And then she’d been ripped away suddenly. Disappeared. No answers. Only questions.

  Could it be after all of these years? Would they finally find out what had happened to their mom?

  Was their decade-long nightmare over?

  He wasn’t any calmer than he had been back at the bar. His heart was still galloping in his chest at the thought they might have found his mother. It had been a decade, and now they might find out the truth.

  Finn, the local sheriff, with Deputy Blake at his side ducked under the tape when he saw Zack, Cooper, and Tate.

  “I understand why you’re here, but you need to stay on this side of the yellow tape. This is a crime scene now.”

  “Is it our mom?” Cooper asked, his voice like sandpaper.

  Cooper always acted like nothing mattered, but he’d been close to their mom. When she’d disappeared he’d been distraught, not bothering to hide his derision for their father. He’d been sure that Joel Winslow wasn’t telling the police everything he knew about his wife’s last day.

  “I don’t know yet,” Finn said. “We’re doing all we can. There’s a team from the county forensic unit that’s working to make sure we find everything. It was the wettest June in a hundred years, and I think a lot of mud slid down the hill, uncovering some of the remains.”

  “We’re talking to the people that found it,” Deputy Blake said. “Hopefully, we’ll know more soon.”

  Zack and Finn had gone to school together until the age of fourteen. Finn’s parents had divorced, and his mother had taken him out of town, although he’d come back occasionally during holidays and summers.

  Now Finn was back and in charge of law enforcement in Winslow Heights. From Zack’s limited view from far away, Finn had cleaned house and brought in a professional team of officers.

  Prior to Finn taking over, the only way that the Winslow Heights sheriff’s department could be described was…amateur. Most of the people had received their jobs because of knowing someone in the town council. None were trained, and few took it seriously, except for Deputy Blake. He’d been to the police academy and was considered their best officer. He’d been involved in the community, even volunteering with the high school football team helping the coach. Eventually, new leadership had been voted into the council, and they’d decided to make much needed changes.

  Finn had been brought in and all of the deputies had been let go except for Blake. He’d stayed on, seemingly happy to have a sheriff in charge that knew what he was doing.

  “You do know,” Tate said, his voice rising. “I can see it in your face. You do know.”

  Sighing, Finn shook his head.

  “Okay, I don’t know for sure. How’s that?” His gaze swung to his deputy. “Can you help Steve with getting the statement? He’s still in training, and I want to make sure we do this strictly by the book.”

  “Will do,” Blake said, nodding toward Zack and his brothers before walking away to join his co-worker.

  “What do you know for sure?” Zack asked, looking over Finn’s shoulder. A stony-faced Joel Winslow was talking to a third deputy about ten feet away. Kim was crying, her face red and crumpled, her friends surrounding her. “Is there anything you can tell us?”

  “There were personal items found as well,” Finn replied. “We need to go through them before I can say anything. In the meantime, the coroner is here, and the remains will be transported to the county morgue for examination. DNA will be run along with dental records. That’s standard practice.”

  Finn’s expression softened, and he scraped his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end.

  “I’m so sorry. I know that this is a terrible moment for your family. But we don’t know anything for sure. This could be something completely unrelated to your mom.”

  “How many people have gone missing in Winslow Heights?” Tate demanded. “It has to be Mom.”

  “More than one,” Zack reminded his brother.

  “It could be someone no one even knows,” Finn cut in. “Maybe someone passing through town. This area is largely deserted, and if someone was walking around or even camping and they had trouble or were injured? No one was going to hear them. Plus, this place has terrible cell reception. They might not have been able to call anyone for help. This might not be foul play. We don’t know anything yet. You all need to hold it together until we do. There’s no sense in getting upset about something that might not be what you think it is.”

  “You’d do the same,” Cooper said quietly, his gaze fixed on their father who was now walking towards them.

  “I probably would,” Finn conceded. “But it wouldn’t be the wise thing. Until we know something for sure, we all need to slow down. Follow the procedures. We’ll know soon enough. I have your mother’s DNA, dental records, and a description of what she was wearing that day right down to her handbag and shoes. Your mom’s case was never closed officially. We’ll be able to make a definite call if it’s her. We just need time to do our jobs.”

  “Why is she here?”

  Cooper was staring at Kim who was still crying.

  “She’s Mom’s sister,” Tate replied, his tone quiet. “Of course, she’s going to be upset.”

  The expression on Cooper’s face said something entirely different.

  “Let’s not turn on each other,” Zack said. “We need to hold strong here.”

  He was the oldest. It was his job to pull them together.

  Apparently, their father had finished talking with the deputy and was now approaching them. Zack immediately tensed, bracing himself for what he knew was about to happen. It was like a speeding train coming right toward them. He couldn’t stop it.

  “Sons,” Joel said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Cooper and their father rarely had anything nice to say to one another, even before Lily Winslow had disappeared. Today would be no exception. They simply butted heads constantly.

  “Now is not the time,” Zack said, giving a nudge to his brother. “You can argue any other day, but not right now.”

