Death is in the Details

by Heather Sunseri

  Alexandra seemed to shrink a little.

  “And then,” Bella continued, “when I confronted Sadie, she got pissed off and crazy jealous and told her parents about Matthew and me.”

  “When was this?”

  “When did Sadie tell her parents Matthew and I were a couple?”

  I nodded.

  “Oh, months ago.”

  “Did Sadie’s parents say anything to your parents? I mean, I know your parents knew something was going on, but did Sadie’s parents get involved?”

  “Nope.”

  “They didn’t care,” Alexandra said with a shrug. “They also knew that Matthew had pictures of me. But they never said anything to my parents.”

  “Do your parents know now?” I asked, shocked at what these two kids were telling me.

  “God, no! My parents would have me in a convent and Mr. Lake in jail if they ever found out,” Alexandra said. “That is, if my dad didn’t shove a shotgun up his ass first.” She chuckled as if imagining her father doing just that.

  “Sadie’s parents knew that Juilliard would never award more than one scholarship to someone from Paynes Creek High School, and they thought Sadie was more talented than me. I think they didn’t want to get Matthew in trouble until Sadie got an audition with Juilliard.”

  “You’re telling me that Sadie’s parents knew that Matthew was collecting photos of their daughter and that he was engaging in a relationship with a student, but they said nothing out of fear that their daughter wouldn’t get her shot at Juilliard?”

  Alexandra nodded. “When you put it like that, it sounds really messed up.” She turned to her friend. “I loved Sadie, but she wasn’t as talented as you. You still would have gotten the scholarship over her.”

  “Aww, thanks.” Bella swung over and leaned into her friend. “I loved her, too.”

  “She was such a head case,” Alexandra said, kicking her legs back and forth in the swing. “I hope they find who’s doing this. And leave Matthew alone. He would never hurt a fly. He’s really a kind person.”

  I wasn’t sure how kind Matthew Lake was, but I also wasn’t quick to consider him a serious suspect for murder. Still, I planned to turn over this information to Luke.

  I turned to leave. “Well, thanks for the hit. You girls better get home. You’re not driving, are you?”

  “No. We’re just walking up to Alexandra’s house, up the hill.”

  I was heading for my vehicle when I realized I had one more question. I turned back to them. They had already hopped off the swings. “Alexandra, when you said Sadie was a head case, what did you mean by that?”

  “She’d been going to a therapist for months. Depression and anxiety. That’s probably how her parents found out about her and Matt.”

  Twenty-Three

  When I finally pulled into my driveway, I breathed a sigh of gratitude that I had made it home safely. The roads were terrible, and the snow was coming down even harder than the meteorologists had predicted.

  My phone rang just as I shut off my engine. It was Luke. I declined his call. I was still angry with him, but I would call him back when I got inside so that I could tell him about my conversation with Bella and Alexandra.

  I immediately received a text.

  Please pick up. I need to tell you something.

  My phone rang again. With a huff, I answered.

  “What do you want? I was planning to call you.”

  “Ethan wasn’t working any of the nights that someone broke into your trailer or started those bonfires on your property. Meaning, he doesn’t have an alibi for the murders or the nights your home was broken into.”

  “Okay. That’s unfortunate for him, but that doesn’t mean—”

  “And you said he went to your place the other night before you came to Boone’s.”

  “Yeah. So? All coincidences. Surely even you, big shot FBI agent, know that these things don’t make him guilty of anything.” But I closed my eyes and squeezed the bridge of my nose. Despite my protests, I was terrified that Luke was right.

  “He’s stalking you, Faith. He ditched his tails the other night before showing up there. I don’t think you should be alone until we figure out what’s going on.”

  “Oh, and I suppose you’re going to suggest that you come over and protect me?”

  “Actually, I was hoping to put a uniform at the end of your driveway, and another directly in front of your trailer.”

