“Darling, I don’t think you—”
“Mrs. Winters, I’ll drive Cassie to Scott’s. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
Her mother fastened her attention on Jameson. “You will?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You see, I’ll be fine.” Cassie took her mother’s arm and led her toward the living room. “So while I’m gone, promise me you’ll put your feet up in your lounger and rest, or I won’t go.”
Her mom’s mouth pinched into a frown. “I don’t like being blackmailed.”
“I wouldn’t have to resort to it if you’d follow your doctor’s orders. You did too much today.” Cassie helped settle her into the comfortable chair, then put the footrest up for her. “I’m a phone call away if you need me or if Scott finally shows up.” She pulled her cell out of her jeans pocket to emphasize the point.
Her mother waved her hand. “Go, y’all. Now.”
Five minutes later Cassie sat next to Jameson in his car as he backed out of the driveway and headed toward the highway. For a moment she let the silence lengthen while she calmed herself. Her mother’s recent bout with pneumonia worried Cassie more than Scott’s lateness.
“Thanks for going to Savannah with me,” she said, needing to take her mind off her mother’s failing health. She was in God’s hands. He would care for her. “When Mom insists on something, nothing can change her mind. I’m sure that’s where my brother got his stubbornness.”
“But not you?”
“I’m not stubborn. I’m pretty laid-back.”
“How did that happen with a brother and mother who aren’t?”
“That’s why I am. Someone has to give in or you live in angst all the time. Not good for you.”
On the highway the gray of dusk cloaked the landscape in shadows. The sun sank below the tree line, coloring the pale blue sky with orange, yellow and rose. Soon it would be dark, and Cassie was secretly glad that Jameson had volunteered to drive her to Savannah. Her vivid imagination could get the best of her.
“I can’t imagine what Scott wanted to talk to Mom and me about. He didn’t give you any indication?”
“I got the impression it concerned a story he’s working on.”
“But then why would he want to talk to us? Do you think it had something to do with those students on the basketball team that he interviewed the other day? Or maybe the skeleton found under the library sidewalk? That would be a story Scott would go after.”
He shrugged. “It could be. That’s the first question we can ask him when we find him.”
Each time Jameson said “we” her smile grew. She liked the sound of it. “I just hope we don’t pass him on the highway.”
“What kind of car does he drive? I’ll keep an eye out for it.”
“A 1966 red Ford Mustang.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard to spot. At least not until it gets dark.”
“We’ll be on the outskirts of Savannah by that time.” Which was probably about thirty minutes away.
As silence engulfed the car again, Cassie searched her mind for a new topic of conversation. There was so much she wanted to know about Jameson, now that she had him as a captive audience. “So, where are you from originally? Where were you a reporter?”
“New York City.”
“One of the big papers?”
He nodded. “The Times.”
She whistled. “What made you give it up?”
“It was time to move on.” His tone indicated he wasn’t going to offer more information than that.
“Why did you come to Magnolia College?”
“It has a good journalism department.”
“A lot of colleges do. How’d you hear about the school?”
Cassie couldn’t help noticing his stiff posture and tight grip on the steering wheel. “I thought I was the reporter. Are you sure you don’t want to be one?”
Realizing she sounded as though she were interrogating him, she laughed, hoping to ease his strain. “I guess my brother has rubbed off on me more than I thought.” Although she attempted to lighten the mood, she was aware of the growing awkwardness in the car. Jameson was hiding something. Did it have to do with his deceased wife? She peered at his gold wedding band, barely visible in the dim dashboard lights.
“Now it’s my turn. What made you come back to Magnolia Falls after living in Savannah for years?”
“As you saw tonight, Mom isn’t well. Both Scott and I felt she needed someone to look after her. I was the one who could move the easiest.”
“Did you mind coming back?”
She thought for a moment about the question. At first she had resisted Scott’s suggestion, but it hadn’t taken her long to realize she’d loved growing up in the small college town, and coming home would be good for her as well as her mother. “No, it was time for me to come home.”
“How does your mother feel about it?”
“She was relieved, which made me realize she was sicker than both Scott and I originally thought. Are your parents alive?”
“Both alive and well in Florida. Retired and having a ball.”
The lights of Savannah lit the dark horizon. Soon they would be at Scott’s apartment, and there was a part of Cassie that wanted this drive to last longer. She’d found out more about Jameson than she ever had before, but really it was only facts. She wanted to know so much more. But first she needed to check on her brother and put her mother’s mind at ease.
“Where does your brother live?”
She gave him Scott’s address, then the direction to his apartment. Silence fell between them again when they hit Savannah. The closer she got to her brother’s, the more the tension built inside her. She remembered the times she’d find him drunk and barely able to stand. With the Lord’s help she’d managed to get Scott to attend his first AA meeting. Thankfully he’d now been sober for more than a year and focused on his job at the paper. Scott was a pit bull when working on a story, and she was sure he’d just gotten sidetracked—that this one time her mother’s hunch was wrong.
Jameson parked out in front of the large white house that had been converted into apartments in an older section of the city. The serenity of the neighborhood appeased Cassie’s anxiety. Soon she would discover they had overreacted and have to explain their sudden appearance to her brother.
Standing on the sidewalk in front, Cassie pointed down the driveway. “Scott’s place
