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| The Faith Creek Mysteries |
Tessa gathers her sisters and reveals the truth about the case Jonah was investigating before he was shot. When they learn it involves the fifteen-year-old disappearance of Lena Wyatt, Tessa and Rae decide to find out what their father uncovered.
Episode 8 | The Case He Never Solved
By nine the next morning, all five James sisters were gathered in their father's living room.
Anne sat rigidly in the armchair, a mug of coffee balanced between her hands. Noelle had claimed a spot on the floor beside the coffee table, while Rae curled into the corner of the loveseat. Delilah perched on the ottoman, looking far too polished for someone who had been summoned by a family group text before breakfast.
Tessa stood near the stone mantel.
She hadn't slept much.
Every time she'd closed her eyes, she'd heard her father's voice again.
Tasha Wyatt came to me.
I reopened Lena Wyatt's case.
Everything's at the office.
Rae finally broke the silence.
“You said Dad told you something after we left.”
Tessa looked at her sisters.
“He did.”
She drew a breath.
“I’m just going to say it. Dad’s shooting wasn’t random.”
All eyes turned to her.
“What do you mean?” Rae asked, her voice tight.
“He was working a case,” Tessa said. “Not officially. Something personal. He didn't tell anyone because... because it was the case he never solved.”
“What case?” Anne asked.
Tessa met their eyes.
“Lena Wyatt.”
There was a pause. A few confused glances.
“The girl who disappeared when we were in high school?” Noelle asked, sitting up straighter.
“I don’t remember,” Delilah chimed in, adjusting the expensive scarf around her neck.
“She was sixteen,” Tessa said sharply. “Vanished after school one day. No evidence, no trail. Just gone.”
Anne’s fingers tapped against her mug. “Monroe Wyatt was a domineering man, especially when it came to Lena. Overprotective, controlling. Everybody knew it.”
“And when she disappeared, people suspected him,” Tessa said. “Dad never believed Monroe told the whole story.”
“His own daughter?” Noelle said quietly.
“It happens,” Tessa said. “And once a case gets its hooks in you, you don’t just walk away from it.”
“So he went back to it on his own?” Noelle asked. “Without telling anyone?”
“Something pulled him back,” Tessa said. “Lena’s sister showed up in Faith Creek. That’s what set this whole thing in motion again.”
Rae leaned forward. “She may have new evidence.”
---
Tessa gave her a look and smiled. “There it is.”
“Please,” Rae said. “You and Dad aren’t the only ones who know how to dig.”
Delilah shifted on the ottoman. “I never saw the appeal. Poking around in people’s business, sitting in parking lots, standing up for people who did terrible things—”
“You’d see the appeal fast enough if it was someone you care about,” Anne said, not looking up from her mug.
“I put people away too,” Tessa said. “Just for the record.”
Delilah flicked her wrist. “Either way, this has Dad written all over it. Unfinished business. You know how he gets.”
“Yes, I do,” Tessa said, her voice flat and final.
The silence that followed was thick enough to taste.
Anne lifted her mug. “Like father, like daughters.” She drank, then lowered it slowly. “Thirty years on the force, then they pushed him out. And not long after that, we lost Mom. He was just… untethered.”
“So he started the agency,” Rae offered. “Helping people when the department wouldn’t. It gave him a purpose.”
Noelle stood abruptly and began moving back and forth across the worn rug. “But this wasn’t a client’s case. This was personal. No shield. No partner watching his back.”
Anne shook her head. “He's always been a cop at heart. He never stopped.”
“And now he's lying in a hospital bed because of it,” Delilah added.
Tessa's voice dropped.
“And someone is still trying to keep Lena's death a secret.”
The room went quiet.
Noelle stopped pacing.
“What are we supposed to do?”
“No one's saying we have to do anything,” Delilah replied. “But now we know what he was working on when he got shot.”
Tessa looked at each of her sisters.
Then she remembered the last thing her father had told her.
Everything's at the office.
“Dad told me where he's been keeping everything on the case.”
Rae straightened. “Where?”
“His office.”
Something changed in Rae's expression.
Tessa caught it immediately.
“What?”
Rae hesitated.
“I have a key.”
Four pairs of eyes turned toward her.
Delilah frowned. “Why do you have a key to Dad's office?”
Rae shrugged. “I've been helping him out between classes. Answering phones, filing things, keeping the place from falling apart.”
“And you never thought to mention this?” Tessa asked.
“You've been home less than twenty-four hours.”
Tessa couldn't argue with that.
Anne set her mug on the table. “Whatever Dad found was enough to get him shot. Be careful.”
“We’ll do our best, Mama Bear.” Tessa said.
Noelle folded her arms. “You're really going?”
Tessa looked toward Rae.
Rae was already reaching for her purse.
Tessa sighed.
“We're just going to see what Dad found.”
Delilah gave her a knowing look. “Of course you are.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Delilah stood and smoothed her skirt. “I'm going to the boutique.”
Tessa shook her head, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
For the first time that morning, the heaviness in the room lifted.
Only slightly.
Because somewhere inside James Investigations was the case their father had nearly died trying to solve.
And Tessa intended to find out why.
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