  “Yeah? Are you also going to put one in your driveway and block the path between Coop’s barn and here?”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Whoever was on my property the night of the second bonfire had to have run through the woods to get away. I’m guessing they parked at or near Coop’s.”

  “Dammit. There’re too many access points.”

  “Listen, I can take care of myself. But if it makes you feel better to put someone at the end of my driveway, I won’t fight it.”

  “Great. Now… I wish you’d let me explain my evidence wall. I never suspected you in any of the crimes. But I do think you could fill in some holes.”

  “Then why didn’t you just ask?”

  “I was warming up to it.”

  “By sleeping with me?”

  “That wasn’t part of the plan. It just happened because you’re so damn sexy.”

  I had a tough time believing that Luke found me the least bit sexy after seeing me naked. I’d seen my scars. They’d followed me like a dark storm cloud my whole life. Men had turned away from me more times than I could count. And most of them hadn’t gotten as close as Luke did. He would be no different.

  “Look,” he said, “let me come over. We can talk through my evidence. You can shed some light on some of my unanswered questions. Maybe you can help me move someone to the top of the suspect list. Because right now, not much makes sense.”

  “Fine. And I should probably tell you about my conversation with Bella Reynolds and Alexandra Sims.” I quickly filled him in.

  “I’m coming over. We’ll talk more when I get there.”

  I shut off my engine and released a sigh. “Be careful. The roads are terrible.”

  “That’s okay. I was thinking about walking through the woods. You’ve got me curious about the path between Coop’s and there.”

  I pushed my way out of the vehicle into two inches of fluffy white snow. There was still a quarter inch of ice underneath, so I stepped carefully, keeping my body weight evenly dispersed. When I was almost to my trailer, I heard a sound behind me. I started to turn, but something struck me hard against the back of my head, and everything went black.

  I struggled to open my eyes. I saw flashes of white amid the darkness. I was being dragged.

  My jeans were sticking to my legs, cold as ice.

  It was snow. I was being dragged across snow. Someone had their arms threaded through mine; my back was against their body. They were struggling with my weight.

  They said nothing. I tried to turn toward my assailant, but the moment my head began to rotate, I lost consciousness again.

  My eyes fluttered open, then closed. My head bobbed, my chin hitting my chest. Orange light flashed behind my lids, but I couldn’t keep them open.

  “Faith,” a voice said. “Can you hear me?”

  Heat warmed my cheeks, but I shivered. My pants were wet, and everything below my waist felt numb. The memory of being dragged through the snow flashed into my mind.

  I realized I was sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs around my fire pit.

  “Faith,” the voice said again. A warm hand touched my face.

  “Ethan?” I winced at the stinging pain in the back of my head. I touched the spot that ached. My hand came away cold and wet.

  I opened my eyes, slowly. My fingers were red. Ethan’s dark figure was kneeling in front of me, flames flickering behind him. I was definitely at my fire pit.

  “We need to get you to the hospital. Can you walk? Or do you want me to carry you?�
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  “Someone hit me.” I was so confused. Ethan’s face went in and out of focus. “Was it you?” Panic began to form inside my chest. I lifted my hand and tried to massage a spot there. I wanted to fight Ethan, keep him from hurting me—and at the same time, I didn’t want to believe he would harm me, which was stupid given our past and what Luke had told me.

  “Faith, listen to me. I would never hurt you. I didn’t start this fire. I drove up and saw someone throwing wood onto the pile. I don’t know.” He gave his head a shake as if he was trying to remember exactly what he saw. “But—”

  “You did this.” Tears stung my eyes. “You weren’t at the bar the nights the fires were built. You were here last night. And now.” My voice sounded hysterical, even to my own ears.

  “I came back because of what you said last night. I’m going to prove to you that I’m not the one stalking you. But right now, we need to get you to the hospital.”

  “What the fuck?” Luke’s voice rang out from the other side of the fire.

  Ethan stood and backed away. “Who the hell are you?”

