by Megan Goldin
“Jenny,” I choked. “Are you all right? Let’s go home. Can you walk?”
“No,” she mumbled. “I need an ambulance.”
“The telephone booth is broken and there’s nobody around to help. I can’t get an ambulance.”
“The gas station,” she whispered. “It’s still open.”
“Come with me,” I sobbed. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Can’t walk.” Jenny groaned. “They’re gone now. I’ll be okay. I’ll wait for you here.”
Reluctantly, I left Jenny curled up on the beach and trudged through the sand. Sharp stones cut into my damaged feet as I crossed the parking lot and walked along the shoulder of the road to the gas station. I blocked the pain, focusing on getting to the gas station before it closed for the night.
It was shutting down when I arrived. Fortunately, a light by the cash register was still on. I entered through the automatic doors, unaware that I was leaving a trail of blood across the white-tiled floor. “We’re closed,” said Rick without looking up.
“I need help.” My voice trembled. Snot ran down my face, mixing with tears. “I need to call an ambulance.”
He looked up and saw the bloody trail that I’d left on the floor and immediately passed me the phone. While I dialed 911 and asked for an ambulance, I heard him complaining about the mess of blood and mud that he’d have to clean up. But by the time I’d hung up the phone, Rick seemed shamefaced at his initial reaction. He drove me back to the beach in his truck so I could wait with Jenny for the ambulance to arrive.
I jumped out when he pulled into the parking lot. I limped onto the beach toward the smoldering remnants of the bonfire. Jenny was all curled up in the same position that she’d been in when I’d gone to get help. It was only when I was very close that I understood that she wasn’t there at all. What I thought was Jenny was the shirt that Bobby had put over her to keep her warm.
“Jenny?” I called out. “Jenny?”
I wandered aimlessly across the beach, looking for Jenny, until the dark sky was colored by the bright lights of sirens. Uniformed figures ran down to the beach. I stumbled toward them, stuttering that my sister had gone missing. I shivered as I watched them stand on the beach and comb the water with powerful flashlights.
“I see something,” someone called out from near the jetty. He waded waist deep into the water, while another held his flashlight unsteadily pointing into the ocean.
I ran to the edge of the surf. The policeman who’d gone into the water was coming out, pulling something through the white foam of a broken wave. It was Jenny. Her blond hair had spread across the water like a mermaid.
“Jenny?” I screamed. Her eyes were open, but they were unblinking. “Jenny!”
I fell onto her the moment they pulled her out of the water. She was cold. Ice cold. Someone pulled me away from her. “She’s gone,” he said as I heard a siren approach. “She’s gone.”
I screamed, but not a sound came out.
52
Rachel
The jetty groaned under the assault of wind and midnight tides as Rachel walked into the black mist that shrouded the coastline.
When she reached the end of the jetty, she looked out to sea but saw nothing. It looked as if the ocean and the sky had merged into a black abyss. She stood with both hands on the rail, her face whipped by the icy Atlantic wind as she enjoyed the sensation of being alone with the elements.
A sliver of moon from a shifting cloud eased the darkness enough for Rachel to see her surroundings. That’s when she realized that she wasn’t alone. A figure in the corner had been observing her.
Hannah was shorter than Rachel, with cropped dark hair and bright eyes. She wore a black crocheted cardigan that reached down to her knees, and dark jeans with black high-heel boots. She waited shyly for Rachel to approach, uncertain of what reception she’d get.
Rachel moved toward her wordlessly. When they were close, she wrapped her arms around Hannah in a warm embrace.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through,” said Rachel, her voice thick with the sadness that had clung to her since she’d read Hannah’s final letter.
“I’m so grateful that you came,” said Hannah. “I was worried that I’d have to do this alone.”
They rested their backs against the jetty handrail, buffeted by wind, as they looked out to shore, waiting for Jenny’s killer to arrive.
