And I’m saying I think it’d be better outside.”
