He was Walking Alone

by P. D. Workman

  Noelle nodded, her cheeks getting pink. She looked at Luke, giggling, and then looked away again. This was apparently something they had laughed about in private before. Their big sister dating a younger man.

  “How much younger?” Zachary demanded. Hope had been a young college student herself. How much younger could a boyfriend have been? A year? Two? Did she think that would be scandalous?

  “Seventeen.”

  Not even an adult. No, her parents would not have been happy to hear about such a thing. She should have turned him down and dated someone more suitable.

  Zachary gave his head a shake. “Where did she meet this guy?”

  Noelle shrugged. “She didn’t know at first how young he was. She said he looked a lot more mature. And acted more mature. She didn’t see what could be wrong with it and why people made such a big deal when he was more mature than his age.”

  “She never considered breaking up with him because of it?”

  “She wouldn’t exactly tell me if she did. We weren’t even supposed to know about it, but we had friends who knew him. He was closer to our age than hers!”

  “And your parents never found out about it?”

  “No.”

  “And his…?”

  “Nothing ever came out after she died. He hung around the courthouse a little. I would see him there, standing out on the sidewalk, with the protesters. But he didn’t come into the courtroom. I don’t think he could. Or maybe he just didn’t want to be seen there and have anyone ask him questions.”

  “Do you know his name? What became of him?”

  Noelle looked at Luke, not sure whether she should tell Zachary or not. He made a little motion. Go ahead.

  “Roper. Jonathan Roper. He’s still around, but I don’t know what he does or where he lives.”

  “You’ve seen him around?”

  “Yeah. I think he does something at the university, but I’m not sure what.”

  “A teacher?”

  “I don’t think so. What other kinds of jobs are there at universities? Maybe some kind of counselor. Like, careers or special needs accommodations. I don’t know.”

  Zachary wrote it in his notebook. It was a name that he hadn’t picked up from the news or public record. Somebody that maybe the police had never known about. What difference would it have made if they had? They were trying to track down and gather evidence against the man who had killed her. There was no connection between Roper and Harding.

  “Harding—that is, Brandon—and his friends. I gathered from what I read that they went to school together. And Hope was going to university, right? Did they know each other at all? Did they have any personal connection with Hope or with Roper?”

  “No.” They checked in with each other to confirm their responses. “No, nothing ever came out in court. They weren’t friends, they didn’t share classes. I don’t know if they ever saw each other in passing, but they didn’t know each other.”

  “And Roper, he didn’t go to university? He wasn’t on some kind of accelerated track?”

  “No,” Luke was definite about this. “He was still in high school, same as us. That was part of what made it so weird.”

  Zachary was back in his hotel room in the afternoon to do some research on Jonathan Roper. He hadn’t heard of the man before, but if what Noelle and Luke said was true, that wasn’t particularly surprising. He would have been forced to stay under the radar or risk bringing outrage down on Hope when it was important that she be seen as an innocent victim.

  He had forgotten to ask Luke whether he was the one who had put up the wreaths in the intersection, or whether that was Roper. The homeless man had said that it was a young man, not a young man and woman, and Zachary assumed that the twins would have done something like that together; it wouldn’t have been Luke alone.

  He tracked down Jonathan Roper’s contact details pretty quickly and decided to do a quick background on him while he was at it. He wanted to know what kind of a person Roper was or how he had spent the past decade.

  He was, as Noelle had suggested, working at the university. If Zachary had known that, he could have gone to see Roper after interviewing Devon. Roper was a “student services counselor,” whatever that was. He’d been doing it for several years, maybe since he’d graduated from university himself.

  Zachary’s phone rang but he kept his eyes on the computer monitor for the first few rings, absorbing what he could, before tearing himself away from it and picking up the phone to see who it was. It was an unexpected name.

  “Bridget. What’s up?”

  “I was just checking to see how you are.”

  Zachary thought about it for a moment. When he was fully immersed in a case, the time passed quickly and he didn’t think as much about himself or his situation. Delving into the background of a new suspect was a good way to leave his own troubles behind for a while.

  “I’m having a pretty good day,” he offered. He didn’t want to mention any of his recent panic attacks or depression to her, so he just focused on the positive. “Making progress on an investigation.”

  “Good. I know how this time of year… well, it’s good that you’re having a good day and have something to keep you occupied.”

  “Yeah.” Zachary was silent for a few seconds before he realized he wasn’t holding up his part of the conversation. He fished for something to say. “Are you going to Gordon’s family’s again this year?”

  “At some point. Maybe not on Christmas Day, maybe for New Year’s. We’re going to have a little party for our friends…”

  The Christmases that Zachary had spent with Bridget had been different from any others in his life. He’d actually had something to look forward to and someone to hold on to. That didn’t stop the depression, but it made a difference. He’d thought that he might be able to make it through to the other side, instead of seeing nothing but blackness. He’d been very low, but not suicidal.

