“That night? The party? It was at the hill.”
“I know.”
Ivy bit her lower lip, then sighed. “I got you grounded so you couldn’t go.”
Vinny pulled back from Ivy and stared at her. Ivy started to tighten her embrace, but Vinny pushed her arms away and fell back into the dirt.
“You couldn’t be there, Evelyn.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
“I had to make sure you didn’t come to the party.”
“You acted like you wanted me there.”
“I didn’t want you to feel left out. I was just thinking of you. I was always thinking of you.”
“You mean… you knew something was going to happen to Adam?”
“Of course not. It was an accident.”
“Then why would you get me grounded? Why didn’t you want me there?”
“Dylan.”
“Dylan?”
Ivy shook her head. “He was bringing… stuff. Stuff I didn’t think you’d like.”
“Then what happened to Adam?”
“Dylan had a gun with him. Adam didn’t know the gun was loaded.”
“He shot himself?”
“It was an accident.”
"It was an accident, but you dragged him to a house and left his body in a bathtub? Why didn’t you just call the police?”
Ivy gave her a look. “Why do you think? We’d have to explain the gun and the drugs.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked away for a moment. “We had no choice. Adam was dead. We didn’t make it happen but that was no reason for us to go to jail. Just like there's no reason for you to go to jail now."
"What are you talking about?"
"You killed him. You killed Jesse!”
“I-I… but you had his hand. You let go.”
“You told me to.”
“I-I said ‘no’.”
“You didn’t want me to help him up.”
“No, I-I didn’t mean to! I was confused.”
Ivy’s hands clasped Vinny's arm. “Please, Vinny. It’s for you. I don’t want you to go to jail. All you have to do is keep quiet.”
“I just-” Why was Ivy calling her Vinny?
“Shhh. Let’s not talk about it for a while.” Ivy wrapped her arms around Vinny and held her for a few minutes.
Then Ivy spoke. “I have some drinks in my bag." Ivy had dropped the bag on the ground when the girls had entered the dug-out. Now she was removing the drinks and popping the caps. “Come on. Take some time. Think it over.”
As soon as Ivy had spread out a blanket that was in her bag, Vinny sank to the ground and lifted the bottle to her lips.
Ivy didn’t say much, but passed her another bottle when Vinny finished the latest one she was on.
She looked at Ivy, lying on her side, naked.
The video had shown Vinny guzzling back drink after drink while Ivy took off her clothes.
“You got scratched up a bit,” Vinny said.
Ivy’s eyes filled with tears. “Is that all you have to say?” Ivy sat up and cried for a moment. “Oh, Vinny. Don't you understand?”
Vinny shook her head.
“Jesse was talking about you all the time. Oh, sure, he talked like a boy when Dylan was around, but I knew. I knew he…” Ivy’s voice trailed off as her gaze slid down Vinny’s body.
“I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t think anyone would touch you if they thought you and Jonah… So I made up a story.” Ivy shrugged. “I was wrong.”
“So, you did want Jesse?”
Ivy laughed. “No, silly.”
Ivy reached out and cupped Vinny’s face with her hand. She held it there for a moment.
Ivy’s fingers stroked Vinny's cheek.
“I’ve always loved you, Vinny.”
Ivy’s lips pressed against Vinny's, Ivy’s hand cupped Vinny's breast.
After a moment Ivy pulled back.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?” Vinny felt as surprised by her question as Ivy looked.
“I’d do anything to protect you, Vinny. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Vinny leaned forward and gave Ivy a quick kiss on the mouth. When she pulled back, tears trickled down Ivy’s cheeks.
“Please,” Ivy wiped the tears with her hand, “don’t tease me, Vinny. It’s not fair.”
“Hey, that’s not what I was doing.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Ivy pressed her lips against hers again and pushed her back against the blanket on the dug-out floor.
Vinny's shirt was unbuttoned, her bra unclasped, and Ivy was working those items off. Ivy’s lips brushed the skin of Ivy's shoulder. Ivy’s hands undid Vinny's jeans, and she started pushing them down.
For a few seconds Vinny lay flat on the ground.
Ivy leaned down and pressed her lips against Vinny’s naval and when Ivy pressed her lips against Vinny's nipple Vinny lifted her hips up off the ground and pulled her legs up to help Ivy finish undressing her.
***
When it was over, Ivy was stroking Vinny's hair, looking down at her. “Are you okay?”
“Sis gud.”
Vinny's words slurred, her motions jerky.
“Shhh. It’ll be okay,” Ivy said. “Everything will be okay.”
Vinny leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Ivy’s neck and closed her eyes. She was still naked. Her fingers stroked Ivy’s hair.
“Don’t worry, Evelyn,” Ivy whispered in her ear. “It’ll all be okay. You’ll see. I’ll make it all go away…”
PAPARAZZI
- Lady Gaga -
News Review
“Meadow, it was another absolutely shocking day yesterday in the trial of Ontario Provincial Police Detective Sergeant Hunter McKenna, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right Ginger. As we predicted just days ago, the defense called Ivy Dorn to the stand and by suppertime last night, formal charges had been brought against Ms. Dorn as a result of the evidence DS McKenna’s attorney produced in court.”
