Dark Hearts by Sharon Sala

brother’s grip.
    â€œYou have hell on your hands, don’t you?” Sam said.
    â€œYes, and I don’t know why,” Trey said. “It’s noon, which means they’re going to run us out of here for a couple of hours. I need to swing by the precinct to pick up Dallas, and then we can go to lunch and catch up.”
    Sam looked back at Trina, and then leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Be strong, little sister.”
    â€œWe’ll be back,” Trey added.
    They walked out together with a nod to the guard, and left the hospital.
    * * *
    Dallas was on the computer in Trey’s office when he and Sam walked in.
    â€œHey,” Trey said.
    She looked up, then smiled when she realized Sam had arrived.
    â€œSam. I am so glad you’re here,” she said, and got up to give him a hug. “It’s been a long time. You look good,” she added.
    â€œNot as good as you,” Sam said, and hugged her back. “I understand congratulations are in order.”
    She turned the engagement ring on her finger.
    â€œThanks.” Then her eyes welled. “Betsy was so happy Trey and I were together again. She kept talking about weddings and grandchildren and—”
    Sam shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m glad someone made her happy, because it damn sure wasn’t me,” he said.
    Trey frowned. “Don’t do that, Sam. She wasn’t unhappy with you. There’s a difference. She accepted your reasoning as sound, figured you knew yourself better than anyone else, and none of us ever heard a complaint about it from her.”
    It didn’t change the fact that Sam felt as if he’d let her down, but it was good to know his mother had understood his fears.
    Dallas shoved the hair back from her face as she sat back down. “I’ve begun working on the list you gave me,” she said to Trey.
    Trey showed Sam the 1980 yearbook from Mystic High School.
    â€œI borrowed this from Will Porter. He was in the class of 1980, too. We’re going through the list of graduates, trying to find out where they all are, so we can start eliminating them as possible suspects.”
    Sam sat down on the other side of the desk as Trey started pacing. He’d done that ever since he was a kid. When he was thinking something out, he paced.
    â€œMy first question is, why do you think the killer’s someone from their graduating class?” Sam asked.
    â€œSomething we found after Paul Jackson was murdered. When we went through his lockbox in the bank, he left a letter and a bloody tassel in an envelope for his son. The tassel came from a 1980 graduate, but it didn’t belong to any of the four who were involved in the wreck.”
    â€œOkay, so if no one else is murdered, then we can assume that it does have something to do with that wreck they were in, right?” Sam said. “Otherwise, if more people are targeted, that would remove the wreck aspect.”
    Trey nodded. “Yes. We believe Trina was shot only because she would have been a witness the killer couldn’t afford. Mom thought the murders had to do with something they saw the night they graduated. Once she mentioned dreaming about seeing a body. I asked her if she thought she’d been a witness or an accessory to a killing.”
    Sam flinched.
    â€œYou actually asked Mom if she’d killed someone?”
    Trey’s chin jutted defensively.
    â€œMore or less. Yes, she was my mother, but I’m also the chief of police, and I was trying to solve Paul Jackson’s murder. She told me she dreamed the four of them saw a body. She thought they were on their way to report it when they wrecked. She gave me a journal she’d been keeping of the dreams. A couple of times she wrote something about the four of them seeing someone die, and then being chased.”
    â€œMy God,” Sam said. “All those years, and that was locked inside her