  Luke drew his gun and pointed it at Ethan. “Move away from her.”

  “Okay.” He slowly raised his hands in front of him. “The gun isn’t necessary.” He took a step away.

  “What did you do to her?” Luke’s eyes darted from Ethan to me, then back to Ethan. “Faith, talk to me. Are you okay?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Ethan said. “But she needs a doctor. Someone knocked her pretty good. I found her unconscious.”

  “I don’t need a doctor,” I moaned.

  “Did he do this to you?” Luke asked. He walked closer and looked at the back of my head. “Faith, you’re bleeding.”

  “I know I’m bleeding.” I didn’t hide my irritation. “I’m also freezing. Could someone please get me inside?”

  Luke kept his gun pointed at Ethan. “Get down on the ground.” He pulled his phone from his pocket, dialed a number, then brought it to his ear.

  “And what are you going to do? You have handcuffs on you?” Ethan went down on his knees. “This is ridiculous. I didn’t hit her. I drove up as someone was lighting that fire. As I got closer to the fire, I realized she was unconscious, but it was too late—whoever it was took off running through the woods.”

  “How long ago? I didn’t see anyone come through on the other side.”

  “I don’t know. Five minutes?”

  Luke turned his attention back to the phone. “This is Special Agent Luke Justice. I need an ambulance and a squad car.” He rattled off the address, gave dispatch more information, and hung up.

  Bracing myself on the side of the chair, I stood. “I’m so cold. I’m going inside.” I took a step and swayed. The world spun around me.

  Ethan sprang to his feet fast as a cat and reached out a hand. I had no choice but to grab it and steady myself.

  Luke stepped forward as well, his gun still trained on Ethan.

  “Don’t get twitchy, man,” Ethan said. “I’m only trying to help her. I swear I didn’t do this to her.”

  “You’re going to help her to the trailer,” Luke replied coldly. “You try anything, and I will shoot you.”

  Ethan slid an arm around me. “I’ve got you.”

  He led me forward. Luke stayed two paces behind us, gun in hand.

  As we walked, the snow and ice crunching beneath our feet, I spotted a few drops of blood in the snow, not yet completely covered up by fresher snow. I also noted two sets of footprints. One set was pointed toward my trailer, the prints wide apart, spaced around a line of flattened snow, where something was dragged. I realized that something was me.

  To the left was another set of prints. They were headed in the direction of the fire pit. I looked down and examined Ethan’s boots as he helped me along. He wore a pair of thick rubber snow boots with waterproof leather and wool lining covering his jeans. He was definitely prepared for the weather. His boots matched the set of prints walking toward the fire pit, but not the ones facing backwards.

  The sun had set; the temperature was going down. There were at least four inches of snow on the ground already, and it didn’t appear to be letting up. It looked like we were in for a night of very bad weather.

  And someone had assaulted me. If it wasn’t Ethan, then I was lucky he came along. If it was Ethan, I was lucky Luke showed up.

  I supposed either way, that made me lucky.

  Twenty-Four

  The hospital had been crazy busy with car accident victims, people who had fallen on the ice, and other weather-related accidents. When an ambulance couldn’t get to us quickly enough, Luke had sent Ethan on to the station with a uniformed officer who had managed to get to us, and Luke drove me to the hospital.

  Finch met me there so Luke could get to the station to interrogate Ethan.

  It took two hours to get through triage, and after the long wait, a doctor walked in, did a quick examination, and determined that my concussion wasn’t that serious and that I should go home and rest.

  An hour later, armed with painkillers that were sure to make me feel dopey, Finch helped me into the police station. He had wanted to take me home to his house, but I insisted on seeing how the interrogation was going. Luke had informed me by text that they were still interviewing Ethan. It was clear to me that Ethan hadn’t been the one to hit me and drag me through the snow, so I decided to make a statement so Ethan could go home.

  Very few officers were milling about. My guess was a lot of them were out helping stranded drivers who’d ignored warnings to stay off the roads and were now stuck in ditches.

