Chapter Twenty
Chaz stewed over his conversation with the coach long into the night when he should have been sleeping.
Wake would go down for multiple counts of manslaughter for the bus driver and three teens. Coupled with the sexual assault charges, he would spend years in prison.
So why not confess to Ruth’s murder?
His phone trilled, making the nerves in his neck tighten. Yesterday he’d thought he’d solved the cold case and maybe the town could heal. But now he wasn’t so sure.
Another peal of the phone and he saw the number for White Forks on the caller ID screen. He gripped the phone, knowing it could be Peyton or Tawny-Lynn. “Sheriff Camden.”
“Chaz, it’s Peyton. Someone took Tawny-Lynn.”
“What?” Cold sweat burst on his brow.
“I heard a scream and ran to her room, but she wasn’t inside,” Peyton cried. “Then I ran down the steps and saw someone in dark clothes dragging her outside.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see. I’m scared, Chaz.” A sob from Peyton echoed over the line. “You have to find her.”
His mind raced. Tawny-Lynn had been in danger since she’d pulled into town. After making the arrest, he assumed Coach Wake had been trying to scare her into leaving and keeping quiet.
But now?
“Chaz, I can’t lose her,” Peyton said. “Not when I just got her back.”
He couldn’t lose her, either. Not that she’d ever been his. But they had made love. And he’d thought she cared about him.
Then he’d blown it by hurling accusations at her.
“Tell me what else you saw. Was it a man or a woman?”
“I don’t know,” Peyton said. “It was so dark outside and whoever it was had on black clothes and a hood.”
“Did her abductor say anything?”
“No, but I thought I saw something shiny glint in the darkness. I...think it was a gun.”
His stomach knotted. “Lock the doors, Peyton. I’m going to send my deputy out there while I look for your sister.”
Peyton agreed in a shaky voice, and he ended the call, then phoned his deputy and explained. “I don’t want Peyton left alone for a minute. She may be in danger.”
“I’m on my way,” Deputy Lemone said.
Chaz hung up, grabbed his gun and holster and strapped it on. Several people in town, especially the parents of the girls in the crash, along with his own parents, had despised Tawny-Lynn for years. But after the arrest, there was no reason to go after her.
The only person he could think of with motive was the coach’s wife. She was pregnant and obviously distraught over the accusations against her husband. She wouldn’t want the father of her baby in prison when her child was born.
And maybe she thought that Tawny-Lynn had seen him—or her—at the crash site that day with Ruth.
He raced to his car and sped toward the Wake’s house, praying that she hadn’t hurt Tawny-Lynn.
* * *
T
AWNY
-L
YNN
STIRRED
from unconsciousness. As soon as her abductor had gotten her to the car, he’d knocked her over the back of her head with the butt of his gun.
She blinked through the darkness, trying to see him and figure out where they were.
“Good, you’re awake. Now it’s time to write your suicide note.”
Fear seized her at the sound of the voice. A very familiar voice.
She blinked again, struggling to sit up, then realized her legs and wrists were bound. He gripped her arm and hauled her to a sitting position.
Moonlight illuminated the dark face. The one that had been blank all these years.
Now it slid into focus.
Chaz’s father.
Suddenly the past rushed back to her. She had roused from unconsciousness that day. And she’d seen him dragging Ruth away. Ruth was crying and shouting for him to let her go, but then Mr. Camden had struck her. Ruth fell against a rock, then the world had gone dark for her again.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, her heart hammering. “Chaz arrested the coach. And I didn’t remember anything.”
“But you would have,” he growled. “It was only a matter of time. I saw the way you looked at me yesterday.” He shoved a notepad and pen into her hands. “You seduced my son, too. I can’t take the chance—”
“On Chaz learning that you killed Ruth,” Tawny-Lynn spat out. “You were at the crash site that day. You grabbed her and were arguing—”
Pain wrenched his face. “It was an accident,” he said, his voice warbling. “She told me about Coach Wake and wanted me to go public.”
“But you didn’t want her to, did you?” Tawny-Lynn started struggling with her hands, but he pressed the gun to her chest and she froze.