  “Fine,” Cooper said, carelessly shrugging. “I won’t say another word. You’re right. This isn’t the time, and I’ve already said what I think a million times.”

  Joel took a step towards Cooper but then halted.

  “Someday you’re going to realize that I was never your enemy.”

  “You certainly aren’t my friend.”

  “I’m your father. Being your friend wasn’t an option.”

  Tate stepped in front of them, casting a warning glance over his shoulder.

  “Can you tell us what you know?”

  “I hardly know anything,” Joel said. “They’ve found human remains, and they need to examine them. That’s pretty much it. I came straight out here when I got the call.”

  “You didn’t call us?” Zack pointed out. “And who called you?”

  “One of the members of the council,” Joel replied. “And I didn’t want to get you upset if this turned out to be another dead end.”

  Zack’s gaze wandered to his aunt who was still crying with her friends.

  “Kim seems upset already.”

  “This was supposed to be a magical time for her. The wedding is tomorrow so of course this is upsetting.”

  “A magical time,” Cooper repeated, derision in his tone. “Christ, Dad. You’re not actually thinking of still having a wedding tomorrow, are you?”

  Joel Winslow didn’t answer, but then he didn’t need to. The expression on his face said it all.

  The wedding was still on. Whether their mother had been found or not.

  “Jesus, Dad,” Zack said. “I think Cooper has a point here.”

  “Your mother—”

  “Stop,” Tate commanded, his tone so sharp that several heads turned in their direction. “Just stop that shit. You’re always trying to tell us what Mom would have wanted, but it’s also coincidentally what you want, too. Seems a bit sketchy to me. If that’s Mom that they’ve found—”

  “We don’t know that,” Joel said. “And we may not know it for days or weeks. We can’t put our lives on hold. Life is for the living, son.”

  Zack had heard his father say that before. He didn’t disagree with his dad, but this action seemed rather callous. If it wasn’t, then it was at least tone-deaf. But then Joel Winslow didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought about him.

  “Welcome home, big brother,” Cooper said. “You’ve come back to town for the saddest, most hypocritical wedding in the history of Winslow Heights. And that’s saying something because we’ve had some real assholes in our family.”

  With that, Cooper turned on his heel and headed back to the car, leaving Tate and Zack with their dad.

  And some giant tension that hung in the air around them.

  It was usually there all the time, but at this moment it was especially nasty.

  “Dad, you need to think this through,” Zack finally said. “I get that you want to move on, but the optics on this are going to look terrible. If you don’t care about your reputation in town, think about Kim. I think she cares about it. Don’t make life harder on her than it has to be.”

  For a split second, Zack thought his father might be listening, but then a forbidding cold mask came down over his features.

  “The wedding will go on as planned.”

  Zack couldn’t help someone that didn’t want to be helped in the first place. His dad didn’t think that this was a problem? Fine, Zack would step back and let the chips fall where they may. There was a remote chance that he was wrong, and that no one would care.

  But I don’t think that I am.

  Lucy was straightening the kids’ section when Jane entered the store, her cheeks red from the heat outside.

  “Did you hear? Can you believe it?”

  Thankfully, the bookstore was currently empty because if it wasn’t everyone would be gathered around to find out what Jane was talking about.

  “I haven’t heard anything. What’s going on?”

  “I was standing outside the hair salon talking to Mitzi,” Jane explained, sitting down on one of the cushions. “Mitzi got a call from her boyfriend Steve. He’s a deputy, you know? Anyway, he’d been called out because apparently a skeleton was found on the outskirts of town. They all think that it could be Lily Winslow.”

  Lily Winslow.

  She’d certainly been on the tip of every tongue lately. Because of the wedding, and then her children coming back to town. Now there was a body. Had she finally been found and could be laid to rest after a decade?

  “That’s…shocking.”

  “I know. It’s kind of spooky in a way. Creepy-like. It’s like Lily Winslow reaching out from the great hereafter and trying to stop her husband from marrying her sister. It’s sort of sinister and paranormal.”

  “You don’t believe in the paranormal.”

  “I don’t but after today I might change my mind. Don’t you think this is bizarre? Lily Winslow has been missing for ten years, and they find her the day before her husband and sister are supposed to get married. That’s some mad karma shit right there.”

  Lucy didn’t believe in ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and Bigfoot, but she was a big believer in karma. Karma, she was sure, was real. She’d seen it in action more than a few times.

  “It’s also kind of morbid. They’re sure that it’s Lily Winslow? That’s a very fast identification.”

  “They don’t know for sure,” Jane said. “They just think it might be.”

  “It would be a good thing for the family to get some closure,” Lucy replied. “I’ll admit that it’s not the ideal time, but at least they might get some real answers to all of their questions. It can’t have been easy for them.”

  From an outsider’s perspective, it had splintered the family apart. It was as if Lily Winslow had been the glue holding it all together. When she was gone…

  “If she was buried out there, that means that this town has a murderer,” Jane said.

