Page 67 of This is Why We Lied

Will had dealt with this kind of evidence before. The lab would need days to process the notebook. To make matters worse, the flashlight had picked out a burned plastic and metal carcass beside the backpack.

Nadine saw it, too. “Looks like an older-model iPhone. That thing is toast. Shine the light under there.”

Will followed the spot she pointed to. He saw the remnants of a charred metal gas can. Dave had probably used it to fill the generator, then he’d used it to burn away the crime scene after murdering his wife.

Sara asked Delilah, “Do you know if Mercy said anything about leaving?”

“Bitty gave her until Sunday to get off the mountain. I don’t know where she would go, especially in the middle of the night. Mercy’s an experienced hiker. This time of year, we’ve got young male black bears looking to establish territory. You don’t want to accidentally cross one.”

Nadine said, “No offense, Dee, but Mercy wasn’t known for her logic. Half the time she landed herself in hot water, it was because she flew off the handle and did something stupid.”

Sara weighed in. “Mercy wasn’t angry after the fight with Jon. She was worried. According to Paul, she made the ten o’clock rounds and picked up Monica’s request from her front porch around ten-thirty. He didn’t mention that she was acting strange. Even without that, I don’t believe Mercy would head off in the night and leave Jon with things unsaid.”

“No,” Delilah said. “I don’t believe she would, either. But why come here? There’s no plumbing or electricity. She might as well stay at the house. God knows those people know how to glare at each other in angry silence.”

They all looked at the backpack as if it could offer up an explanation.

Nadine said the obvious. “This is a hotel, people. If Mercy was sick of her family, she’d stay in one of the guest cottages.”

Will offered, “Some of the beds were unmade when I searched the empty cottages. I figured they hadn’t been cleaned from the previous guests.”

“Penny’s the cleaner. She’s also the bartender. Might be worth asking her the question.” Nadine looked up at Will. “You were searching the cottages for Dave?”

“I could’ve told you that was a waste of time,” Delilah said. “Dave would be too afraid to stay in a cottage. My brother would tar his ass.”

Will didn’t point out that her brother couldn’t leave his own house without assistance. “If Dave wanted to get out of here fast without being seen, he wouldn’t go back to the main compound. He could follow the creek and eventually hit the McAlpine Trail, right?”

“Theoretically,” Delilah said. “Lost Widow Creek is too deep to cross at the lake. You have to get past the big waterfall, and then it’s still rough going. Might as well go another two hundred yards and cross on the stone footbridge at the mini waterfall. It’s more like a white water section than Niagara Falls. From there, you can make a straight line down through the woods and pick up the McAlpine Trail. You’d be down the mountain in three or four hours. Unless a bear stopped you first.”

“I dunno,” Nadine said. “I don’t see Dave going for a hike when the family truck’s right by the house. He’s been known to jack a vehicle or two when it suits him.”

Will had been so sure of who Dave was as a kid that he hadn’t thought to ask about his criminal record as an adult. “Has he ever been inside?”

“Early and often,” Nadine said. “Dave’s been in and out of county lock-up for DUIs, thieving, that kind of thing, but he’s never landed himself in Big Boy prison, as far as I know.”

Will could guess why Dave had never been sentenced to a state facility, but he tried to be careful. “The McAlpines are close to the sheriff’s family.”

“Bingo,” Nadine said. “If you wanna know what to worry about, Dave’s specialty is bar fights. He gets wasted, then he starts needling at people, only when they snap, he’s ready with a switchblade.”

“A switchblade?” Sara’s voice went up in alarm. “Has he stabbed someone before?”

“Stabbed a leg once, slashed a couple of arms. Opened up one guy’s chest to the bone,” Nadine said. “People round here don’t blink much over a bar fight. Dave took his licks. He gave some out. Nobody died. None of ’em pressed charges. That’s a Saturday night.”

Delilah said, “I thought Dave only picked on women.”

“You’re still seeing him as that stray pup looking for a home,” Nadine said. “Dave’s grown into his badness. All those demons he carried up from Atlanta have gotten older and meaner. Not sure how he’s gonna wriggle out of this one, if that’s any consolation. Murder is murder. That’s a life sentence. Should be the death penalty, but he plays the poor battered orphan card better than most.”

“I’ll believe it when he’s behind bars,” Delilah said. “He’s always been slippery as a snake. Ever since he slithered up the mountain. Cecil should’ve left him at that old campsite to rot.”

Will knew that everything they were saying about Dave was true, but he couldn’t help but feel defensive hearing them talk about abandoning a thirteen-year-old kid. He tried to catch Sara’s eye, but she was studying the backpack.

“My God, that’s where he’s hiding!” Delilah exclaimed. “Camp Awinita. Dave used to sleep there when things got bad at the house. I’m sure he’s there now.”

Will felt like an idiot for not thinking of the campsite sooner. “How long will it take to get there?”

“You look like a sturdy man. It’ll take you fifty minutes, maybe an hour. Go past the Shallows, then loop around to the back section of the middle part of the lake. The camp is a forty-five-degree angle from the diving platform, give or take.”

“We were in that area before dinner,” Will said. “We found a circle of rocks, like an old campfire.”

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