by Emily James
Concern flickered across Mark’s face. How long had I been staring wordlessly at his chest?
“Are you okay?” he asked.
A crazy laugh bubbled up inside me. I held it back. If I started talking about how not okay I was, how afraid I was that I was going to lose Sugarwood, I might cry right here in front of everyone, and I was too much my father’s daughter to ever do that. “I’ll be better once we get this mess cleaned up.”
Mark shook his head. “I meant are you hurt. Elise said you ran your car into a ditch because you were on the phone with Russ when it happened.”
Oh. Right. Doctor. He was asking after my physical health. “My shoulder aches a little, but it still works, and it’s starting to feel better already.” I scrubbed my teeth over the corner of my upper lip. “Thanks for asking.”
Mark started to turn away, then stopped. “I know Erik’s busy right now, and Russ shouldn’t drive for a few days. If you’ll let me, I’ll make sure your car gets to Quantum Mechanics.”
A lump clogged my throat, so I answered with a nod. Mark headed back to where Elise had wheeled in a wheelbarrow and was shoveling up bits of glass and metal.
I headed over to the pile of work gloves someone had left on a card table set up in the corner and put my face to the wall for a minute. It was the best chance I’d have at privacy and to get control of my emotions for hours.
Unless Mark Cavanaugh turned from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, my chances of falling out of love with him seemed about as good as an eighty-degree day in a Michigan December.
Since Russ wasn’t supposed to be driving anywhere for a couple of days in case his head wound made him dizzy, he gave me free access to his truck. Unfortunately, with getting everything back up and running, I didn’t have time to go by the hospital for nearly a week.
Knowing the keys were out there unprotected was like having a cracked lip. It made it difficult for me to do even the normal tasks without distraction. I called the hospital and asked them to take Noah’s belongings out of the cubby in his room and set them behind their desk. Presumably, no one would think to hunt through the storage cubbies of comatose patients—most next of kin would have taken the items home—and even if someone did find them, they’d need to figure out where to use them. But I still hated them out there unprotected. I’d had too many people invade my “home” to be comfortable with possibly providing them with easy access to everywhere on Sugarwood. At least my house keys weren’t included. The only one who had a key to my house other than me was Russ.
Once again, no one even stopped to ask my name as I entered Noah’s room. The nurses were too busy to be expected to also guard Noah. Though, by now, if no one had come to finish what they started, I had to assume that they were satisfied with putting him into a coma. According to Oliver, the doctors had given up hope that he’d ever wake up.
After stopping in to see Noah, I waited for a nurse and asked after Noah’s belongings. The keys were at the top of the plastic bag that someone had put his belongings in to. The keys technically belonged to Sugarwood, so I felt entitled to take those with me, but I left the rest behind for Oliver to pick up if he wanted.
I was leaving the hospital when Elise’s name flashed across my phone.
“I’m headed to interview Stacey Rathmell, and I was hoping you’d ride along. Mark says you’re great at reading people. You’ve probably noticed that I’m not. I was sure when I arrived at the scene of Noah’s attack that you’d done it.” Her tone of voice had that self-deprecating, I’m going to laugh at my failings so that at least we can laugh together quality to it.
Maybe staying up all night, scrubbing sap off of concrete floors, bonded people. Or maybe I was lonelier here than I wanted to admit. Whatever the reason, I’d almost considered calling up Elise to chat a couple days ago. Her admission of her weakness as an interrogator suggested that we might be able to be friends yet.
Either that, the pernicious little voice in my head whispered, or she’s trying to get you to let your guard down so that she can trick you into admitting you did do it.
This time I was ninety-nine percent certain that my paranoid self was wrong.
I climbed into Russ’ truck and turned it on for the heater, but I didn’t leave the parking lot since his truck wasn’t Bluetooth-equipped.
My first reaction was to say of course! to Elise’s suggestion, but Erik’s concerns about the scrutiny the department was under lingered in my mind.
“If you take me along, won’t that get you into trouble?”
“I got Erik to sign off on it as long as you’re along as potential council should Stacey request it.”
No one could argue with that. I glanced down at my jeans and running shoes. If I was going to be along as a lawyer, I needed to look the part.
Since it might call my validity as a lawyer into question if I showed up in Russ’ mud-spattered truck, I’d probably need a ride there as well.
“I’m out right now, and I’ll need to change. Can you meet me at Sugarwood in fifteen minutes?”
15
Stacey Rathmell lived at home with her parents, and their house turned out to be in a subdivision not far from Quantum Mechanics. The house was a Cape Cod-style with dormered windows on the second floor, green shutters, and a steeply sloping roof perfect for winters with heavy snow. The first word that came to my mind was unpretentious. It was how I would have described Tony as well, so I suppose it fit.
Elise knocked on the door, and Stacey answered. She looked almost identical to the way she had in the picture. That suggested they might have been recent rather than taken a couple of years ago the way we’d assumed. People changed a lot in their teens, so it wasn’t likely she’d look the same now as she had at fifteen.