Instead of the usual back-and-forth dissection Ginger and Meadow normally provided their viewers, the scene cut to a pre-recorded clip, showing the hill where Adam Fields was believed to have been shot, the house where his body had been found, and footage of the recovery of Jesse Forbes’ body from the barn on the old Colville Farm property.
Hunter tuned it all out.
In the wake of her trial, what was most significant was not that the case had been turned over to the jury.
It was not that the jury had returned with a verdict in record time.
It was not that she’d been found not guilty and cleared of all charges.
The commentators had skipped the conclusions and moved on to the next juicy headline already. Half of her felt as though she should be thankful. Grateful to not be the front-page headline any longer.
And part of her felt resentment that for all the months she’d stood accused, they couldn’t even give her ten seconds of vindication in their broadcast.
In the distance, she heard the faint cry of, “Mommy,” from down the hall and clicked the TV off as she went to get her daughter ready for preschool.
***
When Hunter arrived at the station, there were quiet congratulations offered and apologetic smiles. Anything less than a verdict of not guilty would have left a shadow hanging over her that probably would have prevented her return to her job.
Instead, the department was offering back pay and compensation for her legal expenses. No doubt in an attempt to offset any possible liability for her ordeal.
Her desk was remarkably bare. A lone piece of mail sat centered amidst the emptiness. A letter with no return address, probably no more than junk mail.
The process of sliding her fingers under the flap and tearing open the letter were subconscious, automatic, and done without much anticipation of what she’d find inside
The second the contents spilled out on to her desk, Hunt
er sat up, aware that this letter was far more personal. A grainy image of herself, Audra and Tom was clipped to the sheet, and there was a second set of papers with the letter.
A letter from Evelyn. And something she’d written, something that hadn’t been admitted in court.
She sucked in a breath and picked up the letter attached. After she read the letter she went back to the top and re-read every word. Her fingers trembled as she processed what it said.
What it meant.
I knew he would forgive me. Mother never would have.
Hunter lifted the photograph of herself, Tom and Audra, and felt tears in her eyes. That day, at the hospital, when Vinny had still been unconscious she’d made her choice. A different one than she’d made before, that her daughter deserved to know her father, and that Tom should be an active part of their lives.
They’d made plans to take Audra out. The first step on what was supposed to be a new path.
She set the photo of the three of them down.
Hunter looked up in time to see her boss, Noah and Elijah walking toward her. She saw the look on Noah’s face and felt the air rush out of her lungs.
Noah put his hand on her arm. The gentleness of his touch was echoed by the concern in his eyes.
“Evelyn’s missing,” he said.
She thought about the letter, about what it said, and stood up. “I think I know where we can find her.”
EXIT WOUND
- Jackie Leven -
They found Evelyn's body in the cellar of the ruins on the hill. She still wore the coat from the funeral, and in her hands held a photo of her father.
It wasn’t until Noah passed Hunter a tissue that she realized she was crying.
“She… She really was a good kid,” Hunter whispered.
Hunter thought about the things she’d done, and what she’d go back and change if she could. The things that had hurt Vinny and Tom, and her own daughter, and had brought her to this point, on a cold autumn day, standing over the body of her daughter’s sister.
She knew that despite the verdict of the jury, she was as guilty for what had happened as anyone.
IF I DIE YOUNG
- The Band Perry -
Hunter looked at the freshly covered grave and the basic headstone. She set the flowers down on the grave.
Name. Date of birth, date of death. That was all.
Vinny deserved more. More than one adult standing by her grave on an overcast day, the mist still swirling over the grass she was buried beneath.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when another person approached, bent down and set a bouquet of flowers beside the ones she’d left.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“That’s alright,” Hunter said. “I know who you are.”
“Jonah Tyson.”
The boy who’d been accused of raping Vinny. The boy Tom had defended. The boy who’d stood near the back of the crowd at Tom’s funeral and cried. He wore tattered jeans and a faded shirt, most likely the best he owned.
The boy Hunter’s lawyer had exonerated in court.
His smile was sad. “Her mother wouldn’t like it if she knew I was here.”
Hunter nodded. “I doubt she’ll be around much.”
Jonah’s face twisted with sorrow as he digested her words. She could see it in his eyes. He didn’t disagree.
“Why are you here, Jonah? After what happened…?”
“We all deserve forgiveness, Ms. McKenna.”
“I-I just wondered.” After a moment she broke the silence with common ground. “I miss Tom. I keep thinking it will get easier, but instead…” She choked down the lump in her throat.
“The emptiness grows.” He paused. “She sent me a letter. I got it today.”
Hunter wondered if his had been as cryptic as her own.
“She said if I ever saw you to tell you this was what she had the strength for.” He looked at the grave.
“She was wrong,” Hunter said.
