Maybe Carrie or Missy had something to help her get through the funeral. She had to go. Her mom was making her go to school tomorrow, too.
And see everyone—Lexie. No more hiding.
5
At the end of the day, exhausted physically and mentally from working the Montgomery case, Ethan left the police station after talking with Cord about their next move. They had found nothing at Red River City Park, but Jared’s seatbelt was deliberately jammed with a strong glue so he couldn’t release it. Tuesday they needed to find the primary scene where Jared drank and took the prescription drugs. No sign of drugs or alcohol in the Porsche. If not at the park, then who brought him there and rigged the seatbelt to keep it from opening, before pushing the car into the water?
As he slipped into his SUV, he saw a text from his mother on his cell. Don’t forget your visit with Nana at Greenbrier.
Fifteen minutes later, he entered the nursing home and waved to an older gentleman who always sat on the couch in the area near the door, dressed as though someone was going to pick him up to go to a fancy restaurant.
“Are you here for me?” the man asked Ethan every time he passed him on his way to his grandmother’s room at the end of the first hall.
“No, Mr. Nelson. How are you doing today?”
“Fair to middling. Do you know when they will come for me?”
“Hopefully soon.”
“Oh, all right.” Then Mr. Nelson turned and stared at the front door.
The first time it happened and he found Mr. Nelson still sitting in the same place when he left, he asked one of the staff about him. The man’s family was all gone. At ninety, he’d outlived all his children, and the grandchildren weren’t in Summerton. After that, he made a point of talking with the man when he could.
When Ethan entered his grandmother’s room, she was up and roaming about, twisting her hands together. He looked at his mother and said in a low voice, “What’s going on?”
“Lucy, the lady next door has been groaning and crying out since I first came in. These walls are so thin it’s like we’re in the same room. Thankfully, they gave her some pain meds, and she has settled down, but Mom is agitated. I can’t seem to calm her down. The nurse is bringing her a tranquilizer. Normally she’s calm, but when I came, she was upset even before the lady started screaming. I’m going to talk to the doctor. I don’t think what she’s taking is working like it used to. I’m also going to talk with Beth and make sure she visits Mom more often, especially since she works here.”
Ethan knew medication was needed for certain patients, but after hearing about all the meds Jared had taken, he thought about how easy it was to get prescription drugs. In San Antonio, he’d arrested a man who had gone from one doctor to another to get the painkillers he became addicted to after he’d had knee surgery. Finally, he had resorted to stealing to keep himself supplied with his medication.
“What’s wrong with the lady next door?”
“The poor dear is in the end stage of cancer.” His mother glanced toward the door, then back to Nana. “See if you can get her to lie down. With her osteoporosis, she needs to be careful walking. She won’t listen to me.”
After removing his cowboy hat and putting it on a table, Ethan approached his grandmother. He smiled, although the sight of the woman he’d known all his life, hunched over, her once sparkling brown eyes dull with lack of recognition, broke his heart. “Hi, Nana. How have you been?” He put his arm around her frail body to give her support.
She tilted her head toward him. Her gaze narrowed. “Who are—” A light dawned in her eyes. “Oh, my, you’ve finally come, Walt. I’ve been waiting for you. Did you ask Father for my hand?”
“Yes, and he was happy to give us his blessing to get married. Let’s sit and talk about our future.” This wasn’t the first time his grandmother had mistaken him for her deceased husband. When he saw a picture of his grandfather, he could understand why she did. He looked a lot like him.
After he guided her to a small couch, he took the seat next to her, holding her hand. “You look lovely as usual.”
She gripped him with strength that surprised him and leaned close, her gaze clear and direct. “Something is wrong here.”
He stiffened at the urgency in her voice. “What do you mean?”
She blinked. “Mean what, Walt? What are you talking about?”
He relaxed as his grandmother did, squashing his first instinct to think something bad and instead enjoyed Nana’s company. “Oh, nothing. Tell me what you did today.”