Or maybe I was reaching because I didn’t want Noah to have been guilty of what he’d been accused of. We might not have been close, but I’d liked him, and I didn’t want to like him if he’d been preying on underage girls.
Stacey’s gaze zipped over Elise’s uniform and then hopped to me. She dropped the backpack she’d been holding to the ground. “Did something happen to one of my parents?”
Elise showed her badge, even though her uniform made it clear she was the police. “We’re here to talk to you about Noah Miller.”
Stacey rocked back and forth as though she were trying to decide between inviting us in and slamming the door in our face. It was an odd reaction.
She slung her backpack over her shoulder. “I was on my way to class, actually.”
Elise had filled me in on the way on the little she’d found out about Stacey. Other than her ill-fated appearance in the court records surrounding Noah’s statutory rape charge, she must have kept her head down to stay so far out of the everybody-knows-everybody rumor mill of Fair Haven. From what Elise told me, Stacey’d been the model child and now was going to school for automotive technology, with the intent of taking over her father’s business when he retired. Other than the fact that she’d once been a girl scout, the gossip puddle ran shallow. I had more of a reputation after a few months than Stacey Rathmell did after living here her whole life.
It spoke to how careful Tony and his wife must have been in protecting their children. That knowledge kept me from dismissing entirely the idea that Tony had somehow been involved in Noah’s attack.
“We won’t take up too much of your time,” Elise said, “but it is important that we talk to you.”
Stacey stepped back out of the doorway, the only invitation she gave for us to enter. She didn’t make the usual requests that a reticent adult might have about whether we had a warrant or whether answering our questions was mandatory. It was looking like she wouldn’t even question who I was or why I was there.
Elise entered, and I followed.
Stacey had that same way of avoiding eye contact that Tony had. It seemed contrary to the pictures where she’d either been looking straight into the camera or straight at Noah.
Stacey showed us to the livi
ng room, but she stayed standing. “I don’t know how much help I can be.” Her gaze shifted from side to side, and she twisted a lock of hair around her finger.
Elise didn’t really need me. The girl was a terrible liar. Based on her body language tells when she said that, she felt like she had a lot to say about Noah.
“You’ve heard about what happened to Noah?” Elise asked. She’d taken a seat on the couch, which was a bit of a miscalculation. Since she was asking the questions, she should have stayed upright so she didn’t have to look up at Stacey. I should have been the one to sit, indicating that we were going to stay until we’d had our questions answered.
But Elise had admitted that she wasn’t good at this. It wasn’t like anyone was born knowing how to read and manipulate others. I’d learned, probably much too young.
“I heard,” Stacey said. She’d stopped twisting her hair, but held one hand in the other. “I tried to go see him, but there was some sort of list, and I wasn’t on it.”
I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes. That was just great. The nurses managed to keep the one person I was pretty sure hadn’t hurt Noah from seeing him.
Elise should follow that up with a question about why she’d gone to see Noah. I glanced in her direction. Was I supposed to simply listen and observe here or was I allowed to ask questions as well?
Elise pulled out a notebook and a pen. “We believe that what happened to Noah wasn’t an accident.”
Stacey turned a pasty green. “You think someone hurt him on purpose?”
Only my parents’ years of drilled in training prevented me from slumping. Way to give away the whole sack of potatoes, Elise. That information should have been held back until the end.
Hopefully Elise would forgive me, but I had to jump in or this whole visit could be a waste. “We’re not sure yet. We’re trying to find out a bit more about Noah that might help us understand what he was like.”
I avoided saying if anyone had a reason to hurt him. People tended to shut down if they thought you might be implying that they or their loved ones had something to do with a crime.
“Your name came up in connection to Noah,” I said.
A leading statement rather than a question. When a person was already nervous, the way Stacey was, they’d often be inclined to ramble if given a bit of a nudge.
She sat in the nearest chair. “He used to work for my dad.”
Smart girl. She’d probably come up with that strategy for answering questions about Noah the last time police officers had come around asking about him. Unfortunately for us.
“You won’t get in trouble if you tell us what happened, and neither will Noah.” Elise tucked her pen inside her notebook as if to imply that she wouldn’t even take notes. “We’re only investigating his potential attack, not what he personally might have done in the past.”
If we’d been alone, I would have high-fived her. Interviewing might not have come naturally to her, but it looked like she’d be a quick study with some more practice.
Stacey’s face set into hard lines from her eyebrows to her lips. “If you knew enough to find me, then you know what I told the police when they asked three years ago. Noah never did anything he shouldn’t have, and my dad didn’t know what he was talking about when he said Noah did.”
There was a fierceness to her response, like you only see in people who’re defending someone they care about deeply from an unwarranted attack. That, combined with how obviously uncomfortable she’d been when she tried to lie to us before, made me believe her. But there were still the pictures to explain.
I pulled a photo that I’d hung on to out of my purse and turned it toward Stacey. It was one of the ones that showed Noah and Stacey kissing.
Stacey gave the cross-armed shrug that teenagers seemed to be masters of. “So? That was taken after I turned eighteen. We’re two consenting adults. If you don’t believe me, you can check on when I got the earrings I’m wearing. They were a gift from my parents at my last birthday.”
