“Listen, I’ve got to get some work done around the house this weekend,” he said. “You around early next week?”
“It’s hard to say, the way things are going. But if I am, you want to-”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say. I might’ve been about to ask if you wanted to paint my room.”
“The answer’s still yes,” he said, with a smile that warmed me from head to toe. “But I get to pick the color.”
Graden headed off to his meeting, and when I got back to Bailey’s desk, she was just ending a call.
“And?” I asked.
“The iPad’s in New York.”
“How’re we going to get out there in time to-”
“We’re not. I put in calls to NYPD. I’m e-mailing them all the info, photos of Brian, all that jazz. They’ve put out the alert.”
“So I guess it’s that time,” I said. Time to notify Raynie and Russell of Hayley’s death. I couldn’t even begin to tell Bailey how much I dreaded this meeting, but her expression told me I didn’t need to.
“You don’t have to do this, Rache.”
“Yeah, I do.” I couldn’t let Bailey go it alone. And I couldn’t let my own history get in the way of doing my job.
Bailey sighed heavily. “Do you want to get the parents together or tell them separately?”
I flashed back on the scene at Russell’s house. “They all seemed pretty easy with each other. It might be best for them to have everyone together.”
Bailey stood up. “I agree. And besides, it’s bad enough having to give this news once.”
No argument there. Bailey dropped me at the Biltmore and went back to her apartment in Larchmont Village so we could get cleaned up and look professional when we delivered the news.
We arranged for everyone to meet us at Russell’s house and we were ushered into the living room, where the parents were seated on separate sections of the couch that was in front of the fireplace. There was a heavy tension in the room. I knew they were steeling themselves against the pain of hearing what we’d come to tell them. The words we were about to utter in the next few seconds would change their lives forever. It made me wish there was a giant life clock I could reach into and push back the hands, take us all to a time when Hayley was here, safe. Raynie jumped up to offer us something to drink, and when we declined, she offered us something to eat. I recognized the defense mechanism, a way to delay the blow. Because maybe if it was delayed long enough, it wouldn’t come. But of course, it had to. Bailey told them, as gently as she could, that Hayley had been found dead in the trunk of Brian’s car.
