Page 28 of Mile High Mystery

“I don’t want to get into trouble.” She wrestled the cap off the wine and filled two glasses.

“Tell me, and we’ll figure it out together.”

Camille set aside the bottle but didn’t pick up her wine glass. Shelby waited, the silence stretched between them. She was better at this game than Camille and knew it.

“I know I’m not supposed to go on social media,” Camille began.

Again, Shelby said nothing. She sipped the wine, gaze fixed on Camille.

“I opened an account. Not under my own name. And I never post. I’m just on Facebook and Insta and a few other places, to see what my old friends are up to.”

Shelby wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t worked much with witness security, but she couldn’t imagine Camille was the first person to break the no-social-media rule. “What name are you under?” she asked.

“Gladys Grunch.” Camille wrinkled her nose.

Shelby pulled out her phone, opened the Instagram app and found the account. No posts, as Camille had said. She checked Facebook. Same. “This doesn’t look bad,” she said. “The cybersecurity people will want to take a look. They can set it up so the account can’t be traced back to you.”

Camille picked up her wine glass. “Okay.”

Shelby laid aside her phone. “What’s the problem?” she asked. “What has you upset?”

“A woman I worked with at Britannia—Amy—posted the other day that a man came into the restaurant, asking about the night Judge Hennessey was murdered. At first, she thought maybe he was a reporter and told him she didn’t want to talk about it. Then he said he wasn’t a reporter, that he worked for the Chalk brothers. He said they had hired him to find out what had really happened that night. He said the Chalk brothers wanted to clear their name.”

“Maybe they did hire someone,” Shelby said. “We can look into it.”

“That’s not what upset me,” Camille said. “It’s that he told her the Chalk brothers believe someone else was at the pub that night, with me. They found out my car was in the shop that night and thought maybe my brother gave me a lift to work and picked me up, so he might have seen something.” She set the wine glass down hard enough that some of the liquid sloshed onto the counter. “Zach wasn’t there. I took the bus that night. But if the Chalk brothers believe he was, they might hurt him.”

“We’ll check out this guy and see what we can find out,” Shelby said. “And we’ll alert local law enforcement to keep an eye on Zach.”

Camille nodded and picked up the wine again. “This place Zach is living—Eagle Mountain. Have you ever been there?”

“No.”

“I looked it up online,” Shelby said. “It’s pretty. Really small, in the mountains. They don’t have a traffic light or a single chain store. Hard to imagine.”

“I would think it would be harder for a stranger to blend in, in a place like that,” Shelby said. “And easier for the local cops to make sure Zach is all right.”

“I guess it’s silly for me to worry after all this time,” Camille said. “I mean, Zach doesn’t have anything to do with the Chalk brothers or Judge Hennessey’s murder or anything. He’s moved on with his life and probably doesn’t even think about me.”

“Your family hasn’t forgotten you,” Shelby said. “How could they?”

Camille shrugged and drained her glass. “It’s hard,” she whispered.

“Hard to be without them,” Shelby said.

“That. But it’s harder to know I can’t protect them. Before, during the trial, I could still keep an eye on them, and there were cops everywhere to look out for them. Then, when it came time for me to leave, I knew that staying away from them was the best way to protect them. Knowing that what I was doing was helping them kept me going those first difficult months. But when I read Amy’s post online, I realized how vulnerable they still are. And how helpless I am.” Her eyes met Shelby’s, shiny with unshed tears. “They shouldn’t have to suffer for what I did,” she said. “That was never what I wanted.”

Shelby put her hand on her friend’s. “I know,” she said. “I promise, we’re still looking out for them.”

Camille looked down into her empty glass. “Zach looks tough, but he has such a soft heart,” she said. “He could never have stood up to what the Chalk brothers put me through. I think to deal with really bad people like that you have to be a little bad yourself.”

“You’re not bad,” Shelby said.

“Only when I have to be.” She smiled, and some of the sadness lifted. “I feel better now, talking to you. Now let’s pick out a movie. I’m in the mood for something sappy and romantic. How about you?”

Shelby would have liked to talk more, but she knew when to surrender to Camille. The moment of vulnerability had passed, and the impervious Camille was back in charge. The woman who had made up her mind and wouldn’t back down.

ELDONANDZACHmet in the Zenith Mine parking lot after work on Wednesday and drove together in Zach’s truck to Caspar Canyon. With the summer solstice approaching, the days were long enough to allow plenty of hours of good light for climbing the many designated routes on the canyon’s granite walls. They shouldered their gear, and Eldon led the way into the canyon. They passed other climbers along the way, many of whom called out to Eldon in greeting. “Do you know everybody?” Zach asked after the sixth time they stopped to chat with another climber.

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