by CJ Birch
Chapter Twenty
Elle lay in the back of her pickup, stargazing. She was out in one of the fields near the Old Bailey place. It was her favorite spot to come think, and boy, did she need a good think right now.
Neil was right about one thing. If she stepped down from this investigation she could kiss her job good-bye. She should feel honored to work with someone with so much loyalty, but instead she felt gutted. She wished she’d trusted him earlier. Now the whole thing felt sour in her mouth.
In the distance, she heard a car crunching up the gravel path. It was probably Harper coming to tell her to get the hell off his property. She usually came out later to avoid him since, as a farmer, he went to bed early.
But when a blue Jetta pulled up behind her, she became suspicious.
The door opened and long legs unfolded from the vehicle. Robin slammed the door. It echoed in the night.
She was wearing tight jeans and a black tank top with her ash blond hair piled haphazardly onto her head.
Elle’s mouth went dry.
“Sorry if I startled you. I saw you pull up the lane and was curious.” Robin stopped at the back of Elle’s truck. “Holy shit.” Her mouth dropped when she looked up at the sky. There were so many stars out there was barely any black. The milky way arched through the sky. “Is this what you guys get to see every night? This is amazing. We don’t have this in Chicago. I’m lucky if I can see the North Star or the Big Dipper.”
“It’s the only good thing about living this far out. Best place to think on the planet.”
There was a moment of silence as Robin stared up at the stars and Elle unconsciously stared down her top. Seeing her like this was so out of context. Since the wake, every time Elle thought of Robin and what she might have seen when putting her to bed, a tiny tremor rippled through her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was from fear or desire. Judging by her current reaction, she’d say the latter.
“Do you come here a lot?” Robin laughed. It echoed through the field. She had a great laugh, deep and throaty. “That sounded like a line, but I didn’t mean it that way. Do you come here to think a lot?”
“I used to when I was younger. Now I don’t have much time.” A dark wool blanket layered the bed of her truck. She’d folded it over several times, making a soft cushion. Perfect for stargazing.
“Do you mind if I join you?”
Elle hesitated, but only for a moment. She moved aside and indicated the spot next to her on the blanket. She was careful to keep her arms tucked in. Her ribs still ached, but she didn’t want to let on.
Robin lay down and tucked her hands behind her head. After a moment, Elle joined her.
“I’m sorry about your deputy. What was his name?”
Elle stayed silent, unsure of Robin’s motive for asking.
Robin turned on her side and propped her head up. “What can I say to make you trust that I won’t publish anything you don’t approve of?”
Elle continued to stare at the sky, her hands clasped on her stomach. “I don’t think there is anything. I don’t share a lot.”
“I’ve noticed. All work and no play makes Elle a dull girl.”
That stung. “You think I’m dull?” She didn’t know why it should matter, but it did.
“No, but it can’t be easy, especially with EJ.”
Elle groaned. That was the shitty part about small towns. Everyone knew your business. Robin had probably heard all about the accident and Sid Derry, the fact that she couldn’t keep her own brother out of trouble. And who knew what she’d heard about her and Jessie.
Robin wrapped a hand around Elle’s wrist. “I have a younger brother too. Jason. He’s always making bad life decisions and I never know if I should bail him out or let him make his own dumb ass mistakes.”
“Bail him out? Like, literally?”
“Sometimes. Mostly for dumb thug shit. My parents don’t know what to do with him, so it falls to me.” Robin released her grip and turned to lay on her back.
“EJ hasn’t had to be bailed out, yet. But if he keeps hanging around Dan it’ll get to that.”
“Dan?”
“His family moved to town around Christmas. To be honest, that kid scares the shit out of me.”
“How so?”
