Page 18 of Tears on Her Grave

“Are you batshit crazy?”Josie was pacing up and down, her feet audible on the polished wooden floors of her home.“Can you imagine what Bob would say if he knew I was involved in two murders? Unlike you, I have a family to consider. Abby andCole are dead and there’s nothing we can do about it. There’s no use wasting the rest of our lives on a stupid mistake. It wasn’t our fault. Cole attacked Abby with an ax. That’s the truth. He got what he deserved, and we owe it to our friend to keep his secret.”

With trembling fingers, Marissa lifted the remote to turn off the TV. “Okay, I understand what you’re saying.” She drew in long deep breaths and blew them out slowly to try and calm her nerves. The report on the TV had brought every second back to her in a rush of blood and horror. Now she had to carry the burden of knowing that she buried her best friends alive. “I don’t believe we should stop calling each other or going out for coffee. I figure staying away from each other would attract more attention. I’m sure if the sheriff is suspicious, she’ll be looking for any change in behavior.”

“Yeah, sure, I can do lunch tomorrow at Aunt Betty’s Café. I’ll be there at one.”Josie tapped her nails on the phone.“Don’t forget to smile and act normal when you arrive. There are CCTV cameras everywhere. If anyone is watching us, we’ll need to appear like we have nothing to hide. The news report was as disturbing to us as everyone else, but as we were not involved, it doesn’t concern us. Our only interest is in the fact that they were friends a long time ago at college.”

Marissa nodded even though her friend couldn’t see her. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow at one.” She disconnected and dropped her phone onto the plush velvet sofa.

Her home had taken so long to perfect. She walked around the room, fingering the furnishings, saved for and purchased with the hope that someone would share them with her one day. Did she deserve to be living with hope of a better future when Cole and Abby had been cut down so young? Had the story told on the mountain that night been the truth? The series of events had happened so fast. She hadn’t had time to think it through. Infact, she’d just gone along like a sheep and followed the others. The faces of her dead friends haunted her and now would fill her nightmares knowing they hadn’t been dead after all. Cold shivers slid up her spine. What if they’d regained consciousness in the grave? The thought was too horrific to consider. It was her worst nightmare and she could almost feel damp soil pressing against her face.

Mind spinning, she’d need to face her problems alone. Speaking to the others about her misgivings would send shockwaves of mistrust through the group. There must be an option, a way out of this mess. Keeping silent could mean years in prison, but could she tell on her friends? It would be the greatest form of betrayal, but how could she cope being restricted to a small area and never being able to see the mountains again? She would die in prison. Knees trembling, she headed for the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of red wine from the cabinet. She drank long and hard from the bottle and swiped her hand over her mouth, breathing hard. Deep down inside, the awful truth was eating at her conscience.She doubted she would ever sleep again.

NINETEEN

The foul weather was making Clint Wasser’s life a misery. Being in the automotive industry and responsible for making sure replacement parts were available on demand was getting more difficult by the hour. When the call came from Dustin Crawley, he leaned back in his seat and watched the rain pour down his windshield. “Heck, Dustin, I really don’t need to deal with this right now. Maybe you need to drop by and see Lily and settle her down?”

“Lily’s not the problem. It’s Marissa. From what Lily said to me during our conversation, the woman is freaking out over the news conference.”Dustin was speaking from inside his truck. Wasser could hear the engine roaring in the background.“Josie called Lily and she called me. I needed to pass on to you what’s going on and you can tell Wyatt. That was the deal, wasn’t it?”

How Wyatt Twotrees had become the leader of their group he had no idea. They were equal partners in the dealership, selling popular new cars and servicing them as well. Wasser heaved a sigh. “Okay, what’s the emergency this time? What did Lily tell you, and don’t leave anything out or embellish any of theinformation because when we’re passing things back and forth important information gets lost.”

He listened with interest to what Josie had told Lily about her conversation with Marissa. It was obvious that the news about Cole and Abby had hit Marissa hard. She’d always been a mousy little girl from grade school. He’d often wondered how she’d become friends with the other girls because she just didn’t fit into the group. Having her around all the time made it difficult for the guys if they wanted to pursue a romance with any of the others because she was always hanging around. In the end it had only been Cole and Abby who had gotten together. The others just hung out. It had been fortunate that the incident with Cole and Abby had happened over Halloween as they’d graduated the following December and gone their separate ways—until now.

