Page 56 of Keeping Secrets

“I didn’t know. When we got together, I mean.”

“Keely, you’re not in any trouble.” Detective Riegler’s voice was gentle. “We’re just trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Walsh. Can you tell me what he sold?”

“Everything. He could get his hands on anything. At first I thought he just sold weed, Ritalin, some party drugs. But then he…” The memory of her first hit bowled into her, more vivid than the reality of the room around her. “He sold harder stuff too.”

“I see. And was this all in Pelican Point?”

“No, though I’m sure he was doing a lot of the same while he was here,” she said. “I just moved here a few weeks ago. Adam lived in Miramar when I knew him.”

“Oops, that makes sense,” he replied, scribbling something out. “What brought you to Pelican Point, by the way?”

“My brother moved here after leaving the military, and I ended up falling in love with the town when I came to visit.”

The detective nodded. “It’s a beautiful place. When did you first come to visit?”

“Sometime in late autumn,” she said.

“Ah, the best time to come. Shortly after your brother moved here, I assume?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, let’s talk more about the drugs. Do you know of any connections he might’ve had, especially ones near here?”

She sucked in a deep breath, her hands beginning to tremble slightly as she sifted through the memories she’d been trying so hard to leave behind. “I don’t know who he got the drugs from. People would come and go, or he would go meet them, but I never kept track. I was… I wasn’t myself. And he stole. Adam did. Not because he needed to. Just because he wanted to.”

He had convinced her to steal too, to take money from her parents. It wasn’t, she had realized later, because they had actually needed the money. It had been a deliberate ploy, a way of driving a wedge between Keely and her family. A way of making her hate herself, to feel like she had no choice but to stay with him.

Thank God her family hadn’t given up on her, even then.

“And do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt him?”

Nick’s face came to her mind, the steel in his eyes when he saw what a mess she had become. She had feared more than once that he would go after Adam himself. She remembered the conversation that she’d had with her brother just after Adam’s death made the local news.

“I’m only going to ask you once,” she had said, “and I’ll never ask again. Did you have anything to do with his death?”

He had said no. And she had let the matter drop. But deep down, she had known that there was something he hadn’t told her. Nick and Adam being in the same little town at the same time, just after Keely made it through rehab, had always felt like too much of a coincidence to her.

Still, she believed her brother. He hadn’t killed anyone. Military bearing aside, the man was a softy. He was a pilot, not a killer.

Detective Riegler was still waiting for an answer.

“Lots of people, probably. He wasn’t a good man, Detective. I know I probably shouldn’t say that, but he caused a lot of pain.”

“Good or bad, it’s my job to find out what happened to him. If I can. Can you think of anyone in particular who had a grudge to settle with Adam Walsh?”

“No one in particular, no.”

Detective Riegler clicked his pen shut and sat back in his chair. “If I show you some photos, would you tell me which of the people – if any – you saw Adam in contact with?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

She sipped her chamomile tea as they went through a stack of photos. Some faces were familiar and others not. She told the detective what she could, and then they were done.

“Thank you for coming in today,” he said. “I appreciate your time.”

She nodded, feeling worn out. “Sure.”

“I have work to do, but you’re welcome to stay right here and finish your tea.”

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