Kate was wired on nerves and late-night coffee as she and DeMarco loaded up into the car the following morning.They'd had a quick complimentary breakfast within the hotel before leaving,but Kate had not been able to eat much.Her stomach felt even more unstable as she pulled the car out into Sunday morning traffic,realizing that she was going to have to try to explain her history with Cass Nobilini to DeMarco.
"Here's the thing,"Kate said."I don't want you feeling like I'm keeping things from you and I certainly don't want you to feel like I'm expecting you to go into this blindly.So I need to tell you about Cass Nobilini.I need to tell you how,even above the unsolved murder of her son,dealing with her was the hardest part of this case."
"Was she confrontational?"DeMarco asked.
"No.Not quite.But…well,it's hard to explain."
"We've got a twenty-minute drive out to Ashton.Try."
Kate knew she had to get it out--if not to inform DeMarco,then to simply expel it from her mind so it would quit nagging at her.She was pleased to find that once she got started,it really wasn't that difficult at all.
"Eight years ago,when Frank Nobilini was killed,I met Cass Nobilini--Frank's mother.She had been told the news about a day or so before the FBI arrived.She was grieving,sure,but she was also…determined.That's the best word I can think to use.She was determined to figure out who had killed her son.She was extremely helpful when we spoke with her but as far as she was concerned,everyone was a suspect.Everyone from the guy that got his order wrong at the deli to the mailman.I wish I was exaggerating here,DeMarco,but I'm not.She would call at least four or five times a day to ask me if I had considered someone in particular.And the longer we went without finding a killer,the more persistent she became.The more time that went by without us coming up with a suspect,the more insistent she became that she could figure it out herself…that we were very bad at our jobs.And because I was the lead on it,I got the brunt of it all."
"Was it like a coping mechanism?"DeMarco.
"That's what the bureau psychiatrist said.And honestly,it's not that uncommon in cases where the death is sudden and the killer is never found.But Cass went above and beyond.There was one day where I had to sit down with her and get a little mean;I had to tell her to back off and let the bureau do their job.She responded in an honest way,telling us that if we were doing our jobs the right way,we'd have her son's killer in custody.
"She obeyed for the most part,though.At first.When we were quietly taken off of the case and just sort of had it running the background,I got a call one night.A call from Cass Nobilini.This was about five months after we'd stopped running hard after the case.She called me and told me that she knew who had killed her son.She said the FBI needed to come back to Ashton.And I had to tell her the truth--that unless she had hard evidence to support her claims,the bureau couldn't become active on it again.Of course,she never had that evidence.So she called me one more time a few weeks later to let me know that she would forever blame the FBI--me,in particular,as the lead agent on the case--for not bringing her son's killer to justice."
"That's a little unfair,"DeMarco said.
"It is.And unrealistic,too.But for some reason,that always stuck with me.At the risk of sounding like a diva,I always took failure very hard.The fact that I could never find such a blatant killer and was being blamed by a mother of the victim for never finding the killer…well,that's haunted me for years."
"And we're about to pay her a visit,"DeMarco said.She rubbed at her head and gave a lopsided grin."Now I feel really bad for giving you such a hard time about Missy Tucker.Did you call ahead?"
"No.I probably should have.But I didn't want to give her any warning.I have no clue how she'll respond to seeing me."
"Since she lives in Ashton,I'd assume she's already heard about the murder.Any chance you think she might be expecting you to show up?"
To that,Kate had no answer.What she didn't dare say,though,was that she was actually hoping Cass Nobilini would not be home.
***
It was the same house Kate had been inside eight years ago.She was pretty sure the porch had been repainted and that most of the landscaping was new,but it was eerily familiar otherwise.As she and DeMarco stepped up onto the porch steps,Kate felt a little foolish at the fact that her heart seemed to be trying to beat right out of her chest.
"You good?"DeMarco asked.
Before she could even think about the answer,Kate knocked on the door with a hard,rapid motion.
Almost right away,there was a response from inside,a sing-song"Coming! One second!"
The past came roaring back to Kate.Being blamed for not finding the killer,having to tell Cass to calm the hell down and stay out of the way of the FBI.It all hit her as she heard the footfalls approaching and for a moment,she nearly wanted to make a run for it.But then the door was opening in front of them and a woman straight out of Kate's past looked out at them.Most of her hair was now gray and there was an abundance of wrinkles on her seventy-year-old face,but she looked remarkably upbeat,all things considered.
It was clear that Cass recognized her right away.She looked from Kate to DeMarco and then back to Kate.The slow smile that crept onto her face seemed genuine enough.
"Agent Wise,"Cass said."It's…well,I guess it's nice to see you."
"You,too."
"I thought you'd show up sooner or later.You're here in town about Jack Tucker,I take it?"
"Yes."
Cass nodded and let out a sigh.She stared at Kate for a moment,just long enough for a thick tension to worm its way back into Kate's heart.
"Well,come on in,"she said."I've got some cinnamon rolls that just came out of the oven.And coffee ready to go."
Cass led them into the house,walking casually ahead of them.The smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls beckoned like a ghostly finger,pulling them forward.
"Looks like you were right,"Kate whispered softly to DeMarco as they walked down the hallway."It is almost as if she was expecting me.I'm a sucker for a good cinnamon roll."
Cass led them into her kitchen.Kate thought it,like some of the exterior of the house,had seen some TLC since the last time she visited.As she perched herself on a barstool along the kitchen counter,the entire scene from eight years ago flashed in her head.
I was standing,leaning against the counter by the stove,when Cass nearly fainted from the grief of losing her son.Her husband had died two years earlier.Prostate cancer.She cried out to him in her anguish and pleaded with me to explain it all to her.
