Stop Me by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online Page B

it lasted longer than eight years? “This is more important to me than anything else.”
    After checking the directions she’d printed out at the hotel, she turned onto South Broad, which quickly became Perdido Street. Then she made a quick right on South White. She had to find I-10 West, which she’d take for seventy-seven miles toward Lafayette. “I want to bring my sister home for Christmas.” Even if it was only Kimberly’s body or the knowledge of where she’d gone and what had happened to her.
    The following pause was filled with sadness. “I wish I could be there with you.”
    “You already have your plane ticket to Wyoming. Your little sister’s bringing her fiancé for the family to meet. You’ve got to go.”
    “But I hate what you’re going through, especially at Christmas. That makes it so much worse.”
    “Would you be doing anything different if you’d received some note or trinket from the man who shot Jazon?” she asked, referring to the incident that’d sent Sheridan to the victims’ support group where they’d met each other and Skye.
    Sheridan’s voice dropped. “No. I’d give anything for the chance to go back and make things right. Or as right as I can.”
    “Then you understand.”
    “That’s why I’m worried. I understand too well. I’m going to cancel my trip home and come there instead,” Sheridan announced in an abrupt reversal. “Do you have a rental car? Can you pick me up from the airport on the twenty-fourth?”
    “Sheridan, stop,” Jasmine said with a laugh. “Your sister will be heartbroken.
    Go meet her new man. Enjoy your family. I may not even be in New Orleans on the twenty-fourth.”
    “What does that mean? Are you going to your father’s?” Jasmine winced at the hope in her friend’s response. Sheridan constantly tried to talk Jasmine into pulling her family back together, couldn’t stand the thought of everything that’d been left unspoken and unforgiven between them. But that was because Sheridan didn’t understand that they were better off this way. Although Sheridan had her own pain to deal with, that pain didn’t involve her family. They could rally around her and help her forget; Jasmine’s parents only made her remember. “No, I’m going to Mamou.”
    “Where?”
    “The Cajun music capital of the world.”
    “Sounds like a metropolis.”
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    Jasmine smiled at the sarcasm. “Compared to some of the nearby towns, it is.”
    “At least it’s not hurricane season right now.”
    “See? There you go, looking on the bright side.”
    “Have you heard from Skye?”
    “Not today, but I talked to her when my plane landed the night before last. I called to let you both know I arrived safely.”
    “She mentioned it. She also told me she wants you home for Christmas.”
    “She knows I have to do this. And she has David. She’ll be fine.”
    “Do I have your hotel number?”
    “You have my cell.”
    “Just in case.”
    “I don’t have it with me. But you can get it online if you need it.” Jasmine reached I-10 West as she gave her friend the name of the hotel.
    “Thanks. I’ll be on a plane to Wyoming tomorrow, but I’ll call you when I get in.”
    “Sounds good. Have a nice Christmas.”
    “This sucks,” she said and hung up.
    Jasmine recalled her brief conversation with the detectives at the NOPD and, for now, had to agree with the sentiment. She was basically on her own. Like she’d been at seventeen, when she’d started rambling around the country. Only this time she wasn’t running from the past—she was racing toward it.
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Chapter 4
    The town of Mamou made real the kinds of places Jasmine had imagined when she read novels set in the South. Built on relatively flat land in a traditional grid, it was small and, judging by appearances, the buildings hadn’t changed by more than a coat of paint in the past forty or fifty years.
    According to the Web site Jasmine had accessed the night before, there were only about 1600