  I walked to the viewing room; I knew Luke was interrogating Ethan, and wanted to watch. But as I entered the viewing room, I realized Finch wasn’t behind me. A second later, I knew why.

  Finch burst into the interview room on the other side of the window. He grabbed Ethan and shoved him up against the wall. “You never should have come back here! You ruined her life!”

  “Finch! Stop!” I shouted.

  I tore from the viewing room. By the time I entered the interview room, Luke and Chief Reid had pulled Finch off of Ethan.

  Luke shoved Finch out into the hallway. “Go cool off. This isn’t helping.”

  Ethan rolled his shoulders and took a couple of deep breaths. His eyes met mine, and his face softened. “Everything check out okay?” The concern in his voice squeezed my heart. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t separate all of the events that had led us to this point. And that particular tone in his voice brought back the wonderful memories of our teen years, not the memories of the events that had ended our relationship.

  But I turned and walked out of the room without a word. Luke and the chief followed.

  “You ready to make a statement?” Chief asked me.

  I nodded.

  “Good. Because unless you have something solid, I’m not going to be able to hold him much longer. I’ll be right back—gotta get the paperwork.”

  Luke placed a hand to my lower back and led me into another room. When we were out of everyone’s view, he placed a hand on my cheek. “What did the doctors say?”

  His touch and the look in his eyes brought heat to my face. It was more intimate than I was ready for after the day I’d had, and I wasn’t sure how to respond.

  I backed away. “Mild concussion; killer headache.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this now?”

  “Yes, and then I want to sleep.”

  Chief Reid entered with some forms, sat at the table, and began filling out my name and other information. I was surprised he even knew how to complete the paperwork himself; usually he had people to do that.

  I took a seat across from him, and Luke sat next to me.

  “Where’d Finch go?” I asked.

  “He’s in the break room on the phone,” Chief said. “I’ve got someone watching to make sure he doesn’t try to take another swing at Ethan.” He looked across the table at me and sighed. “First, on b
ehalf of the Paynes Creek PD, I want to say I’m sorry no one took your earlier complaint seriously.”

  I glanced at Luke, who looked like he was chomping down hard on his tongue to keep from saying anything.

  “Now,” Chief continued, “I know you need rest. Tell me what happened tonight so I can get you out of here.”

  I told Chief how I’d been in town when the roads started to get worse, and how I decided to head home. I left out the part about smoking marijuana with a pair of teenagers. “When I reached home, Luke called.”

  Chief turned a critical eye on Luke. I was sure he was jumping to all sorts of conclusions.

  Luke explained. “I was hoping she could help me out with some aspects of my investigation. I decided I would walk through the woods to her place so that we could talk in person.”

  Chief made a note on the form. “Okay. Keep going.”

  “I hung up with Luke, got out of the car, and walked toward my trailer. I heard a sound behind me, like a footstep, and then someone clocked me. I don’t remember much else. I know I was dragged through the snow. When I came to, Ethan was there, and I was sitting in a chair next to a fire in my fire pit. Ethan swore he didn’t hit me or set the fire. He said he drove up and saw someone throwing wood on the fire, but that whoever it was took off into the woods.”

  “Do you think Ethan attacked you?”

  I stared at a crumb on the table in front of me and tried to remember everything I heard and smelled and saw. But despite my perfect memory, I couldn’t remember something I didn’t see—and I never saw my attacker.

  I looked up at the chief. “I don’t think so.”

  Chief turned to Luke. “How long from the time you called Faith until you arrived at her farm?”

  “Like I told you earlier, it had to be at least twenty minutes. I started to head right out, but I received a phone call.”

  “From whom?”

  Luke shifted in his seat. He suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “I’ll tell you that eventually if I need to, but at the moment, I’d like to keep that to myself. I don’t think it has anything to do with this. If my opinion changes on that, I promise I’ll reveal who it was.”