“He’s just got a vibe, you know? And EJ’s changed since he got here. And not for the better. Like, EJ never used to hang out at the Maverty house before Dan came along. Now, I’ve caught them smoking pot there most Saturdays. EJ said Dan likes the history of the place. Stan said he’s seen Dan there by himself sometimes, just sitting on the roof smoking a joint. Do you know how dangerous that is? It terrifies me to think that that kind of idiot has an influence over my brother.”
Robin was silent for a long while, then she said, “Listen, you can’t freak out about it. When it comes down to it, he’s his own person. And it’s not up to you to decide what kind of human being he’s going to turn into.”
“Sounds like you’ve spent a bit of time thinking about it.”
“Every time I see Jason’s name pop up on my phone, I’m afraid to answer it. Because one of these days, I’m going to help him out and it’s going to be the last time.”
Robin’s voice was low. It drifted up into the night. Elle liked the way she spoke. Clear and straightforward, like she understood. She could see why someone would trust her with their secrets. She wasn’t sure she was ready to. Not yet.
“How much younger is he?”
“Three years. He’s had enough time to grow out of this phase. I kept hoping he would call one day and tell me he’d gotten a job. Even if it was a shit job, like working in a warehouse or something.” She shrugged.
Elle watched as the skin played over her muscles. She had amazing shoulders.
“Do you ever feel like you’re part of the problem? As if the more you say yes, the more you’re contributing to their problems?” Robin asked.
Elle sighed. Robin couldn’t know how close she was to the truth, but that’s exactly how it felt. Sometimes she pushed too hard. She set her expectations too high, which in EJ’s case was setting him up to fail. She couldn’t help it, though. She’d always set the bar high for herself. It was the only way to get ahead.
“But if you cut Jason off, would it solve any of his problems?”
Robin smirked. “No. He’d still get into trouble. And that’s the rub. Do nothing, help him out, it’s basically the same outcome.”
Elle turned back to the stars. Out here, under this blanket of distant suns, she felt so tiny and inconsequential. It almost always put her problems into perspective. But tonight, it wasn’t just the view that had helped. Knowing someone else shared her troubles was worth a million night skies.
* * *
Dell’s was packed when Elle entered. Talk of the unbearable heat filled the air. She slid between two customers at the bar. One was chewing his steak like he was slaughtering the cow himself, the other was slopping up his egg yolk with a pancake.
“A coffee to go please, Tully,” said Elle.
Earl Pepper called out to her, “Hey, Sheriff.” A few bits of beef slipped onto the counter. “You know you’re supposed to open the door before you walk in, right?” He picked the pieces up with black oiled fingers and popped them back into his mouth, then grinned, showing the gaps between his teeth.
“Oh, you’re real clever, Earl.” Tully poured coffee in a to go cup. “Don’t worry, honey, you barely notice it.” She handed Elle the cup and waved off her offer to pay, instead squeezing Elle’s hand. “Neil told me about it. We’re all reeling with what happened to Stan. But you got to be more careful.”
“It was a real shame what happened to him. He wasn’t much older than my nephew,” one of the regulars at the end of the bar said.
“Yeah, happened right around the corner from our place,” Will Pritchard said. He stuffed the last of his pancake into his mouth.
“You’re out on the other side of the ravine, aren’t you, Will? Neil and I
looked out that way, but he likes his fishing, so we settled for our place on the river.”
Will shook his head. “You’re better off closer to town. That night poor Deputy Carrick died, we thought we had a prowler, but my boy chased it out. Turns out it was just a damn raccoon.” He pointed his fork at Earl. “I swear to God, if I could, I’d line my property with nail mats so anytime they even thought of coming on my property they’d get nailed to the damn ground. Easy pickings then.”
“Save that kind of talk for when I’m not around, Will,” Elle said. She loaded her coffee with sugar.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. Don’t tell me it’s illegal to kill ’coons.”
Elle took a sip of her coffee, testing the sweetness. She nodded. “It is if you don’t have a permit to trap.”
Will turned to Earl. “You believe this? I got to get permission from the government to rid my own damn property of pests.”
