Spilled Blood (18 page)

‘You don’t believe him.’

‘I don’t know, but it sounds like Ashlynn broke his heart. I think people, even good people, can do things they regret in the heat of the moment.’ He added, ‘You had a motive, too, Olivia. You should have told me about it. The police will think you hated Ashlynn because she took away your boyfriend, and that’s why you shot her.’

Olivia sighed. ‘She did steal Johan from me. I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t angry.’

He didn’t like to hear her confessing emotions that made her look guilty, but he also knew that she was finally being honest with him. He needed more details. He needed the whole story. ‘Do you feel strong enough to talk?’ he asked.

‘Yeah. I’m okay.’

‘Tell me the truth,’ he said.

‘What really happened between you and Ashlynn that night?’

Olivia lay back in bed. She didn’t flinch. Her eyes drifted to the ceiling, and he could see her mind retreating. Remembering. She was standing in the mud of the park, alone in the ghost town with Ashlynn. Her anger was raging. The gun was in her hand.

One.

Two.

Three.

The count went on in Olivia’s head – four, five, six, seven – but she couldn’t pull the trigger. It was like jumping from a bridge, where there was no going back once your feet left the ground. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go that far. She cursed under her breath and took a step backward. The gun felt like a foreign thing, ugly, heavy, and unwanted. She spread her fingers and let it drop to the wet ground.

Ashlynn opened her eyes. Fear became confusion, then relief. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured.

Olivia didn’t want to look at Ashlynn. Seeing her perfect face brought back all of the envy, all of the loss. It was no mystery why Johan had chosen her. Who wouldn’t? The blond cheerleader over the nerdy brunette. The full, ripe breasts over the little-boy chest. The curves instead of skin and bones.

‘You were with him tonight, weren’t you?’ Olivia asked. ‘Don’t lie to me.’

‘No, I wasn’t. Honestly.’

Olivia didn’t know whether to believe her, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t change anything.

‘I know you think I took him away from you,’ Ashlynn went on, ‘but I didn’t. Really. I would never have let anything happen between us while the two of you were involved.’

‘You think that helps?’

‘I guess not.’

‘I hate you both,’ Olivia snapped.

‘I’m sorry you feel that way, Olivia. I know I can’t change it, but I’m sorry.’

‘I don’t want your sympathy. I lost Kimberly, and I lost Johan. You don’t know what it feels like.’

‘I’ve lost something even worse.’

‘Like what?’

‘It doesn’t matter. It’s my problem, not yours.’

‘I’m leaving,’ Olivia said.

‘Please, wait. At least give me a ride home, okay? We don’t have to talk. Just drop me off.’

It was the right thing to do. Olivia knew that. She thought about saying yes, but some favors went too far. Taking Ashlynn in her car. Chauffeuring her to the house where her father lived. Pretending that her own hurt meant nothing. ‘No,’ she said.

Ashlynn’s voice cracked with despair. ‘Olivia, please, I need help tonight. It’s hard to explain, but I really need your help.’

‘I can’t do it,’ she said.

She turned on her heel and walked away, then stopped in frustration. She knew she was being mean to leave her alone. ‘I’ll tell Johan you’re here. He’ll come get you.’

‘No! Don’t do that!’

‘Why not?’

‘I can’t see him.’ Ashlynn took a step toward Olivia, then grimaced and sat down on the swing. ‘I broke up with Johan a month ago. I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.’

‘I don’t believe you. He never said a word.’

‘It’s true.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘It’s complicated,’ she said. ‘Please.’

Olivia wanted to believe her, but it was too easy to read the truth in her face. Ashlynn couldn’t hide how she felt.

‘You’re a liar,’ she said. ‘You still love him.’

Olivia stalked away without looking back. When she reached the street,
she ran for her car, which was parked in a corn field south of town. She left the gun where it was. She left Ashlynn alone.

‘We all make choices we’d like to take back, Olivia,’ Chris murmured.

‘I know. I was drunk, I was mad at her, I was mad at myself. If I’d just driven her home, she’d be alive.’

He had nothing to say, because he couldn’t make this better for her. When she was younger, he’d been able to fix the things that were broken in her life. Not now. Not anymore.

‘What happened next?’ he asked.

‘I went home.’

‘Did you go see Johan?’

