Page 26 of No Safe Place

“I’ve been trying to figure that out. The only connection I can come up with was the incident with Olivia and the article in the school paper.”

“What happened?” Colleen said.

“A year ago, there was a scandal,” Jodi said. “My husband Martin attended a fundraiser down in Greenwich for a charity that Frank runs. The country club where it was held historically didn’t allow in minorities, and Olivia had gotten hold of a picture of my husband giving a speech there and published it in the school paper. A bunch of the students wanted to get my husband fired then. But it didn’t happen. My husband made an apology and denounced the club and it blew over.”

“Why would a prominent businessman be concerned with a story written by a college kid in a school newspaper?” Colleen said.

Jodi shrugged. She pointed to her phone. At the SUV behind the van.

“All I know is that is Frank Stone’s car and those are his bodyguards putting Olivia into it the night she died.”

“This is unbelievable,” Colleen said. “This video is from your home security system?”

“No, it’s from an outside nanny cam that I set up on my own. No one else knows about this.”

“A nanny cam?” Colleen said.

“Yes. I thought my husband was cheating on me. I’ve been considering a divorce for a while so I wanted to gather evidence of his infidelity. I got this instead.”

“Is there any footage that shows Olivia entering the house?” Colleen said.

“No. She must have been brought in from the back or something. It shows Frank Stone arrive with his bodyguards and then just shows her coming out.”

Colleen shook her head, trying to process what she was looking at. It wasn’t working.

“This is beyond...” Colleen said.

“I know,” Jodi said. “From the moment I saw this after I heard about Olivia’s overdose, I’ve been tortured as to what to do. I mean obviously I would have immediately come forward but look at this. That’s the town police chief! You don’t understand how powerful Frank Stone is. If he had something to do with killing Olivia, then he can certainly kill me for blowing the whistle on him.

“But when I heard you were here in Beckford today, I couldn’t sit on this anymore. I’ve been praying on it and I knew you were the sign I was waiting for. I knew I had to come forward. Something needs to be done here. What really happened to Olivia?” Jodi said.

She was getting very emotional now, Colleen saw. She reached out and held Jodi’s hand.

“You’re doing the right thing, Jodi. I know how difficult this must be.”

“And my husband,” Jodi said as she started to cry. “He was in there the whole time. I mean, how can he be involved in this? A girl is dead. He’s been the only father my daughter knows. And when this comes out! My family, our whole life here, everything will be over.”

Colleen watched as Jodi took a deep breath.

“I can’t allow this to go on anymore. That’s why I’m here. I need your help, Colleen. They might be following me or you right now. If they know I’m talking to you... Please. Do you have a car?”

“They?” Colleen said.

“Director Travers from the video is the head of campus security. My husband has him and some of the other campus security creeps follow me sometimes. And as you just saw, Garner, the town’s chief of police, is in this as well. Please. It’s not safe here. For either of us. We need to get out of here.”

Colleen looked at her, at her frightened eyes. She looked down at the video in her hand. Then she turned and zipped up her rolling case.

“Okay, Jodi. My car’s in the parking lot. Let’s go.”

24

His thoughts whirling, mainlining panic, Martin Cushing hurried down the back stairs of the raucous whoop-there-it-is, rocking college-hoops stands. Across from where the stairs let out at the court level, there was a door beside the restrooms that he entered at a near run.

At the end of the main basement corridor was the janitors’ locker room and Cushing almost took its door off its hinges as he swung it open. Without turning on its lights, he locked the door of the deserted room behind him before he collapsed onto a bench.

He sat in the dark between the rows of lockers, breathing rapidly. The air of the room was scented with the astringent reek of chlorine from the nearby indoor pool and as he sat there, its sharp smell suddenly brought his thoughts clearly into focus.

Jodi knew about Olivia. He didn’t know how Jodi knew. But she knew.

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