Elise’s shoulders went tight. It was one of her tells. She didn’t know where to take this next.
I looked down at the photo long enough that I knew it would make Stacey uncomfortable.
Finally I met her gaze and tapped a finger on the edge of the picture. “You can see how this makes it look, though. Like maybe this started before your birthday.”
“I could say you can’t prove that, but I’m tired of people trying to trick me into admitting something that isn’t true.” She smacked a palm into the arm of her chair. “Noah didn’t touch me while I was underage.” She punctuated each word with another slap, then her hand stilled. “I wanted him to, but he said he wanted to do things right. We’d wait, and if we still wanted to be together once I turned eighteen, then no one could stop us.”
The words I should say fled from my mind. On one hand, Noah had done the right thing. On the other hand, Noah was old enough to be her dad. Could a relationship with such a big age gap be genuine, with no ulterior motives?
Stacey scowled at me. “You think I don’t know what that look on your face means. I’ve seen it on every adult who’s talked to me about this.”
I schooled my features so the skepticism I was feeling didn’t show through. She’d been probed about their relationship so much that she’d be on the defensive with almost anything I asked, and we’d end up no further ahead about whether or not Tony might have decided to hurt Noah after all these years. I needed to find a way to disarm her. What might she actually want to talk about?
“Maybe if you told us a little more about how this started?” I said. “What attracted you two to each other?”
Stacey leaned back into her chair, pulled one knee up to her torso, and hugged it to her. She looked more like a vulnerable child than a rebellious teenager. “No one’s ever asked me that before.” Her voice was soft. “Even now, no one cares why we want to be together. They only care about our age difference.”
“I care,” Elise said. “We both do.”
Stacey licked her lips. “It’s not easy, you know. Going through high school when you’re not one of the popular girls. My parents had rules for what I could wear and the kind of parties I could go to. It didn’t make me very popular. And I had nothing in common with all the kids who might have been willing to be my friends. I liked to go to my dad’s shop on the weekends and after school and learn about cars.” Her gaze slid to the photo. “That’s how I met Noah.”
I moved to the edge of my seat and leaned forward to indicate interest. It wasn’t hard. I was interested.
“Noah was always willing to show me stuff. Not all the guys there wanted a teenage girl hanging around and asking questions. Noah and I started talking about cars and eventually about other things. Turned out we had more in common than I had with any of the guys at school.”
“So why did your dad think something inappropriate was happening?” Elise prompted.
“He said Noah was flirting with me, and he told me he didn’t want me spending time with him anymore. I’d sneak into the shop nights when I knew Noah’d be working late alone, and one time my dad caught me there. We weren’t doing anything, but he assumed we had been and he went to the police.”
One of the puzzle pieces slid into place in my mind. “And he told everyone that he’d fired Noah for stealing because he didn’t want the real reason getting out?”
Stacey nodded. “It wasn’t fair. But Noah said we just had to be patient. We had our first kiss the day after I turned eighteen.” Her voice was so wet with tears that I almost couldn’t understand the end of what she’d said.
I caught the gist. They’d waited three years to become a couple, only for Noah to end up in a coma shortly after.
And now I knew how to get to the question we really wanted to know, but doing it made me feel a bit like I was covered in sludge and smelled like it, too. “How do your parents feel about your relationship with Noah?”
“My dad freaked out when I told him Noa
h and I were engaged. He thought it proved that Noah had pressured me into sleeping with him three years ago and that we’d been meeting secretly ever since. He said Noah only wanted my help to pay off his gambling debt.” She swiped the back of her hand across her cheek. “I offered to help Noah, we even argued about it, and he refused. It wasn’t about money.”
I studiously kept my gaze from snaking to Elise. We’d wondered why now, after three years, the father of the girl Noah’d been accused of molesting would seek revenge. Stacey’d given us a possible answer. That same man wanted to marry his daughter, maybe use her to ease the burden of his gambling debt. Given how devoted to Noah Stacey seemed and how long they’d waited to be together, it wasn’t likely they’d be dissuaded either.
But would Tony have tried to kill Noah over it? Maybe he came to Sugarwood to talk to him, man to man, and when Noah refused to give Stacey up, Tony’s anger got the best of him.
Elise was on her feet. “Thanks for helping us better understand the situation. I’ll make sure you’re put on the list of people who’re allowed access to Noah.”
Elise handed her a business card and asked her to call if she thought of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Noah. It was sneakier than I would have expected from Elise. We had an answer from Stacey already for who had a motive to hurt Noah, but giving her the card and leaving the idea hanging meant Stacey might volunteer another name as well. For the sake of Tony’s whole family and Noah, I still wanted to hope someone else had done this.
Outside, the snow flurries of earlier had become thumbnail-sized wet flakes. They drenched my hair.
When we climbed back into the car, Elise and I sat in silence for almost a minute. All I could think was that Stacey was really going to hate us if we ended up proving that her father tried to kill her fiancé. We’d been the first people who’d seemed to believe her about Noah, and we were secretly using her.