When she launched into a description of a day she would have had as a young girl, a prickling at his nape persisted. One of the reasons he’d come back to Summerton when an opening occurred was because he was getting so cynical and mistrusting in San Antonio. He needed his family and old friends around him to remind him not all people were bad. As he peered at the trusting look on his grandmother’s face, he remembered all the wonderful times he had at her house as a kid. He needed that reminder, especially after the past couple of days.
Tuesday outside in the courtyard area at school, Lexie found Kelly eating by herself. “I’ve been looking for you. What’s up? We always eat lunch together. I tried calling you the last few days, especially when you didn’t come to school yesterday. I must have left a dozen voicemails and texts. I know you’re upset about Jared. I am, too.”
“Shh.” Kelly tugged her down next to her on the grass. “Don’t say anything about him or what happened on the weekend.”
“My uncle came to talk to me Sunday night about being with you that morning. He came back last night to have dinner with us, and he kept asking about you.”
“What did you say to him?”
“Nothing other than we were together on Sunday.”
“Good.” Kelly tossed most of her sandwich into a sack and scrunched it up into a tight ball.
“I promised you I wouldn’t, but Kelly that was before I knew Jared was dead. Murdered! What happened Saturday night? I heard he died from drowning in the lake, trapped in his car, the seatbelt jammed. I’ve heard nothing else, and I haven’t been able to talk to you. Do you know what happened?”
Kelly shoved to her feet. “If you’re my friend, you won’t say a word.”
Rising, Lexie grabbed Kelly’s arm before she walked off. “We need to talk about this.”
Kelly glanced around. “Not here. We’ll meet later.”
“When?”
“I’ll call you.”
“Promise? I’m going to have to talk to Uncle Ethan.”
Kelly jerked free of Lexie’s clasp and thrust her face into Lexie’s. “Don’t you dare!” Kelly stabbed her forefinger into Lexie’s chest. “I couldn’t harm Jared. I loved him. You don’t know what’s going on here.”
“Do you?”
With a glare, Kelly strode to the trashcan and threw away her sack, then hurried into the building. Lexie saw a couple of kids, friends of Jared’s, follow Kelly. Lexie headed after her friend.
Oliver Wright pushed off the post near the entrance. “Are you all right, Lexie?”
She paused when she heard her name and glanced to the left at Ms. Thompson’s student aide in Lexie’s English class. “Yes. As much as any of us could be with what happened to Jared.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I saw you and Kelly arguing. Is she okay?”
“No. She probably shouldn’t have come to school today.”
“Everyone’s nerves are on edge. See you sixth hour.” Oliver walked away, leaving Lexie to continue her trek into the building to find Kelly.
At the end of the hall, Lexie saw her friend at her locker surrounded by several of Jared’s friends. Lexie started toward them. Kelly locked gazes with her and said something to the teens. by the time Lexie stopped in front of Kelly, everyone had left. One girl Lexie knew from several classes looked straight at her, but her expression held nothing friendly in it.
Lexie shivered. “What’s going on?”
Kelly averted her gaze and busied herself opening her locker. “Nothing. They’re just sad about Jared and wanted to know how I was doing, especially in light of the fact he was murdered. We still can’t believe that. He was fine the last time I saw him.” Kelly’s hand quivered as she lifted her history book and stuffed it in her backpack.
Scared for her friend, Lexie moved close to Kelly, blocking her path. “Meet me after school outside Ms. Thompson’s room. I’ll give you a ride home. We can talk then. Maybe go by Sonic and get something to drink.”
The first bell rang, indicating lunch was over. Kelly slammed her locker and started down the hallway. “Sure. I’ve got to get to history early to borrow notes from yesterday.”
“See you,” Lexie said to her friend’s quickly retreating back.
Lexie hardly listened to her fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-hour teachers. She couldn’t shake the feeling something was very wrong with Kelly—even beyond Jared’s murder. Why would someone kill Jared at the lake? If he had drugs in his system, when did he take them? With Kelly at the party? Afterwards? Did he meet his killer at the lake? What did Kelly take? Question after question inundated Lexie until her head pounded with tension.
