Page 50 of In the Air Tonight

“We won’t breathe a word,” she says.

I know they won’t because they never have, and I’ve shared a lot with them.

I take a few bites of the delicious meal and wash them down with the beer. “Do you remember when Ryder Elliott was accused of rape?”

“Oh Lord,” Mom says. “I sure do. That was such an awful thing. I felt terrible for Mary and Dave. They were so upset.”

“What about it?” Dad eyes me as a fellow law enforcement officer who worked on the case when it first happened. It took a long time for he and I to get past what he felt to be a majorviolation of his trust, so bringing this up to him is the last thing I want to do. But I need his input.

“Someone came forward today claiming to have witnessed it.”

Their faces go flat with shock.

“What?” Mom says softly. “It’s beenyears.”

“Fourteen years.”

“And the person is just now coming forward?”

“Yes. She said she’d been sick over it since the day it happened, and after she heard he’s running for Congress, she couldn’t stay quiet another minute.”

“Do you believe her, son?” Dad asks.

I rub the back of my neck where all my tension lands. “Yeah, I do. She’d have nothing to gain other than clearing her conscience and a lot to lose, including her own brother, who’s still close to Ryder.”

“As are you,” Mom says.

“I wouldn’t call us close. We play cards once a month.”

“Still, he’s a friend.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“What’re you going to do?” Dad asks.

“I guess I’ll find Neisy and let her know a witness has come forward. It’ll be up to her to decide what she wants to do because I can’t do it without her, even with a witness.”

“There’s a sworn statement from her,” Dad reminds me.

“I’m not sure that’d be enough without her willing to testify in a reopened case.”

“So you’d let it go if she isn’t willing to cooperate?” Dad asks.

“What would you do?”

“That’s a tough one. On the one hand, you have new evidence in an old crime, but without the victim’s cooperation, I’m not sure how you’d be able to make a case other than to use the sworn statement we took from her at the time. But there’salso the matter of your witness taking fourteen years to come forward. That speaks to her credibility.”

“From her perspective, she had good reason to keep quiet with the way everyone rallied to his defense. Put yourself in her place as a seventeen-year-old going up against every kid she grew up with, not to mention that Ryder was her brother’s best friend. That’d be a lot for anyone, especially in a close-knit town like Hope.”

“I can’t help but think about the poor girl who was attacked,” Mom says. “Didn’t this witness have a scintilla of concern for her?”

“I think she had tremendous concern for her, but when weighed against her own well-being, she chose herself. That’s what kids do.”

“She hasn’t been a kid for a long time,” Mom says a little more sharply. “Why didn’t she do something about this before now?”

“Only she can know that, but people have their reasons, Mom. I get that, even if I don’t agree with it. She asked me what I would’ve done in her place, and I honestly can’t say I would’ve handled it differently.”

“You would have,” Dad says. “You’ve always done the right thing.”

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