  “It could have been accidental. It might not be a murder. You and I have been reading way too many true crime books.”

  “It could be, or it could be a murder. A killer could be in our little town.”

  “We’ve known for ten years that it was a possibility.”

  Even longer, actually.

  “Now we’d know for sure. That’s different.”

  It was different even though Lucy didn’t want to admit it out loud. It meant that someone she passed or talked to on a daily basis might be a murderer. What was it that she’d seen in an article once? The average person walks by thirty-six murderers in their lifetime.

  I don’t think I’ve ever met one.

  She didn’t want to be the kind of person who side-eyed everyone she encountered on a daily basis.

  “If it wasn’t an accident, that doesn’t mean we have a killer in Winslow Heights,” Lucy said. “They could have moved out, or they could never have lived here in the first place. That area has other little towns around it.”

  “True. I don’t want there to be a murderer in town. It’s just that we have to think about the possibility. And that they were so clever, they got away with it.”

  “We’ve definitely been reading too many crime novels,” Lucy chided.

  “No one’s been arrested. And from what you’ve said, they barely had any suspects. That’s getting away with it.”

  Suspects? That was a tricky subject because there had been suspects. But no evidence, especially without a body. The former sheriff had been against calling it a murder when there wasn’t any proof. He’d always called it a missing persons case.

  And then that sheriff had been fired for being incompetent.

  “I have confidence in Finn that if this is Lily, or anyone else, that he’ll find out what happened.”

  The bell over the door to the bookstore chimed and Piper Winslow walked in with her sister Frankie. They were both smiling, and Lucy had a terrible thought that they hadn’t heard what was going on.

  We’re going to have to tell them.

  Since coming back to town and buying the bookstore, Lucy had become good friends with the youngest Winslow, Piper. Some people would say that Piper was a little out there, but Lucy had always found the woman to have a heart of gold. If she wanted to read tarot cards and put crystals under her bed that was her own business. She wasn’t hurting anyone, and Lucy wasn’t the judgy type.

  She didn’t know Frankie all that well, though. The older sister had spent most of her time winning championships on the women’s tennis tour. The only reason Frankie wasn’t at Wimbledon right now was because she’d hurt her knee. It certainly wasn’t because she was close to her father and aunt.

  “I wanted to stop in and thank you for taking the cakes over to Tate,” Piper said. “I really appreciate it. It was nice to have an afternoon off. Frankie and I went into Blaisdell and went to the mall there.”

  Frankie’s gaze swung from Jane to Lucy, and then her own sister.

  “I feel like we walked in on something,” she said slowly, beginning to back toward the door. “Maybe we should go.”

  “No,” Jane said, hopping up from the cushion. “You should stay. You really should.”

  “What’s going on?” Piper asked, her brows pinched together in a frown. “Did you get some bad news?”

  “You should have some coffee,” Lucy stated, getting to her feet. “I’ll go make some. Let’s all sit down and catch up.”

  A million thoughts ran through her mind, but one stuck. Lucy needed to call Tate and let him know that his sisters didn’t know about the body that had been found. She’d tell them about what had happened, but they needed to be with their family, too.

  Just how does one sit two people down and tell them that the body of their mother might have been discovered after ten years?

  Lucy was about to find out.

  5

  “You aren’t going to go, are you?”

  Piper sounded scandalized, and Frankie was scowling. Zack’s sisters weren’t happy with him. Cooper wasn’t either. Tate was indifferent, and Sam had yet to say anything - positive or negative.

  Somehow, they’d all ended up back at the bar with even Sam making an appearance which was surprising. Zack had no illusions of how his youngest brother felt about him.

  “I don’t know,” Zack said, trying to hold onto his temper. He didn’t like people telling him what to do or second-guessing his decisions. His dad had spent almost twenty-two years doing it, and frankly, that was more than enough. “I haven’t thought much about the wedding. I’m thinking about the discovery today and wondering if it’s Mom.”

  Piper was the emotional one in the family. She’d never tried to hide what she was feeling and thinking, and while Zack admired that trait, it could get on his nerves, as well. Not everything in the world was dramatic and an emergency. Not everything was fraught with emotions. Sometimes things just were what they were. She was always trying to change the circumstances, and from what he’d seen, she was only frustrating herself.

  His sister had inherited the Winslow gene whether she wanted to admit it or not - she liked to control things. They all did. It was deeply embedded into their DNA. She just did it in a different way than he did.

  “What are the chances that it’s not Mom?” Frankie asked. “It has to be.”

  “She’s not the only person that has ever disappeared,” Tate said. “It doesn’t have to be. It simply might be.”

  “Are you going to that god-forsaken wedding, too?” Frankie demanded. “I can’t believe this. You support this marriage?”

  “I don’t,” Zack replied. “I can’t speak for Tate, but I don’t. Like you, I think this is in poor taste, but our family will be there, and it seems like a shitty time to take a stand. Joel is our dad, and Kim has always been good to us. Emma will be there, as will most of the town. It’s only a few hours out of my life.”