Elle smiled sympathetically, choosing not to tell him that it was next to impossible to get those permits. Unless you could prove a health risk or excessive property damage, you were out of luck.
“Hey, speaking of your boy. He get that scholarship to, where was that again?” Earl asked.
“Kentucky State. Randy starts in the fall. His mom and me are real proud.”
As soon as the talk turned to football, Elle picked up her coffee ready to leave. She motioned Tully over for one last question. “Has that reporter been in here asking questions?”
“That woman has been a busy little bee. She’s been running her ass all over town. Been in here a few times too.”
“What else did you let slip?”
Tully looked affronted. “Don’t look at me. I think she hit the jackpot with Principal Withers.”
“Speaking of asses. Thanks for the coffee.”
Elle headed toward the station but slowed crossing the street when her cell rang. She groaned. She couldn’t imagine who was calling her this early in the morning. Not many people had her number.
Elle had come in early that morning even though she was still on ordered bed rest. She wanted to get ahead of anything she’d missed—that was the lie she’d told herself. She wanted to be there when Neil brought EJ in. If she could lend moral support, she would. If he didn’t want it, at least she’d tried. As his guardian, she’d still have to sit in on the interview. She would also have to call Bryce in; he’d need a lawyer regardless if she thought he did it or not.
It was the same number that had called her yesterday. “Hello?”
“Did I wake you?”
“Who is this?” She stopped in the middle of the street. At this hour she didn’t have much traffic to compete with.
“Robin. I found—”
“How’d you get this number?”
“That doesn’t matter right now.” Her voice kept cutting in and out. “I found something at the Maverty house that you should come take a look at.”
Elle continued across the street to avoid a pickup truck. “Why are you snooping around the Maverty house? That building is off-limits.”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have come out here. But I did.” There was a long pause. “So are you coming?”
Elle set her coffee cup on the roof of her cruiser. The pickup truck had slowed trying to find a parking spot, probably to grab something from Dell’s, but there wasn’t anything available. It pulled up beside Heather’s Buick, but when the driver saw Elle watching, he sped off.
Elle sighed deep. “Will it keep until this afternoon?” She didn’t want to leave the station in case Neil got back with EJ, but she also didn’t want to pass up a possible lead.
Robin’s voice cut out again. When she came back she said, “About to lose battery, just come quick.” Then the line went to static and died. She couldn’t be positive but it had sounded like she said, “bring rope.”
“Shit.” Elle stood for a few more seconds watching the street, then radioed Neil to let him know she was checking out something at the Maverty house. She threw her phone onto the passenger seat, grabbed her coffee, and got in.
Chapter Twenty-one
EJ perched on a train bridge, his feet dangling over the side, a smoke hanging from his mouth. Below, the Potawatomi ambled by, courting this season’s bass. He heard a loud whistle off in the distance, the kind of whistle you had to use two fingers to achieve. It was a whistle you could envy. Long before he bothered to look, EJ heard Dan marching across the train bridge toward him. Dan had this knack of always finding EJ, even when he didn’t want to be found. Especially when he didn’t want to be found.
EJ was channeling the cat, as his mom used to say when he was in one of these moods. When there was some challenging task EJ wanted to postpone like studying for a school test, he would find a place and hide out from the world. Much like their cat used to do when avoiding a vet visit. A summer of laziness was all he wanted to think about right now. Summer school would be starting in the next couple of weeks and he would have to attend just to graduate. But what could a piece of paper tell him that he didn’t already know? He was useless when it came to school.
Dan plopped down beside him and pulled a large Ziploc of pot from his backpack. “Saw your sister going into Dell’s this morning. Looks like she ran head first into a wall.”
“Of course you did.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
EJ shrugged, maybe now wasn’t the time to get into it, but Dan tended to happen by his sister a lot. “Nothing. Forget it.”
