Page 32 of A Mile of Ocean

Despite the weariness tugging at him, Trent found his way to Tate’s place. As he approached, he saw his grandmother sitting on the porch with her shotgun. She’d braided her hair down her back and wore a leather choker around her neck. The sight of her brought him a sense of calm he hadn’t felt all day.

He took a deep breath and walked over to her, hoping to find some words of wisdom. “Duchess, I see you’re ready for battle,” he said softly. She looked up, her eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and strength.

“It’s better than a kick in the teeth,” she replied, clutching the shotgun before patting the seat beside her. He sat down, feeling the strain of the past days lift slightly.

“I know about the bad times between you and Granddad.”

“Got to that part, did you? Well, this is a tough time for all of us,” she began, her voice steady. “Sometimes we need to admit our failures and move on. It’s time you knew the truth. Barrett and I didn’t walk on water. We weren’t perfect. We had our issues. You spend sixty years married to the same person, and you’re bound to go through a lot of ups and downs. I’m not proud of leaving you and Tate the way I did. Thank God for Dolly. God knows Barrett was in no kind of shape to take care of small children back then. But Dolly stepped up. By the time I got back here, you two had bonded with Dolly better than you ever had with me.”

“She used to pack a lunch and take us out to the cemetery so we could lay flowers on their graves and talk to them. She encouraged us to have a conversation. And we did. It was like therapy for Tate and me.”

“Aren’t you planning on asking me about what happened the night they died?”

“Dolly told us it was raining. A bad storm had come through. They went into town to get supplies and ran off the road.”

“That’s not what happened.”

Trent stared at her, unable to comprehend why she was only now sharing the real story. “Okay, enlighten me. What did happen?”

“They went into town for supplies. That much is true. But on their way back to the ranch, someone shot the front tire out on the pickup. Travis lost control, swerved off the road, hit a concrete embankment, and flipped the truck. Travis and Linley were killed instantly.”

Trent opened his mouth to speak, but he found that he couldn’t form words.

His grandmother, on the other hand, kept talking. “It drove your Granddad crazy trying to figure out who could have done such a thing. We started arguing almost every day. I wanted to move on from it, but Barrett refused. He wouldn’t shut up about who he thought was behind it.”

“The cops never found out who did it?”

“No. Useless, they were. The case fell to the county sheriff, the same sheriff who ended up losing his job some years back because of corruption. Nothing ever came of it. Barrett and I just didn’t seem to do anything but argue. So, one day, I’d had enough. I packed up a suitcase, hitched a ride into town, and took a bus back home. That’s where Barrett found me six months later, begging me to return, promising me he’d stop obsessing with it and try to move forward. So, that’s what we did. That’s why I saw red when Kinsey told us we had to bury him at Turtle Ridge. That man is gonna be laid to rest next to Travis and Linley, or I was gonna raise holy hell.”

“So you guys just decided to stop talking about Mom and Dad’s death as if it never happened?”

“Something like that.”

“Does Tate know the truth?”

“No.”

“I’ll need to tell her. We don’t keep secrets from each other. We never have.”

“Whatever you feel you need to do,” Duchess replied.

“Do you think what happened to Mom and Dad has anything to do with what’s happening now?”

“I don’t know. How could I know that?” she snapped.

Exasperated at his grandmother’s coldness, Trent got to his feet. “Brent grilled me Friday night about knowing anyone who might have a grudge against us. Theo and Colt keep asking me. They still want to make a connection to something that happened in the past. Yet, you never said a word. It sounds like a grudge existed twenty-two years ago, and you guys just decided not to address the problem then but rather ignore it, and it would go away.”

“Don’t go getting snippy with me.”

“Sorry, Duchess. Holding a secret like this deserves somebody to react, get ticked off, or exhibit some real emotion about what happened to Mom and Dad.”

Tate walked up, dirty from mucking out stalls. “What happened to Mom and Dad?” When neither of them answered, her gaze turned to Duchess. “What are you yelling at her about? What did she do?”

Trent glared at his grandmother. “Are you gonna tell her?”

“You said you would,” Duchess barked.

“This is ridiculous,” Trent muttered, putting his hands on his head. He looked over at his sister and blurted out, “What killed Mom and Dad wasn’t just a car accident. Someone shot their front tire out, and Dad lost control of the pickup. Both ofthem died at the scene. It’s an unsolved case to this day. And before you say anything, I just found out they’ve been unwilling to tell us the truth because the truth apparently makes them very uncomfortable talking about it.”

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