Rain hammered down on the roof of his truck, sounding like buckshot. Alongside the curb, water rose up halfway to his hubcaps. The vehicle parked ahead of him had clumps of debris piled up to its grill. It seemed that not only bodies were being washed down from the mountainside. It would be like a quagmire up there with no pine needles covering the forest floor. Rain and flooding left all the trails covered in slimy mud and it sometimes took a complete year before the vegetation repaired the damage. “You know we wouldn’t be the only people who buried bodies up in the mountains. I figure it goes on all the time with the number of serial killers that end up in town. I’m surprised the river isn’t filled with zombies floating by. It won’t be too long before people will be getting used to seeing them.”

“This is the point. Most bodies decay.”Crawley didn’t sound amused.“They should have been bones by now and not almost perfectly preserved with all the evidence intact. This is the problem. We can all keep our mouths shut and hope it goes away. I can’t imagine that there’s any evidence on the bodiesthat would point to us at all. It was cold that night and everyone was wearing gloves. We know the bodies have been in the river for heck knows how long, so I figure if we happen to have dropped a few hairs here and there, the chances of them being on the bodies would be remote. Personally, I don’t believe we have a thing to worry about provided we stick to the same story. We were never at the Whispering Caves that night. I figure if we insist this is the case, they’ll leave us alone. With the number of serial killings going on over the last few years, surely the sheriff has more on her plate than worrying about a twelve-year-old accident. We all know it was self-defense, but now with a few more years under my belt, I figure I would have called the cops and explained what had happened but that’s too late now. We’ll just hope that no one cracks.”

Wasser rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. “Do you figure us guys are solid?” He listened intently as Crawley sucked in a breath. “Women are so emotional when it comes to things like this. On second thought, we should have handled it ourselves and not risked bringing them into it at the time, but I figure they would have got suspicious of us rushing around to move camp and all and then making like we just arrived.”

“Yeah, I don’t figure we have any problems with the guys and I don’t think Josie would risk getting the cops involved when she’s happily married. That’s not the sort of thing you’d want to divulge to your husband, is it? Especially now that we are technically all murderers. I hope you caught the part of the media conference where they said they were buried alive. This makes us all equally responsible for their deaths.”

Staring at the roof of his truck, Wasser grimaced. “Yeah, I heard that, but we still need to keep the women on track. I’ll pass the information on to Twotrees and he’ll contact Jess.”

“Lily mentioned that Josie and Marissa are having lunch at Aunt Betty’s Café tomorrow at one. I’m wondering if one of usshould drop by, make it look like a casual meeting, maybe have a cup of coffee with them. We need to make sure that they are still on the same page.”Crawley turned off his engine, and rain could be heard pounding the roof of his truck.“It would have to be you or Twotrees, as Clint and me rarely drop by Aunt Betty’s Café for a cup of coffee.”

Starting his engine, Wasser stared at his reflection in the rearview mirror. “I can’t go. I’ll be in a meeting at one, but I’ll relay the information to Wyatt. When we work something out, I’ll give you a call and you can pass it on.” He disconnected and headed his truck along Main. “One thing’s for darn sure, they always say that bad deeds come back to kick you in the ass. Seems like that’s true.”

TWENTY

After the media conference Jenna gathered her deputies in her office. With the hotline buzzing for most of the day, Rowley and Rio had been rushed off their feet collecting information from the callers. Piper and Cade had made great notes and sorted out the best potential witnesses for that weekend twelve years previous. Her deputies’ jobs had been to call back the most interesting leads and try to form a timeline of what happened that night. In the meantime, Jenna had enrolled the assistance of Kalo to complete background checks on their list of possible suspects.

Although experienced with media conferences, the constant bombardment of questions had left Jenna exhausted. It would have been fine if she had the answers, but this early into an investigation of a cold case her reply of “no comment at this time” didn’t appease the press. She’d literally turned the entire thing over to Wolfe and Norrell, and both had given clear and precise information. It had been just enough to hopefully bring the killer out of the woodwork. The media conference had at least jogged a few people’s memories and information was flowing into the office at a rapid rate. She looked at her deputies. “Just out of interest, have any of the potential suspects called thehotline to tell us about being with Abby and Cole the night they went missing?”