“Of course not,” he snapped. “Everyone would have talked about it, talked about her, thought she was a slut. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“You could have stood up for her and stopped the coach,” Tawny-Lynn said. “Instead you cared more about your pride and appearances, and your daughter died for it.”
He gripped her arms and shook her. “Shut up. I told you it was an accident.”
“Then why did you hide it? And how could you put her in the ground instead of giving her a proper burial?”
Tears streamed down his face. “I wanted to bury her right,” he said. “But my wife wouldn’t have understood. And Chaz... He would have hated me.”
“So you turned the town against me?”
“Because if your sister hadn’t started the affair with Coach Wake, he never would have come after Ruth.”
“You’re delusional,” Tawny-Lynn said. “Chaz called me last night and said two other girls from our class came forward and made the same accusations. Who knows how many more girls will speak up now?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Camden said. “My wife and Chaz can’t find out what happened that day, they can’t.” He tapped the notepad. “Now take that pen and write what I tell you to.”
“Please, you don’t have to do this,” Tawny-Lynn whispered.
He jammed the pen between her fingers.
“No one will ever believe I killed myself,” Tawny-Lynn said.
“Oh, yes, they will,” Camden said in a sinister voice. “You’re going to confess that you were jealous of Ruth and your sister, jealous of Ruth and the coach, and that you pushed Ruth down and made her fall.”
* * *
C
HAZ
WAS
SURPRISED
to see a light on in Mrs. Wake’s house. He glanced through the front living room window, searching for movement.
Footsteps sounded inside, and he held his gun at the ready in case Mrs. Wake was armed. How else would she have been able to force Tawny-Lynn from the ranch house?
He didn’t see anything through the front window so he moved to the side and peered in. The window gave him a view of the kitchen where he saw Mrs. Wake pacing with her hand over her belly. She doubled over and cried out, and Chaz froze.
Was she in labor?
He eased around the side of the house, looking in other windows, but it was dark and he couldn’t see anything. He craned his head to listen for sounds indicating Tawny-Lynn was inside, but nothing.
Finally he moved back to the kitchen window and saw Mrs. Wake collapse into a chair, one hand reaching for her phone. She knocked it off the table and leaned her head on her hands, heaving as she breathed through the contraction.
Dammit. Did she have Tawny-Lynn?
He circled back to the front door and pounded on it. Afraid the woman was in trouble, he jiggled the door but it was locked. “Mrs. Wake, it’s Sheriff Camden. Open up please.”
Seconds bled into minutes, then he heard her feet shuffling. When she opened the door, her face was contorted in pain, and she was clutching her belly.
“You’re in labor?”
“How did you know?” she asked through a deep breath.
“I didn’t. I’m looking for Tawny-Lynn Boulder.”
Her cheeks reddened with exertion as she gripped the door. “Why would I know where she is?”
“Because someone kidnapped her from her house tonight.”
Her eyes widened in shock, but another contraction seized her, and her legs buckled. He caught her before she hit the floor and put his arm around her waist.
“Come on, I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
“I need my husband,” she whispered.
That wasn’t going to happen. “Is Tawny-Lynn here?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Of course not.” She made panting sounds as he helped her to the car. She fell into the seat, her face ashen.
He had to get her to the E.R. But he had to search the house first just in case she was lying.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” she cried.
He didn’t answer. He ran back in the house, racing through each room and flipping on lights. He searched closets, the pantry, the attic, but the house was empty.
He noticed a suitcase on the floor and assumed it was Mrs. Wake’s so he grabbed it and jogged down the steps. She was clutching the seat, heaving through another contraction, when he jumped inside.
“I got your bag.”
“Get me to the hospital,” she said. “Or I’m going to deliver this baby in your car.”
He flipped on the siren and peeled from the drive. Thankfully traffic was nonexistent and the hospital was close by. Five minutes later, he roared into the emergency room driveway and threw the car into Park. He jumped out, yelling for help.
“This woman is about to deliver,” he said as two E.R. workers raced out to meet him.