“Maybe it’s not him,” said Rachel with a shiver when minutes passed and he still hadn’t arrived. A breaking wave splashed across the weathered timber beams, soaking her sneakers and wetting her jeans. She zipped up her waterproof jacket and put the hood over her head to cover her auburn hair, which had become unruly in the wind.
Hannah shrugged uncertainly. “We’ll find out soon enough. If he turns up, it will confirm that he did it. Only a guilty man would come here tonight. Let’s wait a little longer.”
“What are you hoping to get from him? And me?”
“I want him to confess. And I want you to be a witness to his confession. It might be the only evidence we ever get.” Hannah hesitated. “If you feel like it’s too dangerous, you can go. I’ll wait. I’ve waited a lifetime. I can wait a little longer.”
“I’ll stay,” said Rachel. “I’ll be your witness. I won’t let it be your word against his.” She crossed her shivering arms to stay warm as she looked out in the direction of the beach. The sweeping coastal landscape that had become so familiar to her had turned into a vast swath of impenetrable darkness in the night.
Minutes later, they saw two bright orbs moving along the coastal road. The orbs slowed down and turned toward the beach parking lot. They were car headlights. The headlights stopped moving, but they remained lit as they pointed toward the jetty on high beam. The driver had parked the car facing the ocean, looking for them. Eventually the lights turned off and everything was dark again.
Rachel and Hannah both knew that he was walking toward them, even though they couldn’t see him at all in the dark. Nor could they hear his footsteps over the howling wind. Rachel had retreated to the far corner of the jetty so that he wouldn’t realize that Hannah wasn’t alone.
It was only when he’d reached the end of the jetty and he was close enough for Rachel to see his face that she felt a coldness in the pit of her stomach. It couldn’t be him. It had to be a terrible mistake.
“I got your note. I came to say that I’m sorry,” he said to Hannah. “And to ask you to leave the past alone.”
He hadn’t yet noticed Rachel, who had blended into the thick fog of night in her dark clothes and upturned jacket hood and collar. She stayed silent as she listened to them talk, discreetly opening the voice recorder app on her phone in her pocket so that she could record the conversation.
“How have you lived with yourself all these years, after what you did?” Hannah asked.
“I was a different person in those days. A kid. Messed up on drugs and alcohol. I hated the world,” he said. “I’m ashamed of what I did. I hate who I was in those days. I’m nothing like that person anymore.” His voice cracked with emotion. “I’ve agonized over what happened every day since.”
“You raped and murdered my sister,” said Hannah.
“What makes you think I killed her?” he said. Hidden in the shadows, Rachel couldn’t help noticing that he hadn’t denied the first accusation.
“I know it was you. Why did you do it?”
Finally, he broke down as he spoke in a choking voice. “I didn’t plan to kill her. It just happened,” he said. “We left her lying on the sand while we carried Bobby to the truck to drive him to the hospital. I panicked and told my friend Lucas to pull over at the next beach. I realized that she was evidence of what we did. That we’d go to prison because of her. Either for her rape, or Bobby’s death if he didn’t make it. Or both. She was what my father called ‘a sloppy loose end.’ I carried her onto the jetty. Just over there.” He pointed to a side rail in the middle of the jetty, his face pained. “And I
dropped her into the water and returned to my friends in the truck.”
“You’d already hurt her so much,” sobbed Hannah. “Why did you have to kill her? Why did you have to take her from me?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for all of it.”
“If you really are sorry, then you’ll tell the cops what you did,” said Hannah.
He rubbed his agonized face with his hands. Then slowly, as if fighting his worst instincts, he put his hand in the back of his jeans and removed a handgun from the waistband. He pointed it at Hannah with a hand as steady as his voice.
“I won’t be doing any confessing,” he said. “Why couldn’t you leave the past alone?”
“Because it’s time the truth came out. It’s time that everyone knew that Jenny didn’t drown. That she was gang-raped and murdered here. By you and your friends.”
He took the safety catch off the gun with his finger. “There’s no evidence that I did it. Nothing at all. He made sure of that.”