“Not as far as we are aware.” Rio leaned back in his chair and stared at his tablet. “I specifically asked Cade and Piper to keep an eye out for any information from the people on our list.” He sighed. “I guess it’s early days yet, but this is a hot topic in town and I’m starting to find it very suspicious that none of the people who were actually with the victims bothered to call the office.”

“Unless the women that we interviewed have already contacted them.” Kane rested one boot on his opposite knee and stared at Jenna. “If this is the case, maybe they figure they have an excuse for not calling the hotline or dropping by the office. They know we’re aware they were with them that evening. Maybe they’ve discussed it and believed that’s enough. Or that we’ll get in contact with them if we figure it’s necessary.”

Jenna sipped a cup of decaffeinated coffee, wishing it were their normal rich aromatic brew. She sure missed her coffee. “Has Kalo called in with any background information on our potential suspects?”

“Yeah, and they’re all clean.” Rowley ran a hand through his dark curls, making them stick up in all directions. “Twotrees and Wasser are partners in the automotive dealership in town. They started that business straight out of college. Dustin Crawley and Jess Hallon have worked on their family’s cattle ranches since leaving college. Crawley is quite the rodeo star and follows the circuit, so he’s not around as much as the others.” He glanced down at his notes on his tablet and then lifted his gaze back to Jenna. “I figure you know about the women, but Kalo ran them through the system anyway. Lily has worked at the beauty parlor since leaving college. She is now part owner. Josie is married to a guy by the name of Bob Campbell, and Marissa is a tax accountant who works from home. They’re all squeaky clean, apart from Crawley, who has a few minor misdemeanors againsthim for roughhousing in the bars all along the rodeo circuit. Mainly a few fines for busting up the place along with a few of his friends. He seems to settle down once he returns home, and Kalo couldn’t find anything, not even a speeding ticket, in Black Rock Falls.”

Chewing on her bottom lip, Jenna stared at the ceiling for a few moments. “This gives us nothing to use as leverage. If they’d had a few misdemeanors along the way, we’d have a reason to pull them in for questioning. Being on the mountain that night along with another twenty or so students isn’t good enough as many of those students were also friends with Abby and Cole. It’s inconceivable to believe that they had only these few friends in college. Most of them would have taken different classes and would have had a wide variety of acquaintances. We can go and talk to them, but in all honesty, they really don’t have to speak to us at all because we have absolutely nothing on any of them.”

“All I can suggest is we keep going through the hotline information as it comes in.” Kane leaned forward in his chair and took his cup of coffee from the desk. “There’s a chance that somebody saw something or remembered something unusual happening that night. You would be surprised that sometimes it’s the smallest things that end up leading to the conviction of a killer.”

“I’m still not convinced any of the kids who were on the mountain that night were necessarily responsible.” Rio drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “As far as we are aware, no other murders happened around that time, which wouldn’t indicate a serial killer. Abby’s and Cole’s murders could have been a random thrill kill or a jealous lover attack. I figure we need to delve deeper into the relationships in this group. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find out who was in the same classes at college. We could interview those people and find out if there had been any problems between the friends in that small group.”

“The brutal attack when Cole’s back was turned could indicate the killer was making a point, as in ‘this guy stabbed me in the back, so I’m giving him the same treatment.’” Kane sipped his coffee and eyed Jenna across the rim of the cup. “It could have been a spur-of-the-moment act fueled by rage at seeing Cole with Abby. We have no idea if they were making out in the caves before they died. If Abby had been involved with one of the others in the group or had rejected one of her classmates, it might be a motive for a single kill. Jealousy is a very strong motive for killing. We know that Cole was murdered first and attacked from behind. I’d like to know where Abby was at this time. Did she witness the murder? If she did, wouldn’t her first reaction be to scream at the killer for killing the person she loved?”

Nodding, Jenna pictured the scene in her head. “Maybe she tried to push the killer away and that’s how she grabbed his pin.”

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