“Please, Sheriff, my husband should be here.”
“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t make that happen right now, not with Tawny-Lynn missing and in danger. And his deputy was guarding Peyton. “Is there anyone else I can call?”
She shook her head. “My mother.” She recited the number, and he called as he jumped back in his car. Five rings later, a woman answered, her voice laced with sleep.
“This is Sheriff Camden. Your daughter asked me to call you. She’s in labor. I just dropped her at the hospital.”
“Oh, thank you, Sheriff. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
His phone was buzzing with another call as he pulled away. He checked the number and saw it was his mother. Why would she be calling him at 4:00 a.m.?
“Mom?”
“Chaz, I need you,” she said in a shaky voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your father...”
Had his father gone after the coach? “What happened?”
“He’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know, but you have to come over here. We need to talk.”
Fear rolled through Chaz. First Tawny-Lynn was kidnapped. Now his father was missing?
What the hell was going on?
He sped away from the hospital, siren blaring as he raced toward his parents’ house. Worry clawed at him as he tried to make sense out of the situation. If Wake hadn’t killed Ruth, then Tawny-Lynn had seen the killer that day after the crash, and the killer was afraid she’d still remember his or her face.
But why do something to his father?
He rounded the curve on two wheels, tires squealing as he swerved up the drive to his parents’ estate. Sweat beaded on his head as he threw the car into Park and ran inside.
His mother met him at the door, her complexion pasty, her eyes red-rimmed. She’d been crying. “Oh, Chaz, I’m so afraid.”
He hugged her and ushered her into the den to sit down. “What happened, Mom?”
She burst into tears. “I...don’t know. He was so upset last night when we got home, and he started drinking. Then he pulled out all the old pictures of Ruth, and then I saw him looking at pictures of the crash and all the articles that ran afterward. The pleas we made for information on Ruth and Peyton, the story about Tawny-Lynn and the story about the coach’s arrest.”
He handed her a handkerchief and waited while she dried her eyes.
“I tried to talk to him, but he was so upset. Shouting and saying crazy things about blame and guilt and Tawny-Lynn seeing something.”
A bad feeling gnawed at his gut. “Then what?”
“He grabbed his gun from his desk and said he had to finish things, to finally put everything to rest.”
“What did he mean by that?”
“I don’t know,” his mother said in a shaky voice. “He just said he had to do it for our family. Then he took the gun and left.”
“Was he going after Coach Wake?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Chaz inhaled sharply. “Mom, Coach Wake admitted that he had sex with the girls and caused the bus crash, but he denied killing Ruth. If you know something, anything...please tell me.”
Another storm of tears rained down her face, and she hugged her arms around her middle as if she might fall apart if she let go. “I don’t know...not anything really.”
Emotions threatened to overwhelm him. “But you suspect something?”
She nodded miserably. “That night...of the accident...” She heaved a sob. “That night I found Ruth’s softball bag...I saw him hiding it.”
“Dad had her bag?” The bag that was never recovered from the accident. They’d assumed it had burned in the fire.
“Yes. When I asked him, he went crazy and refused to talk about it. I...forgot about it for a while, but tonight when I saw him with the pictures, he had that bag again.”
Chaz’s blood ran cold. If his father had Ruth’s gym bag, that meant he had been at the crash site.
He could have seen Ruth, talked to her...and if she’d told him about the coach...
No...it was impossible.
His father had a temper, had been overprotective of Ruth, had worried about appearances...
Cop instincts kicked in, and his mind took another dangerous leap. His father had been the one to lead the animosity against Tawny-Lynn. He’d barged into her room at the hospital.
Dear God. Had his father killed Ruth?
* * *
“Y
OU
WON
’
T
GET
away with this,” Tawny-Lynn said as she finished the suicide note. “Chaz will figure out the truth.”
Mr. Camden laughed harshly. “No, he won’t. If he really does care about you, he’ll be devastated to learn that you’re the one who killed his sister, and that you used him all this time.”
“He’s smarter than you think,” she said. “He doesn’t let emotions interfere with his job.” Sadly, she knew that firsthand.