Page 30 of Critical Doubt

"No. This is Ryker Stone. He served with Paul and Todd. My cousin, Josie Burkett and her boyfriend Dale Howard," Savannah said, clearly struggling to be polite.

"Hello," he said shortly, not really wanting to get into the middle of whatever this was.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Stone," Josie said, her gaze assessing and curious. "I'm sorry about your friends. Dale and I have been out here all morning, looking for Todd. We still can't believe what's happened. We were late getting to the funeral. When we arrived, everyone was down by the river. It was shocking."

He nodded, not really caring what she had to say. He just wanted them to move along so Savannah could stop looking like she wanted to hit someone hard, and he suspected that someone was Josie. She had a similar look to Savannah with her blonde hair, but her eyes were a boring brown, and her features weren't nearly as pretty.

"Well, we're heading back now," Josie said, when the silence between the four of them went on too long. "You can keep going, but the river becomes inaccessible in a half mile."

"We'll just walk a little farther," Savannah said.

"Whatever." Josie paused. "Dad said if I saw you to tell you to come by and get some ribs. He has a barbecue truck now in Ridgeview. He parks it by the square. For whatever reason, he seems to actually miss you. He's been having a hard time the last few months, so you should stop by."

"Why is he having a difficult time?"

"Because he quit the law to barbecue, and Mom is less than thrilled. She went to visit her friend, Constance, in Atlanta, and I don't think she's coming back any time soon, or ever. Things aren't good between Mom and Dad. They might even get a divorce."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I can't believe your father actually got a food truck. It was always his dream. He finally did it."

"He doesn't make much money, but he likes it. Of course, he had to change jobs before my wedding. You did hear Dale and I are getting married, didn't you? You talk to Abby, right? We're friends now."

"She told me. Congratulations." Savannah turned to Dale. "How have you been, Dale? Are you still working at the bar?"

"Always," Dale said. "My dad retired last year. It's my second home, but I enjoy it. Everyone in town comes through there at least once a week."

“Did Todd come into the bar?" Ryker asked.

"All the time and usually with Paul, who was drinking way too much."

"What about Todd's drinking?" he asked.

"Sometimes he'd get a buzz on when he was with Paul, but I never noticed him out of control. He was in bad shape on Saturday night, though. He was reeling from Paul's death, and he'd just come back from seeing Abby and Tyler. He had more than a few drinks that night."

"Was Todd with anyone else that night?"

"No. A few people tried to talk to him, express their condolences, but he was on the phone a lot, texting every other second to someone. He seemed to want to be alone with his drinks and his phone."

"We should go," Josie interrupted, clearly not interested in continuing a conversation that didn't involve her.

"Nice to meet you," Dale said, giving him a nod.

"You, too."

As Josie and Dale moved away, Ryker gave Savannah a thoughtful look. "You and your cousin don't get along."

"Nothing gets by you."

"Why doesn't she like you?"

"Because she's a bitch."

He smiled. "I can't argue with that, since I don't know her, but what's between you?"

"A lot of things. When I first moved in with my aunt and uncle, Josie was thrilled. She was two years younger than me, and she was excited to have someone who could be an older sister to her. But she quickly realized that with me around, she was going to have to share. Things got worse when her mom decided that I should join them on the beauty pageant circuit. That was their thing. They'd been entering pageants since Josie was five. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but if I wanted to fit in with my new family, I had to do it. It worked for a while. We did become closer. We had a lot of car trips together, but then I started winning, and Josie didn't like that. Suddenly, her mother was completely fixated on me. My aunt saw my successes as her successes. When Josie came up short, she lost her mom's attention."

"That must have been rough on Josie."

"I have some sympathy, but she was so hateful to me that it was difficult to feel that sorry for her. She even tried to sabotage me a few times. Anyway, after I won Miss Georgia, and came in third in Miss USA, I quit and went to college, where I joined ROTC."

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