Nate tossed her a crooked smile. “You’ve always been a goody-goody, haven’t you? I’d just assumed that happened later in life.”
“When you are 15 and your older sister gets murdered after sneaking out of the house, you tend to follow the rules,” Olivia replied while giving the door a firm yank. It opened with a loud shriek. “Besides, not all of us were as cool as you in high school.”
“True.” Nate’s boyish grin was more than a little endearing. His hand brushed lightly over her back as she stepped around him to enter the church. For a fleeting second, she wondered about the tingle his touch left behind.
Something scurried over the concrete floor, making Olivia shudder. She didn’t want to think about all of the creatures that had set up homes inside the dark shadows of the church.
“Here.” Nate handed her one of the flashlights he had grabbed from the car. “Tread carefully. I don’t want to have to carry you around because you sprain your ankle.”
“I’m not that big of a klutz,” Olivia protested half-heartedly. She aimed the light in front of her first to make sure she wasn’t about to put her foot in her mouth. Then she aimed it around the room. “Whoa.”
At the opposite end of the church, part of the roof was missing and pale sunlight streamed downward, brokenly lighting parts of the church. The half where Olivia and Nate stood was still almost completely in the dark.
“It smells like moldy beer,” Nate said, heading for the nearest corner. “And stale weed.”
“You have such a refined pallet.” Olivia kicked aside an empty beer bottle and aimed her light at a graffiti covered wall. The yellowed, chipping paint was covered in hastily painted curse words and pornographic depictions. It was descriptive enough to make a girl blush.
“Creative,” Nate said, suddenly appearing at Olivia’s shoulder. “A lot of sexual frustration has been confined within these walls.”
“I guess you would know,” Olivia teased. She let her flashlight comb across the wall until she spotted a section that was markedly different. At the point where the wall connected with the old confessionals, the graffiti changed in nature. Badly drawn phallic symbols were replaced with hearts and initials.
“How sweet,” Nate said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Wait.” Olivia stepped forward until her light was just a few inches from the wall. There, nearly covered by other declarations of teenage love, she spotted a black heart filled with familiar initials.
D.M. + R.T.
Dylan Masters and Rosie Thompson.
“That’s her,” she whispered. Her fingers traced the letters carefully. “It’s just like the ones she drew in her diary.”
“So Rosie was here.” Nate’s eyes turned brooding. “But when? Was she here that night? Is that how she ended up in the park?”
Olivia could feel long ago buried emotions started to rise up within her. She had probably asked herself a thousand times how Rosie had ended up in the park that night. Fifteen years later, she was no closer to understanding the truth.
“The police had always speculated that she snuck out to meet up with a boy that night. They theorized that she had agreed to meet him in the park in order to hook up.” She stepped away from the wall and walked toward the next shadowed corner.
“Does that sound like Rosie to you?” Nate asked. “Was she the kind of girl that would hook up with a guy in a public place like the park?”
“How should I know?” Olivia snapped. “According to her best friend, Rosie was a giant slut and the rest of us were just oblivious.”
“Crystal was a jealous teenage girl. I don’t think that has changed in the last decade and a half.” Nate’s footsteps echoed off the walls. “You were her sister. You knew her better than anyone.”
Olivia stopped walking away and put her hands on the back of a pew. She suddenly felt breathless. “You read her diary. I didn’t know any of that. She kept so many secrets… It’s like I didn’t know the real Rosie.”
Nate stood next to Olivia, just a few inches closer than was necessary. “Yes, you did. Everyone keeps secrets, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t know your sister.”
She closed her eyes and tried to picture her sister’s smile. Olivia strained to hear her laugh. A memory came to her, like a sudden wave washing over the shore. Rosie was driving in her car with Olivia in the passenger’s seat. They had the music turned all the way up and were singing at the top of their lungs. When Rosie turned to look at her, her blue eyes were wide and sparkling and she was laughing.
