“Do you regret it now?” The disbelief of such a notion was evident in Lance’s tone. “Is there something I’m missing here?”
“Of course I don’t regret serving my country,” Jace said in frustration, hating that he had to explain himself. “You don’t find that returning home is messing with your head, even though we did the right thing? What would have happened if Brynn had chosen to go with you? Do you think the two of you would have withstood the harsh reality of the endless deployments or the moving to another state every few years? I guess seeing old friends has me wondering about the choices we made when we were younger.”
“Is this about Shae?”
Jace snapped his teeth together instead of answering Lance, because the inevitable questions would have followed. He wasn’t ready to talk about Shae. She’d all but escorted him to the door when he’d tried to pay her a compliment. He’d tried telling her in a roundabout way that he’d made a mistake most teenage boys make—ignoring what was right in front of him the whole time.
“Forget it, man.” Jace shifted in the chair, wondering how Lance could sit the way he was without hurting his neck. It just went to show that the two years between them made a difference. “I spoke with Nick today. He said that Kyle was in the city the night Emma disappeared because he’d been the one to deliver the keg.”
“Paid him fifty bucks,” Lance added on, obviously having heard about Jace’s phone conversation from Brynn. She’d had the worst timing in knocking on Shae’s door as he’d waited for her to reply to his declaration. His offer to drive Shae back to his house had been axed before he’d even finished giving the suggestion. “Do you think he could have driven back and taken Emma? I can’t see him being a killer.”
“Neither can I, but I’m not so sure Brynn’s right to keep her head buried in the sand either.” Jace held up his hands in defense when Lance shot him a look of warning. “You know as well as I do that it’s most likely someone we know. Kendrick mentioned that Whitney Bell had let someone into her house the night she was taken, which leads him to believe that she knew her killer well enough not to worry about having him in her house alone.”
“Jeremy still hasn’t gone into the Cavern.”
That absence wouldn’t be unusual for anyone else in town but Jeremy. Well, maybe their Uncle Jimmy. His fondness for alcohol definitely ranked up there with Jeremy’s addiction.
“What about Uncle Jimmy?” Jace had to wonder what Jimmy Webb thought of their homecoming gifts. Jimmy was Mary Kendall’s brother and the outcast of the family. His stint in jail and some of his earlier choices hadn’t endeared the man to Jace’s grandfather—who had been the one to cut Jimmy out of his will. “Have you seen him since you’ve been home?”
“Yeah, and so has Noah. Uncle Jimmy made his usual empty offer to have dinner, but nothing has panned out so far.” Lance lifted his cell phone, which he’d had in his lap, and checked the time. It was getting rather late. “Are you sure you don’t need me to get the old 870 out of the truck? A number two shot would make a mess out of any unruly reporter.”
“Dad gave me one of his old Remington Model 31s. Speaking of which, did you head down to the station to apply for your concealed carry permit? I need to do that. My old one states that I have thirty days to change addresses.” Along with a ton of other things. At least he didn’t have the problems that Noah and Lance had upon moving into their new homes. “We should do something for Dad, you know. He and Mom could have used that money for a lot of other things. I still can’t believe I’m sitting on the front porch of my new home. It’s crazy.”
“Tell me about it.” Lance drained the rest of his beer before dropping his boots to the ground with a thud. “We’ll wait for Gwen and Mitch to come home before doing something. And no, I haven’t had time to go see Patty about my concealed carry permit.”
“Patty is still running things down there?” It wasn’t surprising, but the woman had to be close to her seventies and retirement. Thinking about the station made his thoughts turn back to Shae. Hell, all he’d thought about was that woman since he’d returned home. “Are you sure Shae is safe upstairs all alone in that studio apartment above the bar? Maybe you should suggest she stay at the inn around other folks.”
“Is there something going on between you two that I don’t know about?”