  Nevertheless, his depression had been hard on Bridget. For someone who was used to celebrating the season, to being happy and optimistic and spending time with friends and family, it had been difficult to deal with a husband who just couldn’t do all of those social things. The first year, they’d gone to a few quiet events, but then she’d had to explain to friends why he couldn’t be in the same room as candles, or why they had to leave when they’d just barely arrived. She told him to get over himself, to cheer up, to quit acting like a baby and embarrassing her.

  The next year she’d tried having people over instead of going out, but that had been worse. People didn’t know what to do when the host of the party withdrew from the party and took to his bed, unable to deal with anything. She told them he had a migraine and wanted them to go on without him, but people had still left early, marring her plans.

  Zachary realized that Bridget had been talking and he’d lost track of the conversation. “What?”

  She was silent in response.

  “I’m sorry. Just zoned out, thinking about this case. What was the last thing you said?”

  “You didn’t want to come to the party, did you?” she asked doubtfully. “I mean, there will be a lot of people you know there, and it’s just a casual affair, but you…”

  “No,” Zachary agreed. “You guys have your party. I’ll be doing my own thing for Christmas.”

  “Are you going to see your family?”

  “What?”

  “Your family. You did get in touch with your bio family, didn’t you?”

  “Uh… no. Not yet.”

  “For someone who wants a family so much, you sure aren’t doing much to connect with them! Why not?”

  “I just… I’m very busy with this case right now, and the Christmas season… I’ll connect with them another time. In the new year.”

  “What exactly are your plans for Christmas?” she demanded.

  “I’m not sure yet. Kenzie and I are going to have dinner together. And we’re trying to set something up with Rhys.” Rhys ha
d saved Bridget’s life; he didn’t have to explain to her who he was, or why he would be having a hard time his first Christmas without his mother home. “Lorne and Pat really want me to come spend it with them. Pat’s family might come.”

  “Really?” Her voice was cautiously interested. It wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting. Zachary’s Christmas plans were usually solitary. Put on a classic movie and have a drink. Celebrate the fact that he’d survived another Christmas Eve. Telling Bridget he was going to spend it with other people was a surprise.

  “Pat’s family has never met Lorne. They’ve never gone to the house. It will be a memorable year for him, if they do.”

  Bridget tsked. “I can’t believe that in this day and age people can be so silly about relationships. Pat and Lorne have been together for twenty years. More than that. It’s obviously the real deal.”

  “You would expect them to get used to it before this,” Zachary agreed.

  “Okay… well… you know how to get me. If you do need someone…”

  He knew then just how concerned she was about him dealing with the Christmas season. She never encouraged him to call her. Just the year before, she had torn up one side of him and down the other for still having her listed as his emergency contact when they’d called her after the car accident.

  “I’ll be fine,” Zachary told her. “Don’t worry about me.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  J

  onathan Roper might have been a mature-looking seventeen-year-old when Hope had started seeing him, but his boyishly round face and curly hair made him look more like one of the current university students than one of the staff.

  Zachary had told him as little as possible about the reason for seeing him, not wanting to scare him off by announcing he knew about his relationship with Hope Creedy.

  Roper shook Zachary’s hand with an open, friendly manner and motioned him into a chair. His office felt something like a psychologist’s office that had been decorated in an attempt to make visitors feel comfortable and relaxed. Just the right furniture, a few books on the shelves, a plant that was real instead of plastic. A picture on Roper’s desk that showed him with a young woman and a little girl with a mop of blond hair who was smiling fit to burst. Zachary’s background had not turned up a marriage, so the woman and the girl were probably a sister and a niece, just a bit of show to make people think he was actually a family man.

  Roper saw Zachary studying the picture and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  “You have a very nice-looking family,” Zachary said.

  “Thank you,” Roper accepted the compliment politely. He smiled, and just a bit of a flush started at his neck above his collar. This was an implied lie that he was practiced in making, but his body still reacted to it. Not as effective as a lie detector, but his body’s psychological reaction would make things a bit easier for Zachary.

  “I’m here about Richard Harding,” Zachary told him.

  “Richard Harding? Is he a student here?”

  Zachary couldn’t see any change in the flush. He should have made small talk and waited for it disappear before mentioning Harding’s name.

  “No. It’s the name Brandon Powers took after he got out of prison.”

  The flush rose up Roper’s neck. “And who is Brandon Powers?” he asked, choking a little on the words.

  “You know who Brandon Powers is. Do you think I would be here if I wasn’t sure of that?”

  “Maybe I heard his name in the news. It sounds sort of familiar, but I’m really not sure.”

  “You were dating the woman he killed.”

  Roper opened his mouth to deny it again.

  “Isn’t it obvious that I know?” Zachary challenged. There was no point in Roper wasting time in denials. They needed to get past the lies and have a real conversation.

  Roper swallowed. His eyes rolled up toward the ceiling, either searching for another lie or trying to hold back tears. Maybe both.

  “Okay,” Roper said in an unsteady voice. “I knew Hope Creedy. I know who Brandon Powers is.”

