Buried [Completed]

Chapter twenty-nine

Jamie couldn't face the prospect of going home to Kyle's empty house. She felt like her head was exploding and her heart was breaking, all at the same time. Worst of all she couldn't stop thinking about Cory's question: Will you still be here when we get home?

Poor thing. Cory had been abandoned by two key people in her life- her mother and her grandmother. Now it seemed as if Jamie might have no choice but to leave her as well. What she needed, Jamie decided, was a drink. People. Noise. Distractions.

* * *

The Linger Longer was quiet, but then again it was only Wednesday. Just two tables were occupied, and as luck would have it, one was with her brother and Charlotte Hammond.

"Hey there."

Maybe it was a sign, running into her brother this way. They welcomed her to their table and Dougal ordered her a beer.

"Where's Kyle?"

"Away on business. The kids are at summer camp for two weeks."

"So, for one night, you're a single woman again, huh?" Charlotte said, her tone friendly.

There was an interesting vibe between her brother and Charlotte. Jamie wondered if her bachelor brother was finally falling in love. She had a hard time picturing quiet, studious Charlotte with her brother. But they both loved books, so they had that much in common.

"When Dougal was a kid he used to spend a lot of time at the library."

"Part of my misspent youth," Dougal joked.

"I know," Charlotte said. "I used to see him there. Not that he would have noticed me."

"Well, maybe he did," Jamie said.

Charlotte shook her head, smiling. "A plain-looking, skinny girl, four years younger? No way."

"We were both kind of invisible to him back then, weren't we?" Jamie said. "At home Dougal could go an entire week without saying one word to me. Unless it was, 'get out of my way,' or some other sweet thing like that."

"Daisy was the same with me. She'd get angry if I just looked through her make-up drawer in the bathroom." Charlotte glanced at Jamie's new wedding band, then grimaced. "Sorry. That was tactless."

"Don't worry. Daisy's your sister, so of course you should talk about her. And she and Kyle have been divorced for so long, it's not an issue for me, at all."

"Thanks for being so sweet about it. It is nice to talk about Daisy sometimes. Even if it is just to complain that she hated sharing a bathroom with me." Charlotte laughed.

"Dougal didn't have much choice about sharing with me and my mom. What we never had much of in our trailer was space."

Charlotte's expression turned wistful. "It must have been kind of cozy though, huh?"

Her response was totally unexpected. It confirmed to Jamie, that even though she and Dougal had been poor, they'd been lucky in lots of other ways.

"You're right, it was cozy. And fun most of the time, thanks to my mom."

"I was close to my mother, too. Not so much my sister. Something I've always regretted. Now I just wish I could see Daisy again. That would be enough."

"She's never in touch?"

"Not unless you call making regular cash withdrawals from our joint account staying in touch."

Charlotte's cheeks suddenly looked hollow, her eyes haunted. Jamie thought of Daisy's journal. Kyle had said he was saving Daisy's stuff for the children, but she wondered if he had ever offered to let Charlotte look through it. She would guess not, but as Daisy's sister, surely Charlotte had the right. Jamie's beer went down fast, and she ordered another, along with a plate of wings and another of nachos to share with the others. She asked Dougal how his research into the librarian killings was going, and he told her they'd had some new developments. As Dougal and Charlotte filled her in, Jamie stared from one to the other.