“That’s not fair.” Tawny-Lynn stepped in front of Peyton and jutted her chin up at his father. “First you blamed me, now Peyton. My sister tried to warn Ruth about the coach. He’s the one you should be mad at, not her.”
“Dad,” Chaz warned, breaking up the staring contest between Tawny-Lynn and his father. “Take Mother home. I have a press conference in a few minutes.”
“You’ll let everyone know you caught Ruth’s killer?” his father said.
Chaz nodded. “I can’t divulge details, but I will announce his arrest and the charges we’re filing. But you and Mom remain low key, and don’t stir up any more trouble. The last thing I want is for the town to crucify Wake, or for some kind of vigilante to make things worse.”
If that happened, he’d have to protect Wake.
And that was the last thing Chaz wanted to do.
He needed to keep him behind bars before his anger got the best of him and he beat the man to a bloody pulp himself.
* * *
A
SHUDDER
COURSED
up Tawny-Lynn’s spine. She’d known for years that Chaz’s father hated her, but his animosity toward Peyton made her furious.
Couldn’t he see that Peyton had suffered? She’d left her home out of fear, run because a mentor and man she’d trusted had used her and threatened her. And she’d lost Ruth.
She saw the guilt in her sister’s eyes, but she didn’t know how to alleviate it. Maybe in time Peyton would be able to forgive herself.
She gave Mr. Camden a cool look, then took Peyton’s arm. “Come on, sis, let’s go home. A little more work, and we can hang that for-sale sign and both of us can leave this horrible town behind us.”
But the memories would haunt them forever.
So would Chaz’s handsome face. Why had she gone and fallen in love with him?
His troubled gaze met hers. “You should be safe now, but let me know if there’s any more trouble.” He angled his head toward Peyton. “Will you write out everything you’ve told us and sign it? Then I’ll let you know when the trial date is set so you can come back and testify.”
So that was it? Chaz was resorting back to business as if nothing personal had happened between them.
“Of course,” Peyton said.
Tawny-Lynn’s heart was breaking as they left the building. She finally had her sister back and the answers she’d yearned for.
But she would never have the man she loved.
Chapter Nineteen
Chaz finished the press conference with a knot in his gut. He wanted to see Tawny-Lynn again, but she probably hated him now. After all, he’d been rough on her when they’d found Ruth.
He would deal with his feelings for her later. Today he had a job to do, and that meant tying up this case so Coach Wake would never see the light of day again.
With the story airing at noon, word would spread quickly in the small town. He’d left his deputy with Wake’s lawyer and wife, and was grateful they’d left by the time he made it back to his office.
He had a message to call the M.E. and another from the lab. He phoned the M.E. first. “What did you find?”
“Unfortunately we didn’t find any DNA from Coach Wake,” the M.E. said. “There were some broken ribs, which probably happened in the accident. We think that she fell backward on a sharp object and hit her head. Could have been a rock. That’s what killed her.”
Chaz mentally pieced together the facts. Ruth must have crawled out of the bus, and Wake saw her. He chased her, maybe caught up with her and they argued. Then he pushed her and she fell and hit her head.
“Is that all you found?”
“I’m afraid so. Any DNA that might have been under her nails was long ago washed away by the elements and decomp.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and phoned the crime lab, hoping they had more. “This is Sheriff Camden. Tell me you have good news.”
“Nothing condemning yet, but we’re trying to recover some DNA from one of the stones left at the gravesite.”
“You think it’s the one that killed her?”
“No, but the way it was stuck in the ground indicates it might have been used as a grave marker.”
Chaz contemplated what he’d said. Had Wake marked the grave so he could come back and visit Ruth? Or maybe he’d planned to move her at some point?
“How about the bracelet?”
“There’s a partial print we’re working on. I’ll let you know if we find a match.”
A knock sounded on his door, and the deputy poked his head in. “Sheriff, there’s a couple of people here to see you.”
Chaz frowned. So the circus was starting.
He thanked the crime tech, then strode into the front area and was surprised to see Cindy Miller Parker and Rudy Farnsworth standing together.
“We need to talk to you,” Cindy said.
Rudy bit down on her lip. “It’s important. It’s about the coach.”
Chaz’s stomach knotted. Surely to God they weren’t here to say Peyton was lying.
“All right. Can I get you ladies something to drink? Coffee? Water?”
They both shook their heads, half-clinging to each other as he led them into his office. “Okay, what can I do for you?”
Cindy cleared her throat. “We heard about Coach Wake’s arrest, and that Peyton Boulder said Coach seduced her.”
Chaz nodded, steepling his hands on his desk and waiting.
“What she said is true,” Rudy said, her voice quivering.
“How do you know?” Chaz asked.