Jonah was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “’Tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind.’”
“Where’s that from?”
‘The Bible. It,” he swallowed, “it always made me think of Vinny. She couldn’t find the strength to make her own choices. Especially after her dad left.”
“She was broken.”
He nodded. “By her mother first, and then Ivy.”
She wondered how much he knew about Adam, Jesse, and all the things that had happened, but almost as quickly as the thought passed through her mind, she let it go. It didn’t matter now. Not for her.
“You believe in God?”
Jonah shrugged. “Vinny once asked me if I believed in heaven.”
“What did you tell her?” Hunter asked.
Jonah took a deep breath. After a moment, he shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. We were just kids then.”
“What do you think now?”
“That the only heaven we’ll know is the split second when we realize nobody can ever hurt us again.”
His words were like a blow and she stood there silently, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her as she watched him turn and walk away.
HAUNTED
- Taylor Swift -
"I know you don't want to hear this," Noah said as he sat down on the bench beside Hunter.
"But you're going to tell me anyway?"
"You know how I found the evidence."
She stared back at him for a moment, then looked away. "It doesn't prove anything."
"No. But it changed everything."
Hunter couldn't deny that. Ivy would stand trial, along with Dylan, for their role in the death of Adam Fields.
Jesse's murder was also considered closed.
And Hunter was free.
"That still doesn't prove that Vinny's spirit was guiding me from beyond the grave."
Noah stood up. "And nothing you say can prove she wasn't."
WHAT THE DEAD KNOW
- Laura Lippman -
Vinny found her father's spirit, watching a memory.
He turned to her. "Is it finished?"
"Yes," she said.
She stood with him, and watched with him.
***
“Why are we sad when people die? If they go to heaven, why aren’t we happy?”
Vinny was drifting on the swing. At one point, she’d been going so high she’d touched the branches of the tree in front of the swings at the park, but her legs were tired. She’d stopped pumping. Let the swing slow on its own. She was barely moving on it now, just a few feet in front of her, a few feet back.
Her dad sat on the swing beside her. They’d both been going so high, he’d touched the branches too, but when she stopped pumping he’d dragged his feet and stopped himself. Now, he just sat there, staring off across the park, toward the sun. It was going to go down soon. Vinny liked staying up late in the summer and watching the sun sink down behind the trees. The sky got red and pretty before it turned dark.
Vinny’s great-grandfather had died a few weeks ago. Grandpapa had been sick for a while. Cancer. Vinny’s mother tut-tutted and talked about how he’d withered into nothing and may as well have killed himself. Mother said that was what smoking would do to you.
Even Vinny’s dad had agreed about the smoking, though he’d sounded different than her mother. Sadder. Not as angry. How could her mother sound so angry? Vinny couldn’t argue with her mother, though. Every time she’d been taken to see Grandpapa she had to fight to keep her nose from wrinkling when she leaned in to peck him on the cheek because he reeked of tobacco.
Once, she’d seen Grandmama kiss Grandpapa on the mouth, then turn her head to wipe her lips and pop in a breath mint. The second Grandmama’s head was turned away from Grandpapa her nose had wrinkled. Two nights earlier, long after she’d been sent to her room to go to sleep, she’d heard the phone ring. She’d crawled to the end of her bed, on her h
ands and knees, careful not to push on any of the squeaky spots. The end of her bed was right beside the bedroom door. She’d turned the handle slowly and opened the door just enough to hear her mother saying something about a turn for the worse and to ask how long, do you think? When she heard her mother say goodbye Vinny shut the door and darted back under the covers.
The next morning they went to the hospital to see Grandpapa. Nobody made her kiss him this time. Instead, she was set off in the corner, left to look at the small group of people gathered around the hospital bed, the sound of his raspy breaths breaking the silence as Grandmama held his hand and Vinny’s mother patted her shoulder and said, “There there.” She hadn’t gotten a good look at Grandpapa until her mother had called her to leave. As she walked to the door she’d glanced over at the bed and Grandpapa had stared at her with hollow eyes, his skin a pasty white, sunken in between the gaps in his bones.
After dinner there was another phone call. This time, Vinny was called to the living room and told to sit on the couch. It was one of those serious grown-up talks, which usually meant she was in trouble for something. Vinny had sat there, fidgeting, wondering what she’d done this time. Then her mother had come into the room. Mother sat down, her back as straight as a broomstick, crossed her legs and told her Grandpapa had passed away.
Vinny thought it was strange, how all the grown-ups said 'passed away' instead of just saying ‘died’. Like it didn’t mean the same thing. Adults never seemed to say what they meant, except when they were yelling. Or lecturing. That was when they went into what her friend Jesse called auto-pilot. He’d told her that was when there was a program for something, like a cycle on a washing machine. You just turn the knob and press the button and it knows what it’s supposed to do.
“Lectures are like that,” Jesse had told her and Jonah once. “It’s like a spelling recital or something. I guess when they’re gonna be parents someone makes them memorize the speeches.”
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