Page 79 of Little Shattered Dreams

“I’d say so. She was arrested for manslaughter. People in town were divided about their feelings, but a lot of them believed she deserved to be behind bars.”

“Did she serve time?” I asked.

“Because of the nature of the accident, and the fact she couldn’t drive with all the contents from her bag rolling around, the court was lenient. Quinn was sentenced to probation, her license was suspended for a while, she was given a steep fine, and she served around a thousand hours of community service.”

“And how did the boys’ parents react to the verdict?”

“Here’s where it gets even worse. Not long after his death, the boy’s mother shot herself in the head.”

Shot herself in the head, just like Quinn had been shot in the head.

Revenge seemed to have been exacted, but by whom?

“What about the father?” I asked.

“He’s still alive, living in the same house in Cambria too. When you didn’t call me back, I gave his information to Simone. She was supposed to call him.”

“Did the boy have any siblings?”

“I don’t believe so, but I’ll find out.”

It was a lot to take in.

I did a quick recap of the events as we knew them.

While visiting her mother in Cambria, Quinn hit a boy, putting him into a coma, which led to his death. Traumatized over the accident, she closed the flower shop. Then she was arrested for manslaughter. At trial, the court decides the boy’s death was a horrific accident. In lieu of prison time, they slapped her on the wrist with fines and community service and sent her on her way.

I could understand how it didn’t sit well with some town residents.

“What happened after the trial was over?” I asked.

“Quinn started receiving hate mail. She even received a few death threats from people who didn’t feel the punishment matched the crime.”

“What happened to that kid was awful. But it could happen to any of us, at any time.”

“I know, but they were grieving. They needed someone to blame.”

“What did she do after serving her community service?”

“She moved. I’m guessing she wanted to start over in a town where people didn’t know her. Within three months, she got married, changed her first and last names, and got pregnant.”

Quinn had a new life, a new husband, and a baby on the way. But inside, she knew who she was, and she knew what she’d done. There was no escaping it. The pain of that day haunted her for the rest of her life.

It was no coincidence that she ended up at the retreat.

No coincidence she’d died the way she had.

And now I just needed to figure out who still had an axe to grind.

CHAPTER41

Before we ended the call, I asked Hunter to put a file together on every staff member at the retreat. I wanted to know what they were doing the year Quinn ran over the Parker boy. I wanted photos, the addresses of where they lived and worked back then—anything she could find. I also wanted to know where Clara had been living in recent years, and if there was a possibility the story in the note had any truth to it.

In the meantime, I had some snooping of my own to do.

I passed by Foley undetected. He was in Grace’s office, still conversing with her and Calvin. Man, the guy was longwinded sometimes. Silas and a couple other officers were still collecting evidence in Clara’s room, which freed me up to do a bit of digging around at Calvin’s residence before the police picked it apart.

I stepped up to Calvin’s front porch and my phone buzzed.

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