They spoke at the same time, both looking straight at him with conviction. “Because he did the same thing to us.”
* * *
“I
KNOW
THAT
was difficult for you,” Tawny-Lynn told her sister after they’d eaten lunch.
Peyton shrugged. “It felt good to finally come clean.” She gave a sad smile. “I’m so sorry I left you to deal with the fallout after the bus crash.”
“I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t come to Dad or me,” Tawny-Lynn said.
Peyton shrugged. “Maybe one day we’ll stop saying I’m sorry.”
Tawny-Lynn lifted her glass of tea in a toast. “Let it be today. It’s time to move forward from the past.”
Peyton picked up her plate and carried it to the dishwasher. “Right. Now what can I do around here to help you get this place ready to sell?”
“The rain hasn’t set in yet, so let’s work outside,” Tawny-Lynn suggested.
“We should probably hire someone to paint the house,” Peyton said.
“Probably,” Tawny-Lynn agreed. “But I can’t afford that right now.”
“I’ll pay for it,” Peyton said. “I have some money saved.”
“All right. But you can take the expenses out of the ranch when we sell it.”
“Who knows,” Peyton said. “When you fix this place up, you might not want to leave.”
Tawny-Lynn’s heart squeezed. “I have to. I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” Peyton said. “Is there someone special waiting in Austin?”
“No,” Tawny-Lynn said. “Just my business.”
“Maybe Camden Crossing needs a good landscaper. I saw several new developments going up on my way into town.”
Tawny-Lynn shrugged. “It’s just too difficult to be here, Peyton.”
“Because of what happened, or because of Chaz?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you ask about him?”
“I saw the way you two looked at each other,” Peyton said. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Tawny-Lynn hadn’t been close to anyone in so long that it felt strange to have her sister back, watching her, reading her so well. “He doesn’t feel the same way,” she said instead of denying the truth.
“Are you sure about that?” Peyton asked. “Because it looked to me like he was crazy about you.”
“His family hates me,” she said. “Mr. Camden crucified me after the crash, accused me of intentionally holding back information about you and Ruth.”
“I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, he meant it all right. You know Chaz’s father is rich and owns the town. He turned others against me. I would never be good enough for his son.”
Peyton caught her arm. “If Chaz loves you, it doesn’t matter what his father thinks.”
“That’s just it,” she said, her voice cracking. “He doesn’t love me.” She headed to the kitchen sink. “Now, enough about the Camdens. I thought we’d plant some rosebushes today.”
Peyton teared up again. “Let’s plant yellow roses in the place where Ruth was buried.”
Tawny-Lynn stacked her own plate in the dishwasher. Yellow roses for friendship seemed appropriate.
Tawny-Lynn’s cell phone buzzed. She glanced at the caller ID and saw it was Chaz, so she snatched it up. “Hello.”
“I wanted to let you and Peyton know that Cindy Miller Parker and Rudy Farnsworth came in my office after the press conference.”
She frowned. “Really? Were they shocked about the coach?”
Chaz made a low sound of disgust. “No. In fact, they both made statements that Coach Wake pressured them into having sex when they were in school, too.”
Tawny-Lynn paused. No wonder they’d been standoffish when she’d approached them. “So they’ll testify and back up Peyton’s story?”
“Yes, so tell Peyton she’s not alone in this.”
Thank God.
“I have to go. I’m going to push Wake for a confession now, so we can speed this process along.”
Tawny-Lynn ended the call, then turned and told Peyton.
“I’m sorry he did the same thing to them,” Peyton said.
“Me, too,” Tawny-Lynn murmured. “But with their testimonies, the charges should stick.”
Peyton nodded, that haunted look back. “Let’s go plant those roses for Ruth.”
* * *
F
OR
HOURS
, C
HAZ
FENDED
off calls from local citizens asking about Coach Wake’s arrest. Parents were freaking out, wanting to know details—if he’d only targeted girls or if he’d sexually abused boys. When? How many?
The questions went on and on.
He finally let the machine pick up, deciding he’d listen to the messages. If anyone had pertinent information, he’d return the call.
A knock sounded on his office door, and his deputy poked his head in. “Sheriff, there’s a couple of people here who insist on seeing you.”
Chaz stood. “All right. Check the messages and let me know if we need to follow up on any of them.”
When he stepped into the front, two sets of parents were waiting, along with two teenage girls.
“I’m Sheriff Camden,” Chaz said. “What can I do for you?”
One of the fathers spoke up. “My name is Joe Lansing. We want to press charges against Coach Wake.”
Chaz glanced back and forth between them. “Go on.”
The mother of the first girl wrapped her arm around her daughter, a petite blonde they introduced as Joan. “After we saw the news, Joan came to me. She told me the coach forced her to have sex with him this past year.”