For the first time in EJ’s life he was scared for Elle. He’d never seriously thought about what it would be like to live in a world without her. Sure, she was a pain in the ass to live with. She made it tough to get away with things. She nagged him to be better, do better, want better.
Seeing her in the shower, passed out, then fragile like she could be broken as he lifted her to bed, terrified him. It made him seriously think about what he would do if she was gone. He could tell her he would’ve been better off if she’d stayed in Chicago until even he believed it, but the consequence of her not being anywhere made him feel alone. It wasn’t having to do things on your own, it was having to do them without anyone nagging you to do them.
He needed to think about this. To think about where he’d be if she wasn’t stopping him from going one step too far. Sure, she picked him up for underage drinking, for skipping school. But it didn’t mean anything. They both knew it.
Sitting on the train bridge, listening to Dan, all he wanted was to get up and keep going down the tracks. Escape and never come back. Would his heart harden the farther away he got? He hoped so. He wanted nothing more than to squash every last feeling deep inside. To be more like Dan. Nothing except anger touched him. And anger was a powerful tool.
Dan and EJ kicked their legs in unison, watching the clouds pass over them. Dan lay back and rested his head on the train rail, folding his hands on his stomach. He looked peaceful.
“You ever think about leaving this place?” Dan asked.
“All the time. As soon as summer school’s done, I’m heading up to Chicago.”
Dan laughed. “Summer school? You’re not really going to go to that, are you?”
“I won’t graduate if I don’t.”
“Get your GED in Chicago. You’ve learned everything school’s going to teach you.” Dan couldn’t care less if he graduated high school or not. He wanted nothing more from Illinois in the way of education. They had taught him everything he needed to know about the system and how much it respected anyone who was different. Being different was like being a Jew in Germany during the Second World War to them. Time and again he’d seen how Lisa was marginalized because she didn’t fit their cookie-cutter version of a student. When she was younger, they’d sent her to a private school specifically for special needs children. She improved under the one-on-one teaching, coming home each night full of hope and a growing confidence at her own growing independence. But he saw the toll it took on his parents. His mom wor
ked two jobs while his dad sold his soul to a company he hated, working nights and weekends to afford a better future for their daughter.
But it wasn’t enough. In the end, his mom had quit her two jobs and homeschooled Lisa. It was better than public school with their special education programs. But it was hard on his parents, especially his mom, who had taken on such a daunting task that it sometimes swamped her.
“Yeah, well. I’ll think about it.” EJ didn’t want to admit that he couldn’t pass his GED test if he had the answers tattooed all over his body. Learning from books left him dry. He’d rather learn from experience.
“You should, if a piece of paper is that important to you.” Dan got up and walked toward where the bridge met land, turned, and waited for EJ.
EJ stood. He was starving. He doubted Elle would even be home. If Dan had seen her this morning it meant she hadn’t lasted more than a day before going against doctor’s orders. Typical. He kicked a rusted bolt sitting on one of the slats and watched it fall. It bounced off a rock and slipped into the water with a quiet plink. Why was she allowed to break the rules but he had to toe the line? It wasn’t fair. His stomach gurgled. Maybe he would grab a pizza from Earl’s. And with that, all other thoughts vanished. “I think I’m going to head home.”
“Tell your sister I said hi.”
“She’s probably still at the station.” He waved, even if Dan couldn’t see, and headed back across the train bridge toward home.
* * *
When Elle arrived at the Maverty house, a sense of impending doom flip-flopped through her stomach. Robin had parked her car where Jessie’s had been. She stepped onto the porch. It creaked beneath her boot.
She unhooked her Maglite before opening the door. At the entrance to the living room, she stopped. From her first cursory sweep, it didn’t appear as if the scene had been disturbed, but she saw fresh cigarette butts littering the floor. If she had to guess, half of J.P. Flynn had passed through here in the last week. It was a high smoking and getting drunk in the same spot where murder took place. That they could see the evidence of it being a brutal murder made it all the more delicious.