Jace truly wished he had an answer for his brother. He’d always considered Shae a friend, but her confession this morning had thrown a twist into his reality. Well, saying she altered his perception of certain memories might be a better way to describe what was bouncing around in his head. Maybe talking about it with Lance would lessen his confusion.
“Shae told me something today that I didn’t understand.” Jace took a swig of his beer to give himself fortification. If Lance spread a word of this to anyone, he wouldn’t be walking for a week. “She blames herself for taking the car the night Emma disappeared. Technically, she blames me, because I’m the one she went to see.”
“Wait,” Lance said with a shake of his head. He appeared just as confused as Jace. “Start from the beginning.”
“Shae and Emma got into a fight about who was getting the car that fateful night. Their mom made the final decision that Shae could take it into the city, because Emma was staying in town anyway.” Jace couldn’t sit still for the rest of this conversation, so he stood and leaned his shoulder against one of the white wooden pillars holding up the porch roof. Lance settled back into the chair that might very well collapse at any moment. “Heated words were exchanged, but Shae took the car anyway.”
“Because she was coming to see you at your going away party?” Lance ran a hand down his face in amazement. He held his cell phone and empty beer bottle in the other. “Oh, shit. She remembers that night every time she sees your ugly mug.”
“See? Now you aren’t helping me out here, man.” Jace shouldn’t have told Lance anything. Where was Mitch when he was needed? Now he was the one brother who had the ability to analyze a situation and give sound advice. “I don’t want to be the reason she thinks of as the first element, but I’m not sure I can keep my distance.”
“Keep your…” Lance’s voice trailed off as he finally began to fit the various pieces in place. “Oh, I hate to tell you this, buddy, but you’re fucked like a duck during the first day of hunting season.”
Again, Lance’s reaction reminded Jace of why he only ever ran his problems by Mitch.
“There are times when I hate you,” Jace muttered, draining his beer. “Just do me the favor of making the suggestion to Shae that she should stay at the inn. It’s better that she play it safe, what with everything going on in the past few months. How could it hurt?”
“Look,” Lance said, clearly trying to make up for his botched reaction. “Think back to those combat deployments where we few came home with less packs than when we went in. It’s hard for me to think of some of my old buddies without remembering the bad times when we were in the shit. Those memories are there, but they’re buried underneath the others of when we laughed our asses off because we stole another unit’s Humvee or when we put laxatives into the First Sergeant’s coffee because he pissed us off with useless horseshit assignments when we were back in garrison, cleaning weapons that were just cleaned.”
The good memories outweighed the bad. They had to, or else they would have all gone insane. Unfortunately, the recollections Shae and Jace shared were typical of any teenagers trying to do the best he or she could, given the circumstances. He thought back to this afternoon when she burst into laughter over his potential death by drowning.
The bonus here was that when he thought of her, he would forever remember that moment now. He wasn’t sure why it was so important to him for her to associate his face with something other than a family tragedy, but it was.
“Lance, you might not be so bad after all.”
“I get such a bad rap,” Lance muttered, standing while managing not to break the old chair. He handed off his empty beer bottle to Jace while ma
intaining a hold on his phone. “Throw that away for me, would you? I should get back to the bar and help Brynn with last call.”
Lance reached the bottom step of the porch when headlights cut through the darkness. Who the hell would be visiting at this hour of the night?
“You might want to go and get that shotgun,” Lance advised cautiously, slipping his phone into the back pocket of his jeans as he kept an eye on the approaching vehicle. The movement allowed his hand to remain closer to the holstered weapon attached to his belt. “Who the hell is that at this time of night?”
Jace had already set down the two empty bottles on the bannister, monitoring the situation closely. He finally caught a glimpse of the vehicle when the driver turned the wheels to the right ever so gently in order not to block in Lance’s truck.
The light bar on top of the brown and white car gave away the visitor’s identity—Deputy Kyle Foster.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Shae let her gaze drift slowly over the patrons of the Cavern from her spot in the corner. She was looking for someone in particular, but so far, he was a no-show.