“Who made sure of that?” Rachel asked, stepping out of the shadows.
* * *
Rachel pulled off the hood of her jacket so that he could see her. They’d met enough times before that he recognized her voice even before he saw her distinctive auburn hair.
Dan Moore’s face turned pale. He turned toward Hannah in confusion, waving the gun unsteadily in her general direction.
“You told me it would just be the two of us,” he told Hannah.
“And you brought a gun,” she noted.
“I’ll do whatever is needed to protect my family,” he said. “It would crush Kelly if she knew what happened all those years ago. I was a kid then. Why can’t you both understand that I have changed? I was in a dark place. My father was abusive. All I ever knew was violence. It took what happened to Jenny to make me realize that I was becoming like my father. I’ve spent all these years making amends.”
Rachel moved toward him. “Hannah’s lived her whole life wondering what happened that night. Tell her and then maybe she’ll agree not to take this to the authorities. She’ll move on with her life and allow you to move on with yours. Isn’t that what you want?”
Dan ran his hand through his light hair, trying to decide on his next move. He sighed and then unburdened himself in a rush of words.
“After I threw Jenny into the water, I went back to the pickup. Bobby had fainted from the pain. The other two had drunk the rest of our liquor stash while they waited. They were in no condition to drive. I took the car keys and drove on the back roads to the north of town. We argued about what we should do with Bobby. I wanted to take him to the hospital. The others said we should kill him. We were all arguing about it and I lost control and slammed into a tree. I had no idea what to do. My friends were dead. Or close to it. I called my dad from a pay phone further down the road. He came within minutes. He put Bobby in the driver’s seat and set fire to the truck. Said it was the only way to explain Bobby’s burns,” he said. “We went home. He beat me senseless in the garage, fractured my arm, and then told me if anyone asked that I should say we’d spent a father-son evening together watching a baseball game.” He let out a bitter laugh. “My father was my alibi. You can’t get a better alibi witness than the chief of police.”
“It didn’t all go according to plan, though. Somehow Bobby got out of the truck,” said Rachel.
“Bobby must have become conscious before the fire reached the cab and the truck blew up. He walked a few steps and collapsed in a ditch. Someone reported the explosion to nine-one-one, and the cops came and took him to the hospital. It was touch and go for days. We honestly thought he’d die. He pulled through, but he never remembered anything about that night. When they charged him for reckless driving and manslaughter he pleaded guilty and served the time.”
“And the boys who were killed?” Rachel asked.
“They were the real ringleaders. They’d planned the whole thing. Aaron and Lucas. They’d had a thing for Jenny for a long time. Both Bobby and I were younger than them. We were pulled into their gang for our own reasons. For me, it was a way to escape my dad’s fists. For Bobby, well, he was looking to belong,” Dan said. “I regret what happened, more than I can ever tell you.” His voice broke. “Sometimes, I think that what happened to Kelly was punishment for what I did to Jenny.”
“If you regret it, then put the gun down,” said Rachel.
“If it was just about me, then I wouldn’t care. But I can’t allow this to come out,” he responded, his eyes narrowed in concentration. He shifted the weapon to the center of Rachel’s chest and then back to Hannah, as if trying to decide which one of them to shoot first. “I can’t allow Kelly to find out. It would kill her to know that her father was once a monster.”
“You’re still a monster,” said Rachel. “Look at you. You’re willing to kill Hannah and me to cover up for your crimes. You should know that I’ve recorded everything you said and it’s automatically uploaded onto my cloud. Even if I die, the audio will be found by my producer. Killing us will only make things worse for you.”
Dan ordered Rachel to hand over her phone. She tossed it to him. He caught it with his free hand and fumbled with it as he tried to see if she was telling the truth. Eventually, unable to figure it out, he threw the phone into the water.
“Stand on the jetty ledge,” he ordered.