Chaz narrowed his eyes at the girl. “Is that true?”
Joan lowered her head and nodded. “I was afraid to tell anyone. He said he’d cut me from the team.”
“He said he loved me,” the other girl said. “That if I wanted to play first string, I’d show him I loved him, too.”
Chaz hesitated. He’d read about cases where teenagers made up stories to get attention. But the more he talked to the girls, the more he was convinced they were telling the truth.
“I’ll need your statements written down,” he said. “And will you testify in court?”
They both agreed, and so did the parents. Then he watched as the girls wrote out details that sickened him and made him want to go after Coach Wake all over again.
By the time they’d left, his deputy joined him with three more complaints from girls whose parents had called in. He phoned them all back and explained they would need to make formal statements.
Apparently, after word leaked about the coach’s arrest, the team had met and the parents had encouraged their daughters to break the code of silence, that confessing what the coach had done didn’t reflect badly upon them.
He admired them for their courage.
He strode back to the jail cell with the other two complaints in his hand.
Coach Wake stood, his anger palpable. “When is my arraignment? I want out of this hellhole.”
Chaz folded his arms. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Coach. I have two more written statements here from girls you’ve coached confirming that you forced them to have sex with you. And I’m getting calls about more.”
“They’re lying,” Coach Wake said, although fear laced his voice.
“Really? You mean Peyton Boulder came all the way back here after seven years of silence to lie. So did Cindy Miller and Rudy Farnsworth. And those girls on your current team are lying, too.”
“They wanted to have sex,” he shouted bitterly. “They asked for it!”
“My sister didn’t ask for it,” Chaz said between clenched teeth. “In fact, she was going to tell my parents.”
“She just wanted to play hard to get,” Coach Wake muttered.
Chaz fisted his hands. He wanted to wrap them around the sicko’s neck. “No, Ruth wasn’t like that. You used your power and influence to rope the girls into your bed. And Peyton had the courage to stand up to you. Others have found it, too.”
Chaz swallowed back bile. “In fact, Ruth stood up against you. That’s why you killed her.”
“I didn’t kill her.” Coach Wake’s voice cracked. “I admit I had sex with Peyton and the other girls, and I was mad and chased after the bus, but I didn’t mean to run into it. My car hit a wet patch and I skidded. It was an accident.”
“An accident, but you stood and watched the bus explode and didn’t even try to help those girls inside.”
“It happened too fast. There was nothing I could do.”
Chaz wasn’t buying it—Wake was a lowdown coward. “You were angry and afraid your dirty secret would come out, so you found Ruth and killed her, then buried her out at White Forks to make the police think Peyton’s father killed her.”
Coach Wake gripped the bars. “I didn’t kill Ruth. I saw Peyton pull Tawny-Lynn from the bus, then she went back, and I figured she’d get Ruth out. Then I heard a car coming.”
“So instead of going down to try and rescue the other girls, you ran off and left them there in that burning bus.”
Resignation and sorrow, the man’s first hint at true emotions, lined the coach’s face as he sank onto the cot again. “I panicked—I just panicked—and then I was scared to come forward. I didn’t want to go to jail.”
“So you let those girls die, then stood by while the town crucified Tawny-Lynn. Then you went back to your same old ways, sexually assaulting the students who trusted you.”
“You don’t understand, the girls, they’re so young and flirty—”
“They are minors, teenagers, students who trusted you, and you took advantage of them.”
Coach Wake scraped a hand over his chin. “So I had sex with some of them, but I didn’t kill Ruth,” Coach Wake said firmly. “I swear I didn’t.”
Chaz studied the man with a sick feeling in his belly. Wake had just admitted to sexual assault and causing the accident. So if he’d killed Ruth, why not confess to that, too?
Unless he hadn’t murdered her...
But if he hadn’t, who had?
Wake’s wife’s face flashed in his mind. She’d defended her husband. What if she’d known he was cheating with those younger girls?
She could have followed the bus or even been following her husband, then killed Ruth.
* * *
T
AWNY
-L
YNN
COLLAPSED
into bed exhausted from the day’s ordeal and the manual work she and Peyton had done outside. Not only had they planted flowers, but they’d cleaned out the barn, bought pine straw and spread wood chips around several trees in the yard nearest the house.
Knowing Coach Wake was in jail and Peyton was sleeping in the next room, she fell into a deep sleep. Surely the nightmares would leave her in peace now.
But some time later, a cold chill stirred her from sleep. The room was dark, the scent of a man’s cologne suffusing her. She gasped, the dark blank face that had haunted her for years was back.
She blinked, hoping she was dreaming, but when she opened her eyes, he was there. Coming toward her.
She tried to scream, but a hand clamped over her mouth, then she felt the cold barrel of a gun against her temple.