The day had been eventful, with her visiting Rose Phifer and Harlan Whitmore. Both had been very good friends of her parents, as well as Chester and Stella. Rose was quite the source of information, especially after sharing that Whitney Bell and Clayton Schaeffer had a thing going on back in high school that had apparently carried over through the years. It made Shae question what else had gone on in Blyth Lake that she wasn’t aware of.
“Shae, it’s good to see you.”
She’d been concentrating on the front entrance and hadn’t seen Chad Schaeffer making his way over from the other side of the bar. He’d been playing darts with a dark-haired man who reminded her of Jace, but that wasn’t surprising seeing as he’d been on her mind the whole day.
“Chad, it’s been a long time.” Shae scooted out of the booth she’d claimed around thirty minutes ago and gave him a hug. He’d been friends with Emma and had also been the one to throw the bonfire she’d attended on the night she went missing. “I was sorry to hear about Clayton’s recent troubles.”
“No one’s to blame for Clay’s reckless actions but himself, and he knows that.” Chad motioned toward the other side of the booth, silently asking if he could join her. She nodded her agreement and wondered if he wouldn’t be willing to answer some of her questions. “He could have killed Lance and Brynn, if he’d followed through with that stupidity. You know it’s bad when even Wes was trying to get our older brother to see reason. Hell, everyone in town is losing their damned heads over the police asking questions. Someone is bound to get hurt sooner or later.”
Shae instinctively wanted to say that people had been hurt, but she understood what he meant. Being questioned was enough to cast doubt on one’s reputation around here nowadays. The residents of Blyth Lake placed a lot of pride in their surname and the past generations. This wasn’t an easy time for any of them.
“How long are you in town for?” Chad asked, leaning his forearms on the table. His dark eyes seemed to measure her response, more so because that wasn’t what he really wanted to ask her.
“I don’t know.” The front door opened, but it was only Harlan and Chester coming in for a drink before their weekly card game. She twirled the straw that was in her glass of water in frustration. She might as well tell Chad what he really wanted to know. “I came back to find answers. Whitney’s death means that the same individual who took Emma is still here wandering around free. We obviously missed something back then, and it’s time we set it right. Emma didn’t deserve to be taken away from a promising life. She once had everything going for her, and then…some scumbag took it all away.”
“We never got a chance to talk before you and your parents left town.” Chad reached across the table and rested his hand over hers. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wonder if Emma wouldn’t still be with us if I hadn’t thrown that damned bonfire party. I’m sorry, Shae. I truly am.”
“It’s instinctive for us to think we could have stopped something in our past if we’d only chosen another path or done something differently. I look at it that Emma had the time of her life that night before her luck turned. She was with her friends, she danced by the fire with a boy she had a crush on, and she left there smiling according to everyone who saw her head off into the woods to walk home.” Shae might have stretched the truth, but it was evident Chad needed some type of understanding from her. She still played the what-if game, knowing full well it wasn’t good for her mental health and that it wouldn’t change a damned thing. “Now go and finish your game of darts. Your friend is burning a hole through the back of your head.”
“Do you want to join us?” Chad offered, squeezing her hand to let her know how much he appreciated their chat. “You don’t have to sit here all by your—”
“Am I interrupting?”
Shae was startled by Jace’s presence. She wasn’t sure where he’d come from, because she’d had her eye on the front door this entire time.
“No, not at all,” Chad said smoothly, sliding his hand away from hers. His unexpected wink told her what he thought about her reaction. “We were just catching up. It’s good to see you, Jace. How was the Marines?”
“Hard, Chad. God bless the Corps. It’s been a long time.” Jace shook the man’s hand, though he never took his gaze off Shae. It was in that moment that she could literally hear the match sliding on the score of a matchbook. “I didn’t mean to rush you off.”