Rachel climbed over the jetty rails and Hannah followed suit. Both women had their backs to the rails as they faced the chasm of the ocean. The waves hit their feet and splashed against their clothes. Rachel’s arms ached from reaching behind her back to clutch the rail so she wouldn’t fall into the water, the jetty shifting each time it was hit by a strong wave.
She had lied when she’d said the recording of their conversation was on her cloud. It didn’t automatically upload. And even if it had, the noise from the wind and thrashing waves was so loud that she doubted anything recorded would be audible.
Rachel and Hannah stood next to each other against the jetty rails, facing the ocean, their arms cramping and their body trembling from cold as minutes passed. It was only when Rachel turned her head and saw car headlights moving in the darkness toward the road that she realized he’d left them there and made a getaway.
“He’s gone,” Rachel whispered to Hannah. Hannah didn’t respond. Rachel turned and saw that Hannah wasn’t there anymore. She’d dropped into the sea and was being enveloped by waves.
Rachel jumped into the water, scrambling around until she was clutching Hannah by her arm, trying to keep both their heads above water. They’d drifted far enough away from the jetty that she couldn’t climb back up. They would have to swim to shore.
Rachel felt the weight of her wet clothes and Hannah’s weighing them down into the rough water. She used all her strength to get Hannah to lie flat and float, but it was impossible. Hannah’s long cardigan was dragging her underwater. Rachel ripped the sweater off Hannah’s shoulders, pulling the heavy fabric off her until it floated away. She grabbed Hannah and pulled her along to the shore.
“Stay with me, Hannah,” Rachel soothed. “You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
Rachel’s eyes stung from the salt water, and her body ached from trying to stay afloat and guide Hannah to safety in the choppy waves. When she ran out of strength, she relaxed and allowed them to drift in the surf until she felt sand under her feet. Slowly, she crawled out of the water, pulling Hannah with her until they were lying on the beach.
Rachel breathed heavily, her pulse racing. Hannah’s eyes were open, but she was trembling violently from the cold.
In the distance, Rachel heard sirens. They rose to a crescendo and then stopped abruptly. Moments later, she saw dark figures running and then beams of flashlights swept across the beach. “We’re here,” Rachel called out, waving her hand limply.
* * *
Rachel sat slumped in an armchair next to the hospital bed where Hannah was fast asleep. She herself had slept little that night, waking i
ntermittently as doctors and nurses came in and out of the room through the night to check on Hannah.
Detective Cooper had met the ambulance at the hospital. Hannah was rushed into the ER and immediately treated for hypothermia and ingesting water. Rachel had insisted that she didn’t need medical attention. All she wanted was a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes. Detective Cooper had driven her back to the hotel so she could get just that. She’d told him on the drive over what had happened and how she’d texted Pete surreptitiously when Dan Moore pulled out the gun. He told her grimly that it was lucky that Pete had been awake and called emergency services.
When Rachel was showered and dressed, she insisted on returning to check on Hannah. Detective Cooper had dropped Rachel back at the hospital and she’d spent what remained of the night sleeping under a blanket in the armchair next to Hannah’s bed.
Rachel opened her eyes to see Detective Cooper standing over her, holding out a large takeout coffee and a white paper bag. “I brought you some breakfast,” he said as Rachel pushed away the blanket and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn as she took the coffee cup.
“Has Dan Moore been arrested yet?” Rachel asked.
Hannah shifted slightly in her sleep but didn’t wake. The sedative the doctors had given her hadn’t worn off yet.
“His car was found abandoned. We went to the family house, but there was nobody there. A neighbor told us that Kelly and her mother left town the day that she was supposed to have testified again,” Detective Cooper said. “They’ve relocated to the West Coast. As for Dan, he’s on the run.”
His bloodshot eyes attested to the fact that he hadn’t slept at all since he’d been woken by a call from Rachel at the back of the ambulance, asking him to meet her at the hospital.
He pulled the blinds back slightly so he could see out into the bright sunshine of the morning. He turned around to look at Hannah, still fast asleep. Her skin was almost as white as the hospital sheets and her face looked innocent, and childlike, as she slept.