Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“Happy?” Sienna offered.
Kat let out a small snuffing sound. “I guess. Though happiness can be faked.”
Sienna picked up the next book and found the junior class. Daniel Forester was in that class as well, appearing just as joyful, even if he’d broken out in acne that year.
His acne had cleared noticeably by the time he was a senior, and according to his smile, his joy had multiplied. When she found him in one of the club photos with his arm hung loosely over the shoulder of an equally joyful, pretty red-haired girl, Sienna figured she might be the reason. “He’s in four clubs,” Sienna pointed out, flipping from one picture to another.
“That doesn’t sound like our Danny Boy,” Kat said.
Sienna sighed, closing the book. “No, but I guess we’ll find out.” She put the pile in the back seat of the car, and they pulled away from the curb, heading to their next appointment.
Bernadette Murray’s sister, Jasmine, lived in a single-family home in Midtown, just bordering the Reno Arts District. Sienna remembered this area as popular with young people because of its nightlife, funky clothing shops, and bookstores, and as they followed the GPS to Jasmine Murray’s address, she saw that that was still the case. They pulled up to the curb in front of a white ranch with black shutters, featuring a miniature strip of yard enclosed by a low chain-link fence.
When they knocked on the door, a dog started barking loudly and maniacally, pitch shrill. “Damn. I hate dogs,” Sienna said.
“Ooh, a chink in the armor,” Kat said. “I might have to rescind the ‘bestie for life’ title.”
Sienna snorted. It wasn’t that she hated all dogs . . . exactly. There had just been lots of them that ran wild in the trailer park when she’d been growing up, and some were not to be trusted. Some bared their teeth and growled low in their throats when you walked by. Some pulled against their chains and practically strangled themselves to maul you. Or that was what their intent had seemed to be to Sienna. Maybe she just hadn’t met the right one yet, but her go-to reaction to dogs was to brace for impact.
A woman in her mid- to late forties pulled the door open, slender where her sister had not been, with hair cropped close to her head and a tiny dog in her arms who let out another burst of high-pitched yelps. “Oh, shush it up now, Cookie,” she said. “Detectives?”
“Yes, Kat and Sienna,” Kat said, gesturing to each of them as she gave their names. “Ms. Murray?”
“Jasmine. And please come in.”
They walked into the home, older, with dark-green carpet that had definitely seen its prime in every way possible, but despite that, uncluttered and clean. She showed them into the living room, where Sienna took a seat on the black leather sofa, and Kat sat next to her.
Jasmine Murray sat down in one of the two easy chairs across from them, the dog in her lap. “Thank you for meeting with us, Jasmine,” Kat said. “We’re so sorry for your loss.”
Jasmine smiled sadly, petting Cookie’s head. The dog stared at Sienna, head cocked, as though as suspicious of her as she was of it. “Thank you. I just can’t believe it. It’s still not real. I saw my sister every week. She started coming to church with us about five years ago, and we did a big family dinner afterward. She rarely ever missed. She had really gotten her life back on track.”
Sienna frowned. “Can you tell us about that?”
“About her troubles?”
Sienna nodded, and Jasmine looked off to the side as if seeing into the past. “Well, you know, she was young when she had her first daughter, Maya. She started partying too much, got into some drugs and alcohol, and when she and Herb, that’s Maya’s father, split up, Maya went to live with him.”
The dog, Cookie, leaped off Jasmine, ran over to Sienna, and stared up at her before jumping onto her lap. “Oh,” she said, leaning back and raising her hands.
“Cookie!” Jasmine said. “Sorry, just shoo him off.”
Sienna paused but then relaxed her arms, reaching out to let Cookie sniff her fingers. Cookie, apparently approving of Sienna’s scent or aura or whatever dogs used to ascertain a person’s worth, sat down, wiggling his butt to get comfortable. Sienna gave a small, thin laugh. “All right, then,” she said, giving Cookie’s miniature head a single pat.
“How old is Maya now?” Kat asked, pressing her lips together, obviously trying to hold back a smile as she looked away from Cookie.
“She’s twenty-five and doing real well. She works at a bank and lives with her boyfriend downtown.”
“And what was her relationship like with her mother?”
“It was good from what I could tell. I mean, Maya was bitter with her mother for a while, especially through her teenage years, you know? But in the last five, they started getting on real good. Maya would bring Trey over for dinner when they could make it, and things always seemed fine.” She looked away, shaking her head before looking back. “The thing that’s so hard about all of this is that Bee made her mistakes, especially when it came to motherhood, but she’d learned. She’d grown. She was happy, and her business was successful. She’d gotten her life together.” She paused, shaking her head again. “She’d taken so many risks in the past, and then she gets killed when she starts living on the straight and narrow.”