“No,” Olivia said quietly, eyes opening. “Rosie wasn’t like that.”
Nate grabbed her arm gently. “Good. Trust your memory of her. You need to hold onto that.”
Olivia nodded and swallowed hard. A strange feeling was running through her body and she found herself taking a step toward Nate. When her foot brushed against something, she looked down. With her flashlight dangling at her side, it wasn’t hard to see what had caught on the toe of her shoe.
“Oh god,” she muttered.
Nate spotted the object and laughed. “Maybe I was wrong about the sexual frustration.”
“I have a used condom on my shoe,” Olivia said, flinging it away. “I am officially ready to get the hell out of Mercy.”
FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER - WEDNESDAY
Rosie reached for the bottle of vodka. She was going to need to drink about half of it before she would start feeling comfortable about the conversation she was having with Dylan.
“We can’t really do this, can we?” he asked for the tenth time.
It was Wednesday evening and Rosie needed to be home soon or her parents would start to freak out.
“I don’t have a choice.” Rosie took a big swig. “If you don’t want to do it, I understand. This isn’t your problem.”
“It’s not that, Rosie. You know that I would do anything for you.” Dylan grabbed the vodka and took two big swallows. “But we’re talking about killing someone.”
“He’s a monster, Dylan. If we tell someone, no one is going to believe me and he’s going to be free to do this to another girl, maybe to Olivia.” Rosie knew in her soul that she wasn’t going to be Tim’s only victim. He was a predator. “This is the only way to stop him for good.”
Dylan didn’t look as certain as Rosie felt, but he nodded. “Okay. I’m onboard.”
They were the only two people in the old abandoned church, so they didn’t have to worry about their plan being overheard. Rosie kept her voice down anyway.
“Tim wants to see me Friday night. He knows that my parents have plans to be away, and if I don’t meet him, he’s going to show up at the house.” She shuddered. “I’ll tell him to meet me here. The two of us will be waiting when you show up. You can hit him with a piece of the lumber. Then we’ll hide his body in one of the confessionals. It will be days before anyone finds him.”
Dylan seemed surprised by how thoroughly Rosie had planned the murder. “What if we are interrupted? Kids party in here all the time.”
“They won’t on Friday night. They’ll be at the game first, and then Trevor Gills is having a party on his farm. His parents are out of town, so it will go on all night. No one will be here except us.” Rosie had stayed awake all night cooking up the plans. “You’ll need an alibi.”
“I will have the guys cover for me,” Dylan said. “We can move fast after the game and then I’ll meet up with them. They will be so out of it, they won’t remember timelines or anything.”
His two best friends, Connor and Jackson, were always drunk or stoned. For once, that would be an advantage for Dylan.
“I think this can work,” Rosie said. She was pretty drunk at this point, but the anger inside hadn’t faded. “Tim will never see it coming. He thinks I’m just a helpless victim. He would never suspect that I might fight back.”
“Rosie, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” Dylan scooted down the pew to take her hand. “We’re talking about taking a man’s life.”
/> “We’re talking about reclaiming my life,” she replied.
How could she explain to him what it was like to have your innocence ripped away? She couldn’t imagine how good it would feel to be able to go places without constantly checking over her shoulder. It had been so long since she had last felt safe.
She was tired of being afraid.
“I’m sure. This is what I have to do.” Rosie hadn’t been this sure of anything in her life.
They continued planning, building out details that they hoped would never matter. Rosie didn’t plan to stay in Mercy long enough to be questioned about any of it. Dylan had asked Rosie to marry him a week earlier and she had said yes. They had been planning to wait until graduation, but their new circumstances had changed that plan.
Rosie and Dylan were going to elope on Saturday and start their lives over in a new town. With Tim out of the way, she would no longer have to stay to watch over Olivia at all times. She would be able to have a happy life with Dylan.
Most importantly, Rosie would be free.