Suddenly, she remembered the empty bowl she’d seen at the warehouse when she’d come to take Kelly home on Sunday morning. From what she’d heard about pill parties, often the kids would put all their medication together in a bowl and grab a handful. Was that what happened at the warehouse? According to Kelly, she’d passed out part of the night. What happened when she did? She needed to have it out with Kelly, then talk to her uncle.
Five minutes before her last hour class was over, Ms. Thompson asked her a question. Lexie didn’t even realize it until she discovered everyone in class was staring at her. When she spied Oliver sitting at the small desk near Ms. Thompson’s, grading papers as her student aide, a sympathetic look stared back at her, but still embarrassment colored her cheeks. “Sorry, Ms. Thompson. I don’t know.” She wasn’t even sure what she didn’t know.
Her teacher gave her a quizzical look then asked the boy in front of Lexie, “When is the test I was going to give yesterday post-poned to?”
“Thursday,” he answered.
Lexie would have known the answer if she’d been listening. At least Ms. Thompson didn’t make a big deal out of the fact she wasn’t paying attention. Ms. Thompson wanted to give everyone time to grieve and study. Lexie appreciated it because another teacher went ahead and had a test earlier today. She doubted she did very well. How could she when her best friend was hurting? Possibly in trouble? She knew Kelly wasn’t the murderer, and as her friend, she wanted to protect Kelly as much as possible.
When the bell signaled the end of school, Lexie’s classmates filed out of the room while Ms. Thompson said, “Lexie, please stay for a moment.”
“Ms. Thompson, I finished grading the quizzes,” Oliver said and placed the papers on Ms. Thompson’s desk, smiled at Lexie, then left the room.
She knew it would take Kelly a few minutes to come to Ms. Thompson’s classroom, so she planted herself near the door to keep an eye out for Kelly. “I’m sorry I didn’t know the answer earlier.”
“I’d suggest you ask a friend for a copy of her notes. I don’t think you heard a word I said today. I didn’t realize you were good friends with Jared.”
“My best friend Kelly was dating him. Just concerned about her.”
“I know how hard this can be, especially when his death was murder. When I was a sophomore here at Summerton High School, we had one of our classmates shot in the middle of a robbery at a store. It really hit the student body hard. I can imagine what everyone is going through. Do you want me to talk to Kelly?”
“I’ll see. I’m meeting her in a minute.”
“Well, let her know I’m a good listener. I don’t have her in English, so she might not be comfortable talking to me.”
That wouldn’t be it. More because Ms. Thompson was the police chief’s sister. “I’ll let her know.” For a few seconds, she thought of telling Ms. Thompson what she knew occurred on Saturday and see what she thought concerning Kelly. But she couldn’t. Not until she talked with Kelly. Her friend had always been there for her, and this was when she needed Lexie the most.
She swung her backpack over one shoulder and hurried from the room, glancing up and down the corridor. Not many students were in the hallway. She checked the clock on the wall. It hadn’t been long. Kelly would be here soon. Lexie lounged back against a set of lockers and waited.
Fifteen minutes passed and still no Kelly. She had chemistry as her last class, so Lexie headed for the science hall to see if someone had delayed Kelly, like Ms. Thompson had her. Other than two boys at the far end of the hall, no one else was around. Lexie stuck her head in Kelly’s chemistry class and found it deserted except for her teacher.
“When did Kelly leave?”
“She was the first one out the door.”
Was her best friend avoiding her? She headed for her car in the junior parking lot. Maybe Kelly misunderstood where to meet her, and she was there waiting for her. As she crossed the street, she glanced across the near empty lot. Still no Kelly. Worry grew as Lexie drove away from the school. When she swung by Kelly’s house and went to the door, she rang the doorbell several times, but no one answered it.
They shared everything—even what happened Saturday night. Or had they? Had Kelly remembered something and didn’t want to tell her? As she drove away from Kelly’s, Lexie’s fingers strengthened about the steering wheel. She would catch her after the funeral and make it impossible for Kelly to evade her.