Kate shook the thought away,not allowing herself to go back there.Besides,Cass looked well.Perhaps whatever skewed motivations had pushed her all those years ago had died.Maybe she was now a perfectly healthy and rational woman.Time healed all wounds,right?
"Mrs.Nobilini,this is--"Kate started.
"Oh,I think you and I have been through enough where you can call me Cass."
With a smile,Kate tried again."Cass,this is my partner,Agent DeMarco.I've informed her of our history."
"All of it?"Cass asked as she took cinnamon rolls out of a still-steaming pan and placed them on plates she took from the cupboard.
"Yes.Even the things you probably wouldn't want a stranger to know."
Cass nodded as she brought the agents each a cinnamon roll."I'm not particularly proud of that time of my life.I dealt with my pain in sorrow in some very questionable ways.I always meant to call you…to apologize…"
"It's okay,"Kate said."How are you?"
"I'm okay now.But that period went on for years.I…well,I nearly broke the law a few times if I'm being honest.Surveilling people,coming close to breaking and entering a few times."She sat down on the other side of the bar on her own stool and joined them with her own roll."I devoted my life to it for several months.The final straw was when close friends of mine called the police on me.Not for breaking any laws,but because they feared I was a danger to myself.I went to therapy and worked it all out."
Kate wasn't sure what to say.She couldn't imagine going through that sort of pain,even after losing her own husband several years ago to dubious circumstances.
"Well,as you said at the door,"DeMarco said,apparently sensing Kate's hesitation,"we're in the area to try to solve another murder.Jack Tucker.A murder that seems to be eerily similar to your son's."
"Can I ask how similar?"Cass asked.But her tone indicated she might not be prepared to hear it.
"Same type of gun.Same execution style.Another resident of Ashton who appears to have been a very happily married man with a perfect life,found in an alleyway in New York City."
"My God,"Cass said.
"I wonder,though,"Kate said."In all of that time you spent working towards trying to find answers,did you come across anything that,even now,felt like it might lead somewhere?"
"No.Nothing."Cass looked away,poking at her cinnamon roll in embarrassment."And after a while,it occurred to me that anyone that was able to kill Frank in such a blatant and egregious way…well,they're probably long gone by now."
"It would be a reasonable thing to assume,"Kate said."In terms of Jack Tucker,did you know him or his family by any chance?"
"I didn't personally,"she said."But something occurred to me yesterday that seems odd.It might be nothing,but…it doesn't feel like it."
"What's that?"Kate asked.
"Do you remember Alice Delgado?"
The name popped up in her head as if it had been waiting all along.The fact that she had revisited that name on the old case files the night before no longer seemed by chance."I do.She admitted to making advances towards Frank and was so stricken with guilt that she visited Jennifer and told her about it."
"Right.As I understand it,Alice worked with Missy Tucker a few years back.It was a small job,just manning a register at a local boutique shop that closed almost as quickly as it opened up."
"How long ago was this?"
"Maybe four years ago,give or take.The place was only open for like a year and a half.Everything in there was just too damned expensive."
"Have you reached out to Jennifer since Jack Tucker's murder?"Kate asked."I imagine it brought a lot of new stuff up.New pain and questions."
"No.I thought about it.But I didn't want to assume that the Tucker murder would automatically bring up Frank's murder in her head.She may not even be aware of the way in which Jack was killed.She sort of clammed up after Frank died.We don't really talk much.Her entire life is completely centered around her children now.Well,that and community projects.She's very…intimidating.A lot of people see her as the poor widow,you know? But she's very involved.Community projects,school stuff for the kids.I think she's really active with the PTA."
"They had two,right?"
"Yes.Carter and Elisa.Jennifer has managed to sort of pick up the pieces…starting a new life and all that.But you know…I hate to throw her under the bus but even though she's a bit older now,she hangs around with younger ladies.I think it's because of the PTA at the middle school.There's a tight-knit group of ladies involved in the middle school PTA."
"How's that throwing her under the bus?"DeMarco asked.
"It's a small town,dear,"Cass said."People gossip all the time,especially the women.Maybe even more so with the women on the PTA.I know it might sound fickle,but that's Ashton for you.If there were rumors or gossip or anything related to Jack Tucker or the brief little working relationship between Missy Tucker and Alice Delgado,I guarantee you it was circulated in that little group."
"Are you not part of the group?"Kate asked.She took a huge bite of her cinnamon roll as she waited for an answer.
"Oh,I'm too old.I only know these women because you get to know everyone in a town like this."
Kate finished up her cinnamon roll,starting to get a good idea of where they'd have to go next.It would be yet another step back into her past but that was okay;if this visit with Cass Nobilini had turned out smooth,she figured anything was possible.Still,she felt a sense of foreboding as she thought about digging those old skeletons up,picking at those old scabs.It was also surreal to sense that in order to dig up any leads on her current case,she was going to have to keep revisiting an old one--an old one that had managed to escape her and taunt her for years afterward.
"Agent Wise,are you okay?"
Kate blinked,the sound of her name coming from Cass Nobilini jarring her out of her train of thought."Yeah…I was just lost in my own thoughts for a second."
"Were you?"Cass asked,as if she understood perfectly."Or were you--like me--stuck on trying to figure out how to escape that one certain part of your life you wish you could go back and change?"
To that,Kate could say nothing.It was as if the old lady had crawled into her mind and starting moving things around.
Would that be so bad? Kate wondered.While she's in there,she can have these memories from her son's case and take them with her.I sure as hell don't want them anymore.
But that wasn't exactly true.Because the longer she sat in Cass's kitchen,the more certain she became that crumbs from that old case would be what it took to close the Jack Tucker case.