CHAPTER TEN
Nate wanted to grant Olivia her wish, but he wasn’t done in Mercy yet. A couple of key suspects still hadn’t been interviewed.
“I can’t believe you tracked down Tim,” Olivia said when he told her the plan.
“I’m a detective. It’s what I do.” It had only taken a quick call into the station to get an address for Rosie’s alleged rapist. “It’s kind of hard to believe this guy is still in town teaching tennis lessons.”
“He must believe he’s never going to get caught.” Olivia had been abnormally quiet since leaving the church. “I guess he has every reason to think that considering he’s gotten away with it for almost twenty years.”
Nate gripped the steering wheel harder. “There is no way that Rosie has been his only victim. There must have been a dozen other girls in the last decade.”
“It’s the next turn on the right,” Olivia said.
They had already tried Tim McCaffery’s house and came up empty. Now they were swinging by the tennis courts to see if he was teaching a lesson. Nate honestly didn’t know if he was hoping to find him or not. He had a feeling it was going to be really hard to not punch this guy in the face.
“That’s him.” Olivia spotted Tim almost as soon as the courts came into view. “I only saw him once when we picked Rosie up from her lesson, but I remember him.”
He was in his forties now, but he was still a decent looking guy. His hair was spotted with gray, but he had a solid athletic build. It was easy to see that he had been an attractive guy in his prime. That was probably why Olivia remembered him.
“Look at that,” Nate said, parking the car. “Surrounded by teenage girls.”
“I guess some things don’t change with time.” Olivia hopped out of the car.
Nate took a few extra minutes to get his gun from the glove compartment and holster it. He wasn’t planning to need it, but if Tim actually was Rosie’s killer, he would rather be safe than sorry. Plus, in the back of his mind he could see Rosie’s journal entry when Tim had threatened Olivia.
“Stay close to me, Liv,” he said quietly. She looked at him in surprise. “We don’t know what we are walking into here. We don’t know what kind of man he is.”
“Okay.”
Nate was surprised that she didn’t protest or make some comment about not needing him to protect her. But then he looked closer and saw a hint of fear in her eyes. She thought that Tim might actually be the killer.
They sat on a park bench and observed as they waited for the lesson to end. Tim seemed oblivious to their watchful eyes. Not surprisingly, his class was comprised of adolescent girls. To a casual observer, it appeared to be a normal tennis lesson. But Nate had information that other people didn’t.
Tim’s eyes rested too long on the girl’s toned legs. His hands rested too comfortably on their bodies as he perfected their form. The smiles he gave the girls were just a little too flirtatious.
“It’s so clear what he is,” Olivia said through a clenched jaw. “How can parents not notice?”
“Because they don’t want to.” Nate had seen it a hundred times in his line of work. No one wanted to believe that monsters actually lived under the bed. “They don’t want to believe that someone like him could be their neighbor. They want to be able to sleep with their windows open and let their kids roam the neighborhood.”
“They’re fools.” Olivia’s eyes narrowed as she watched Tim flick one of the girl’s ponytails. “Don’t they remember what happened to Rosie?”
“These girls weren’t even born back then,” Nate reminded her. “People have short attention spans. They don’t want to remember that nightmare.”
Olivia leaned forward, elbows on knees. “I wish I could forget it. But that isn’t an option for me.”
Nate almost reached over to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but then he thought better of it. For the time being, he needed to keep some distance from Olivia. At least until he got these new feelings under control.
“Didn’t your parents ever wonder why Rosie stopped taking lessons so suddenly?” Nate knew that teenagers could be really good at hiding things from their parents, but he was surprised that nobody had suspected anything was wrong at the time. It was only now, years later, that Ed realized something had happened to Rosie.
“My mom thought she was just being a bratty teenager. My dad could never see any fault in Rosie. He worshipped her.” Olivia twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “But not as much as I did.”
“I wish I could’ve known you and your family back then. Before everything happened.” Nate had a hard time picturing Olivia as the adoring kid sister.