  “You were more than a casual acquaintance.”

  “We were… close.”

  “How close?”

  “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

  “Maybe not. I guess I’ll just have to imagine.”

  “There was nothing wrong with us dating. We were only four years apart. Plenty of people who are further apart than that in age have long, successful marriages.”

  “Yes. But not usually the ones that start while the younger partner is still a minor. Hope shouldn’t have been dating you.”

  “There was nothing wrong with us dating.”

  Zachary let it go. He said nothing for a minute, considering the possibilities. If Roper had been forced to keep their relationship a secret for all of those years, it was certainly possible that the pressure had built too much and he had turned his anger and resentment outward, taking it out on Richard Harding and the other men who had been in the car.

  “It must have been very hard on you to mourn her passing when you couldn’t tell anyone about your relationship. All these years, you’ve had to keep it from your family and friends in case it was to get out in the public and damage Hope’s reputation. You didn’t want anyone to think less of her for falling in love with you.” Zachary looked at the picture on the desk. “Does your wife know about her?”

  Roper sighed, looking at the girl in the photograph. “That’s my sister and her little girl.”

  Zachary had been right on the money. “And I’m guessing she probably doesn’t know.”

  “She was a few years younger than me. I don’t know if she even remembers the accident and the trial. It was big news around here, but news fades fast. A few years in prison and they can let a murderer go free.”

  “You know it wasn’t intentional murder.”

  “No. But he still killed her.”

  “Not like Brandon’s death.”

  Roper shook his head. “I don’t know anything about it. I didn’t even know he was dead.”

  “He was killed in a hit and run. Just like your girlfriend. Only the driver wasn’t drunk, was he?”

  “How do you expect me to know anything about it?”

  “You’re used to keeping secrets.”

  “I’ve kept them quiet for a lot of years, yes… but that doesn’t have anything to do with Brandon Powers, or whatever else you called him. I never knew the guy. Never spoke to him. Didn’t keep track of what happened to him after he got out of prison.”

  “Someone did.”

  “Who?”

  “Someone was stalking him.”

  “If you know anything about it, then you know it wasn’t me. I haven’t had any contact with the guy ever.”

  “How about the other men who were in the car?”

  “The other men?” Roper looked puzzled for a moment. “I remember… there was a passenger who was killed, wasn’t there? Were there others?”

  “They testified in the court case.”

  “I couldn’t go to that. I couldn’t do anything that would suggest that I knew Hope. I had to pretend that nothing had happened. I had to just go to school and pursue my normal activities and not give away that she had meant anything to me. It was awful. You can’t know what it did to me.”

  “You were seen at the courthouse. Outside, where the protesters were.”

  Roper looked stunned. “By who?”

  “By people who knew who you were and that you were in a relationship with Hope.”

  “But nobody knew. I didn’t tell anybody. Hope didn’t tell anybody.”

  “Maybe you mentioned it to a best friend. Or maybe someone saw the two of you together. Maybe Hope told one of her friends. But the two of you didn’t keep it quite as quiet as you thought you did.”

  Roper sat back in his chair, shaking his head in disbelief. “All these years… I never thought anyone else knew.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “Whoever
it was… they didn’t leak it. I never had anyone approach me about it. Not a single reporter.”

  “Maybe they had reason not to tarnish Hope’s reputation either.”

  There was a flash of understanding across Roper’s face, and Zachary thought he might have figured out who had known.

  “Just why are you bringing all of this up now?” Roper asked. “Why not just let sleeping dogs lie?”

  “Because I’m investigating Brandon’s death.”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  “There are a lot of people who had reason to want him dead.”

  “And you think I’m one of them?” Roper shook his head. “I’m not some psychopath who thinks that I can bring Hope back by taking revenge on her killer. What good would that do anyone? Like you said, Brandon never intended to kill her. He made stupid choices. Choices he could never take back or make amends for. The court decided what the penalty for that was, and he paid it.”

  “And you’re not at all bitter about him walking away from prison eight years later.”

  “On one hand, it seems like it happened just yesterday. But on the other hand… it feels like it was a whole lifetime ago. I was a different person then than I am now. I can’t live my life being bitter about what happened over a decade ago. It would be a waste.”

  Zachary studied him for any sign that he was just putting up a smokescreen. He had to assume that Hope had been Roper’s first girlfriend. The first person he had ever fallen in love with and maybe been intimate with. It wasn’t so easy to forget a relationship like that. But Roper sounded sincere.

  Zachary’s eye was drawn back to the photo of Roper and his sister again.

  “You never married.”

  “Not yet. That doesn’t mean that I never will.”

  “Do you have a girlfriend? Are you dating?”

  Roper’s eyes slid to his computer. “I have a pretty busy life. Not a lot of time left for socializing.”

  Zachary rolled his eyes. “Plenty of busy people have time for a private life and relationships. People get married, have kids, raise families while they’re pursuing busy careers. It isn’t like you’re a surgeon or working eighteen-hour days. Unless you choose to.”