The next day Ethan stayed at the back of the crowd that squeezed into the church for Jared’s funeral. Watching. They were looking into Jared’s death as a murder. Where did the myriad of drugs in his system come from? Did he know he was taking all those combinations? Or were some slipped to him without his knowledge? Had he passed out and someone put him in the lake? There was no evidence found in his car of any medication or alcohol. So where was he before his death? A party? Not according to Kelly, but she was lying about something. Had she given Jared the drugs? The key was Kelly.
Whatever went down, it didn’t change the fact Jared had fought to get out of the car. He hadn’t driven himself into the water. He hadn’t wanted to die. Until Ethan could answer those nagging questions, he wouldn’t rest.
What led teens to take drugs not prescribed for them? Or for that matter, anyone. It wasn’t just teenagers. Only a month ago, a man had overdosed on some antidepressants, which he hadn’t had a prescription for. He’d self-diagnosed and acquired some from a source they couldn’t track down. His family was still reeling from his death.
Just as Bradley and his wife, Annabelle, were. The staunch expression on Bradley’s face masked a deep sadness. He knew from having been at Bradley’s house when his friend fell apart at the news of the ME’s findings. At first, Bradley had no idea where his son got the blood pressure and sleeping pills, antidepressants, and painkillers that were in his system. But Annabelle had checked their medication and was sure a few of her painkillers were gone from her plastic surgery a few months before, and Bradley thought he had more of his blood pressure pills left than were in the bottle. The idea their son took their medication only added to their grief. But that still left where the antidepressants and sleeping pills came from? What role, if any, had they played in Jared’s death?
He was going to have a talk with Kelly after the funeral. She had avoided him a couple of times since he talked with her Sunday, and he got the feeling that Mary Lou had helped her. But he knew where Kelly was now. Two rows behind Bradley’s family, weeping with her mother on one side and his niece on the other.
As the funeral ended and mourners began exiting, Cord came to stand next to him, folding his arms over his chest. “This has hit the town hard.”
“Yeah, Jared was the sole heir apparent to Bradley’s ranching empire. His death has left a hole in the family, but als
o the student body at Summerton High School.”
“Sadie told me she hasn’t done much this week. Her class Jared was in has all but shut down since his death. Actually most of her classes. A lot of students were absent the first couple of days.”
“Can’t blame them. It makes them realize their mortality. That can be sobering.” Standing taller than a lot of the people in the crowd, Ethan watched some teens join Kelly, a couple of the girls taking over comforting her from Mary Lou. His niece backed away from the group, looked around, and saw Cord’s sister nearby. When Lexie approached Sadie, Ethan shifted his attention back to Cord.
“I know how you think,” Cord said, one corner of his mouth quirking. “What are you looking for at this funeral? A suspect attending the funeral of a person he killed?”
“It’s possible. He might have gotten the painkillers from his mother’s bottle and the blood pressure from his father’s medication, but not the others in his system. So where did he get them and who gave him the other drugs? How did he get the alcohol?”
“You’re thinking pill party?”
Nodding, Ethan straightened away from the wall as Sadie, who was talking with Lexie, made her way toward the double doors next to Cord. “Which means either Jared attended Saturday night with Kelly or went afterwards.”
“So Kelly is lying.”
Ethan recalled her odd behavior Sunday when he interviewed her. “It won’t be the first time a teen has lied to us.”
“Have you talked with your niece?” Cord clamped a toothpick between his teeth.
“Yes, briefly. She confirms she was with Kelly Sunday morning. Lexie was sick Saturday so she may not know anything. I’ll talk to her again after I chat with Kelly. I want to hear what Kelly has to say first when I confront her with what we know now. What if Kelly didn’t come home Saturday night like she said? That was the impression Mary Lou got when she first discovered her daughter gone on Sunday morning.”
“Maybe Lexie knows something about where Kelly was Saturday night. You know how kids talk, and they are best friends,” Cord murmured, then turned toward his sister and smiled then hugged her. “I know how hard this is for you. You care so much for your students.”
Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4 Page 8