“It’s over.” Olivia stood up, effectively ending their conversation.
Nate sighed and pushed himself to his feet. He was used to Olivia avoiding personal conversations, but that didn’t mean he liked it. Just once he wished that she would let him know what she was thinking or feeling. Just once he wanted her to depend on him for something.
“Remember, I do the talking.” With his long strides, he easily passed her. “Just stay quiet and look pretty.”
“Pig,” she grumbled loudly.
Nate hadn’t said it to annoy her. It was clear that Tim liked his women submissive and pretty. Having Olivia there for the questioning could work in their favor if she played her part right.
“Tim McCaffery?” Nate called out, just as the tennis coach was about to follow the girls to the parking lot.
“Yeah.” He turned, an irritated look on his face. Nate wondered if he had just interrupted a sinister plan. This was essentially Tim’s hunting grounds. “What of it?”
“I’m Detective Tucker.” Nate flashed his badge. “I was hoping I could ask you a few questions about the Rosie Thompson murder.”
His face tensed. “Rosie?”
“We’re revisiting the case and I just want to run a few things passed you and make sure we’ve got the right information.” Nate was an expert at not letting suspects realize they were suspects.
“Sure.” Tim faked a smile. “I’m happy to help in any way I can.”
“Let’s sit.” Nate pointed to a small set of bleachers facing the courts.
He made it a point to let Olivia sit between them. Tim was likely to be more agreeable with a female presence sitting so close.
“I’m not sure how I will be able to help you much,” Tim said, suddenly in a gregarious mood. “I only coached Rosie for a few weeks before she quit her lessons.”
“When was that in relation to her death?”
“Oh that was a couple years before. I didn’t see Rosie after that,” Tim was quick to answer.
“Why did she quit?” Nate asked as casually as possible.
“She was a teenage girl.” Tim laughed. “Who knows why they do what they do? But if I had to guess, I assume she wanted to spend more time with her friends or a guy.”
Nate noticed that Tim kept his e
yes focused in front of him, avoiding eye contact. “A guy? Do you know if she had a boyfriend?”
“Nah.” He shrugged. “I don’t get involved in their personal lives. Rosie wasn’t like the other girls, though.”
“How so?” Nate noticed that his voice sounded different when he said her name. It became almost wistful.
“Rosie was mature for her age. She didn’t stand around giggling with the other girls. She gave every session 100%. She had a great sense of humor.” Tim seemed to be lost in memory lane. “Rosie was a beautiful girl.”
Nate noticed that Olivia’s hands were clenched tightly together in her lap. “You were quite a bit older than her, yeah?”
“About ten years.” Tim didn’t seem to notice the edge of suspicion on Nate’s question. “But she acted older than a lot of women my age. I could actually have a conversation with her about things.”
“You seemed to be very fond of her. I bet you were upset when she stopped coming to lessons,” Nate said.
Tim let out a sigh. “She was just a student. I’ve had hundreds of them over the years. Some of them stand out at the time. That was Rosie. But I wasn’t sitting around pining for her to come back. This is just a job.”
“Did you own a motorcycle, Tim?” Nate hoped that by changing the subject quickly he might get an unguarded reaction.
“I do. Why?” He looked honestly confused.
“A few weeks before her death, Rosie was seen with you on that motorcycle. Can you explain that?” This was the moment they had both been waiting for.
Tim’s head whipped in Nate’s direction. “That’s not true.”
“I’m afraid it is. We have witnesses.” Okay, so it was actually only one witness. But Tim didn’t need to know that.
Tim fidgeted in his seat and stammered several times. Nate worried that he was about to stop answering their questions.
“Rosie told me she was dating an older guy,” Olivia said, speaking for the first time. She slowly crossed her legs in Tim’s direction. His eyes rested on her bare skin. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“You’re her little sister. Olivia.” His eyes went over the length of her body before landing on her face. His smile was charming. “You’re all grown up.”
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