“What did they say, ma’am?”

He didn’t add anything like can you remember, which would have insulted Joyce Marie. Smart.

“They told me they had the murderer and that my tip was a dead-end.”

Caroline had been through the call logs and had never seen Joyce Marie’s name. Then again, there were missing pages so it could have been logged. They just had no way of knowing.

“I saw you on television and I listened to your story. I never believed your daddy was capable of such a thing. I was talking to my daughter about this whole thing, and she urged me to call the tip line.”

“Mrs. Petitbone, thank you so much. I most certainly appreciate that you called. Back then and now. People don’t like to get involved. I’m just grateful you did.” Caroline tried to bat the hope back, but it grew anyway. She needed not to count on this information meaning a damned thing. But her heart raced as her palms sweated just a little.

“Did I help?”

“You took a risk and you said what you knew and that helps no matter what. I don’t know if we’ll find anything. But it’s more than we knew before we came here.”

“You’ll tell me what happens?”

“As much as we can.” Shane smiled at her. “Do you know his name by any chance? Your neighbor?”

“Vernon Hicks. He owned the place for several years. Don’t know when exactly he moved away, but it was after I came here. Probably ten years ago or so.”

They stayed a while longer, thanking Joyce Marie and promising to let her know if anything came of her information.

On the road back to Petal, she called in and had flowers sent to Joyce Marie. She’d go over to the Honey Bear to see about maybe sending her doughnuts regularly too. She had kids and grandkids and a busy life, but it was always nice to be remembered.

Shane took her back to her building. “I’m going straight to work on finding who this Vernon Hicks is. I have a vague memory of him, but let me dig and I’ll get back in contact. You did great today. You’re good with people.”

She wanted to ask if he thought it was a good tip. Wanted to ask what he thought. But so much had happened. Everything could change because of what she’d just heard. It was so exciting and terrifying all at once that she just needed to lock it down.

“Thank you for going with me. I’m going to have Ron look into Vernon Hicks too. Two sets of eyes might help.” Plus Ron would have access to sources Shane might not, or might not want to use.

“Yes, that’s good. Have him get with me if he finds anything.”

Her smile was wobbly but she held on to it like armor as they went inside.

Shane went off to work and she filled everyone in. The mood was cautiously hopeful, and after everyone had wandered off and she’d left a message for Shep, she looked up at Royal.

“You okay?”

She shook her head. “Nope. But I will be. I will work today and stay busy, and then I won’t be checking my messages every five minutes. I’ll be here all day. Client meetings and some research and writing. And when I get home, I’ll let it all go. But you need to scamper that fantastic butt of yours back home.”

“You trying to get rid of me, sweetheart?”

“Listen, I ride that stalker line enough as it is. I could be with you all the time and be totally content. But I hate how much time this takes away from all the stuff you need to take care of.”

He kissed her quickly. “Hush with that. I like being around you too. I want to be here to help. The farm will always need me but you’re important to me.”

“Enough. You’re going to make me cry.”

“All right, Caro. I’ll see you tonight. Maybe I’ll make you cry my name instead. Once we’re alone I mean.” He gave her a roguish look and with a little wave he left and she got on the line with Ron to get him working on Vernon Hicks.

Shep showed up after he got out of school, and she filled him in on everything they’d found out so far.

“Are you okay? You must be, wow, blown away.”

“I’m working on being okay. I mean I’m held together by duct tape, paperclips and some gum, but so far so good. You have to manage your expectations. I’ve gone through this before. If you get your hopes up too high and it doesn’t work out, the fall is worse. Each time we got news back that our appeal had been denied or we’d lost on something that was so stupid and technical that it weighed more than his innocence. That one took me a month. I was an undergraduate. My junior year. I had a job and a full schedule so I would go to work or class and pretty much cry the whole time I was at home. I learned after that to just treat everything like a probably won’t happen so that if it doesn’t, I’ll be sad but not so devastated my whole life falls apart.”

“Falls apart? You carried a full load and worked. You cried in carefully defined times. Jeez, Caroline. If that’s your idea of falling apart, you’re an even bigger control freak than I thought. This is all new to me. You’ve been alone with all this before and now I can help. We can lean on each other. I don’t know what to think. I get it, keep your expectations low. Dad’s dead, Caroline. I hate that. But he’s not depending on you. This is something else. We’ll clear his name. You can count on that. But I sure as hell do hope this is our guy so they can arrest him and get him off the streets for good. I want you safe, and that’s not going to happen until he’s been arrested. I know this is old hat to you, but I hate it. I hate that you’re exposed and unsafe. I’m working on it, but you’re so strong and you never get scared. I’m not there yet.”