There was an intimate suggestion in Jace’s tone that made it sound as if there was something between the two of them. Her heart raced at the insinuation. She had to remind herself that he was twelve years too late.
“Not at all.” Chad waved off Jace’s not-so-sincere apology as he stood from the booth. “I’ve got a game of darts to get back to, so you two enjoy your evening.”
Neither she nor Jace corrected Chad on his assumption that this reunion was anything other than two friends bumping into one another. She hadn’t even known Jace would be here tonight.
“I didn’t expect to see you tonight.” Shae tried to concentrate on the comings and goings of the Cavern, but that was made more difficult when Jace took Chad’s place in the booth across from her. His right knee brushed against hers, but shifting her body would let him know she was affected by his touch. “How are things at the house? Were you able to get your furniture delivered?”
“The Benson twins showed up this afternoon with the boxes and furniture that I had put into storage, but it’s not nearly enough to make a dent in the house.” The small tic on the side of Jace’s jawline told her that he hadn’t stopped by to make small talk. “Listen, Kyle Foster stopped by my place last night around one o’clock in the morning.”
Shae was a bit confused by his admission, because she’d run into Kyle this afternoon on her way back from Chester and Stella’s house. They’d had an open conversation about the night Emma disappeared, and not once did he seem upset that she’d brought his name up to Detective Kendrick. By Jace’s look of concern, it wasn’t good.
“Really?” Shae pushed her glass of water away, intent to hear what Jace had to say in case it differed from her discussion with Kyle. “What did he want?”
“Where did you go after you left Nick’s house that night?”
The question stunned Shae, for she’d gone over this numerous times with her parents, the police, and even in therapy over the years. She could have easily made it back to Blyth Lake to pick up Emma from the bonfire. She hadn’t made that possibly life-saving decision. Why was Kyle bringing it up with Jace and not her?
“I drove over to the collage to meet up with one of my friends who’d told me she was staying on campus that weekend.” Shae had done her best over the past twelve years to put all this behind her, and yet here she was…purposefully bringing these long-lost memories to the surface yet again. “She wasn’t there, though. She’d changed her mind at the last minute an
d drove to her parents’ house for the weekend.”
Shae didn’t like the sense of foreboding coming from Jace’s side of the table. She still wasn’t sure why Kyle would have driven to Jace’s house last night, unless…
“Oh, my God,” Shae whispered, leaning forward so that her voice didn’t carry. “Are you telling me that Kyle Foster thinks that I—”
“Let’s just say that he poured that poison into Detective Kendrick’s ear.”
Shae was glad she hadn’t had any alcohol. She would have thrown the contents up all over this table. To have someone believe she could harm her sister in any way was unimaginable to her.
“Jace, I spoke with Kyle today. He was gracious and understanding about my conversation with the police. Why would he go to you and suggest—”
“Foster might be younger than most of the townsfolk in Blyth Lake, but he’s old school. He takes after Sheriff Percy, and you know how his life is turning out. You slung mud Foster’s way, and he’s slinging it right back at you.”
“But why go to you?” Shae resisted the urge to pick up her cell phone and call Detective Kendrick. She needed to set things right, but she wouldn’t do so while sitting in a bar. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does when you consider the media has hounded my family since Noah discovered Sophia’s body in the wall of his house.” Jace put things into perspective for her, giving her hope that her presence in town didn’t muddy the waters. Detective Kendrick was a smart man. He would see through Foster’s attempt to flip the script. Surely, Kendrick was bright enough to know when he was being conned. “I don’t believe Kendrick is keeping Deputy Warner or Deputy Foster in the loop after what happened with Sheriff Percy. Let’s face it, the man’s negligence got Deputy Wallace murdered. Warner might be a good officer, but Foster clocks in and out without caring one wit about the good folks in this town. He apparently wasn’t caught up to speed about the fact Kendrick doesn’t believe me or my family are involved in Emma’s disappearance or Whitney’s murder.”
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