Olivia shook her head. Her hair fell across her face. ‘Not right away. I went to bed, but I was too upset to sleep. I thought about driving back there to get her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.’

Chris waited.

‘Tanya called me,’ she went on. ‘She was all freaked out, shouting at me, wanting to know what happened. I told her that Ashlynn was fine. She went on and on, shouldn’t we tell someone, shouldn’t we go back and help her. So I got dressed and went to the church, and I told Johan what happened.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He was angry with me for leaving her there.’

‘Did you ask him about the break-up?’

‘Sure.’

‘Did he say it was true? Did he say Ashlynn ended their relationship?’

‘Yeah, but I could see it in his face, just like hers. They still loved each other.’

‘Why did Ashlynn break it off?’

‘He didn’t know. He looked crushed.’

‘Do you think he could have killed her?’

‘He loved her,’ she said with teary eyes. ‘More than he ever loved me. I can’t imagine him killing her. It makes no sense.’

‘What if she did something he could never forgive?’ Chris asked.

‘Like what? I don’t get it.’

Chris watched her face, but she was genuinely at a loss. She didn’t know. ‘Ashlynn was coming home from having an abortion,’ he told her. ‘I think the baby was Johan’s.’

Olivia turned ghostly pale. Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes grew huge. ‘I can’t believe Ashlynn would do that. She was super-religious.’

‘She came to Hannah,’ Chris said.

‘She didn’t want her parents to know. She didn’t want Johan to know, either.’

‘Oh my God, I left her there. I just left her there. What did I do, Dad?’

‘You had no way of knowing.’

‘She needed help, and I walked away.’

‘
Olivia.
’ Chris grabbed her hand and cupped her chin with his other palm. ‘Listen to me. This is not your fault. You didn’t do this.’

He wished he could lift the guilt from her shoulders, wished he could change the past. Some mistakes couldn’t be corrected; they could only be endured.

‘I need to know something,’ he went on. ‘Did Johan give you any indication at all that he knew Ashlynn was pregnant?’

She shook her head mutely.

‘What would he have done if she told him, Olivia? What if he knew she’d ended it? Could he have been desperate enough to kill her?’

Olivia closed her eyes, as if she couldn’t bear to answer, but she nodded her agreement. ‘It would have destroyed him,’ she whispered.

Chris bought a sandwich and strolled onto the footbridge across the Spirit River that connected downtown Barron with the park on the opposite shore. He stopped in the middle of the bridge and watched the brown water pushing south from the dam. He loosened the knot of his tie and undid the top button of his shirt. After two bites of a turkey sandwich, he decided that he wasn’t hungry and rewrapped his lunch for later.

He heard footsteps on the bridge. A teenage boy shuffled from the town park, with his head down and his hands in the pockets of beige corduroys. The boy was small, no more than five feet seven, and wiry. He wore an oversized Lil Wayne T-shirt that was badly tucked in at his waist. His brown hair was unruly and hung below his ears. His face was long, dotted with pimples, with a pointy chin. On his right cheek, Chris saw two bandages taped together to cover all but the top and bottom edges of a long cut that was still red and fresh.

The boy didn’t notice Chris until they were practically on top of each other, and when he finally looked up, his eyes widened and he froze, like an animal sensing danger. Before Chris could say a word, the boy turned and fled, sprinting toward the opposite side of the river.

‘Hey!’ Chris shouted.

He charged in pursuit. His dress shoes slowed him down, and the kid was young and fast. The distance between them widened, but the teenager slipped as his sneakers hit a slick patch of grass. He flew into a somersault, feet over head, and landed on his back, splashed in mud. As the kid scrambled to get up, Chris stopped
him with a foot on his chest. He collared him and marched him to a weathered picnic bench.

‘What the hell do you want?’ the boy complained. ‘I didn’t do anything. Let me go.’

‘Why did you run?’

‘Because I know who you are, man.’

‘So?’

‘So I’ve got nothing to say to you.’

Chris sat down next to the teenager on the bench. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Lenny.’

‘Lenny who?’

‘Lenny Watson.’

Chris made the connection. ‘Kirk is your brother.’

‘Yeah, and if you lay a hand on me, he’ll beat the shit out of you, man.’

‘I’m not going to hurt you, Lenny.’

‘Damn right you’re not.’ The kid got up from the bench, but Chris yanked him down by his shoulder.

‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘Let’s talk.’

‘About what?’

‘First of all, about that cut on your face. Where did you get it?’

‘Broken glass.’

‘Yeah? How’d that happen?’

‘I tripped,’ Lenny said.

‘You’re lucky you didn’t lose an eye.’

‘Whatever. It hurts like hell.’

Chris leaned forward and whispered. ‘You know what hurts worse than a scratch like that, Lenny? Being kidnapped and assaulted by a bunch of thugs. That hurts. That’s something you carry with you your whole life.’ He didn’t add:
If I find out you were one of them, I will kill you. First your brother, then you.

Lenny paled. His face constricted. ‘Look, man, I know about Olivia.
That was real awful what happened to her. I – I like her.’

‘If you like her, you’ll help me catch the boys who did this,’ Chris told him.

Lenny twitched. ‘I don’t know nothing, man.’

‘What about your brother? Were you with him last night?’

‘Uh, yeah.’

‘Where?’

‘Home, man.’

‘Where’s home?’

‘Kirk and me got a house right on the river off 120th.’

‘Who else was with you?’

‘I don’t know. Kirk had some girls over. He usually does.’

Chris nodded. ‘The two of you live there by yourselves?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So you weren’t in that train yard last night?’

‘No, man, no!’

He listened to the pitch of the teenager’s voice and tried to remember the call from Olivia’s cell phone the previous night. The voices were similar. That was all he could say.

‘Someone called me last night,’ Chris said, ‘and told me where to find Olivia. Whoever did that probably saved her life. That’s what a real man does. It’s not someone who beats the hell out of defenseless girls.’

‘I told you, I hope she’s okay.’

‘How well do you know her?’ Chris asked.

‘I see her around, that’s all.’

‘Everybody around here thinks she killed Ashlynn,’ Chris said, ‘but I don’t think she did.’

Lenny shrugged. ‘Yeah, well, I hope you’re right.’

‘Do you have any idea who
did
kill Ashlynn?’

‘Beats me.’

‘Someone told me your brother was dating Ashlynn, and she dumped him. Is that true?’

‘What about it?’

‘He must have been angry.’

‘Yeah, so what? If you think he killed her, you’re wrong. He wouldn’t touch her. Kirk would never do anything to Florian’s daughter.’

‘Florian?’ Chris asked. ‘What does Kirk have to do with Florian?’

Lenny looked as if he wanted to bite his tongue off. ‘Kirk works for him sometimes.’

‘What kind of work?’

‘Security. Shit like that.’

‘What exactly does Kirk do? Kick the crap out of environmental protesters who get too close to the facility?’

Lenny fidgeted. He knew he’d said too much. ‘I don’t know what he does, man.’

Chris drew a dotted line in his head between Florian Steele and Kirk Watson, and he didn’t like it. It made him wonder if Florian was more closely involved in the feud than he let on. It also made him wonder if Florian had some special interest in hiding the truth about what had happened to his daughter.

‘Did Kirk mention anybody who was causing trouble for Florian? Anyone threatening him or his family?’

Lenny shook his head. ‘No.’

‘What about this guy Aquarius? Any idea who he is?’

‘I don’t have a clue.’ The boy added, ‘Man, I really have to get out of here. If anyone sees me talking to you, it’s not good, okay?’

Chris nodded. ‘Okay, Lenny.’

Lenny got up, and Chris didn’t stop him. The teenager cast a suspicious eye around the park to make sure they were alone. He tugged at his wet clothes. He headed for the Barron bridge, but Chris called after him.

‘Hey, do me a favor, Lenny.’

The boy stopped and looked back nervously. ‘What?’

‘You say you like Olivia. If you hear about any trouble involving her, you do the right thing, okay?’

Lenny didn’t respond, but he stared at his feet and gave the barest nod. Chris let him shuffle away. Somewhere inside Lenny was a decent kid, but he would always be doing the wrong thing to impress the wrong person. It was the way of the world. Chris thought about Olivia and realized that even sweet kids with parents who love them can make terrible mistakes.

Chris had made his own share of mistakes in life. Deep down, in the privacy of his conscience, he was thinking about making another one. He was conscious of the heaviness of Marco Piva’s gun in the small of his back, where he had it tucked inside his belt.