Page 97 of The Summer that Changed Everything

It would’ve been good to know about the messages she’d sent Stephanie. Why hadn’t Stephanie ever said anything to him? Or to the police?

He couldn’t answer that question. He couldn’t say what else would crop up, either. He’d been seventeen years old. If it hadn’t been for Mick McBride and the Matteo murders, he probably would’ve been caught by now.

Fortunately, his luck seemed to be holding. He’d already admitted to Ford thathewas the one who’d returned the boat, so that helped. Making that decision had been a gamble—and it’d paid off.

Except for Eddie, who greeted him with a wagging tail when he walked in, the house was empty. According to a message he’d received while Ford was bringing him home, Kira and Kenziehad gone to the store to get a few things for dinner. That gave him a moment’s reprieve. But he knew the question his wife would ask him as soon as she walked through the door—What did Ford want?

What was he going to tell her?

He had to tell her the same thing he’d told Ford. He didn’t really have a choice. Stephanie might already have shown Aurora’s texts to the police, which meant they could be coming over to question him next.

His heartbeat thudded in his ears as he stood in the living room, staring out at the road long after Ford’s taillights disappeared from view. Should he call Stephanie? Reinforce that hedidn’ttake Aurora out on the river that night, that Aurora was too focused on Lance Zampino to leave with him?

He had little doubt Stephanie would believe it. After the horrible joke Aurora had played—which she’d done just to get Lance’s attention—Lance hadn’t wanted anything to do with either one of them. The fact that Aurora would’ve slept with Lance had he given her the opportunity was part of what had made Chet so mad. Lance hadn’t cared about her.Hewas the one who’d wanted her. He would’ve treated her like a queen, and yet, after starting to make out with him, she’d suddenly called it quits—after he was so sure he was going to get what he wanted from her at last. Nothing he did could convince her to change her mind. But Aurora would still be alive today if they hadn’t been so damn drunk. The fight they’d gotten into was as quick and violent as it was ridiculous.

He squeezed his eyes closed as the same old regret filled him. He’d been young and dumb at the time and too strong for his own good. Once he’d struck her, he’d felt hehadto do something to make sure she never told anyone—at least, that was the answer handed to him by his alcohol-addled brain. She was screaming for him to let her go, that she was going to callthe police, and he was afraid she’d do exactly that. Besides, if he hadn’t cut off her screams almost immediately, she would’ve awakened his parents.

He saw his wife pull into the drive and, dreading her curiosity and the conversation they’d need to have as a result of it, walked out to help her with the baby and the groceries.

Just as he’d expected, as soon as she opened her door, she asked, “What was wrong with Ford?”

He made a face. “It’s that damn murder again.”

“Which one?” she asked as she climbed out of the Mercedes. “Weren’t there three?”

He opened the back door to get Kenzie. “There was DNA evidence in the Matteo case. This was about Aurora.”

Her door shut with a solid thud, and she passed him on her way to the trunk to get the groceries. “But the same man killed her, too, right?”

“Ibelieve that. It’s Ford who doesn’t—because of Lucy. She’s getting in his head again, convincing him of all kinds of crazy things.”

She lifted the trunk lid. “So what does that have to do with you?”

He finally had the belts securing his daughter unbuckled so that he could lift her from her car seat. “A boat went missing from the Zampinos’ the night she disappeared, and I’m the one who returned it. Makes me look suspicious, that’s all.”

She bent her neck to peer around at him. “What do you mean,youreturned it?”

He pressed Kenzie’s soft body to his chest, taking solace in the love he felt for her. “I found it drifting on the river early that morning and took it back to them. I had no idea it might’ve been used in a murder. I did it before I even knew Aurora had gone missing.”

“Why would you being the one to return the boat be news now?”

“Because I never said anything about it at the time, I guess. I honestly didn’t connect the boat to the murder.”

She blinked at him. “Even though she was found in the river?”

“That was a week later. By then, we knew it was McBride who killed the Matteos, Kira, so I didn’t think anything about it.”

She lifted the groceries out and closed the trunk but didn’t start toward the door. “There’s one thing that seems a bit odd to me.”

Panic nearly zapped his strength as he adopted an innocent expression. “What’s that?”

“Aurora’s murder seems so different from the Matteos’.”

“In what way?”

“Well, the Matteos’ case started out as a robbery, didn’t it? McBride broke in hoping to take what they had while they were gone, except they surprised him, and because they could testify against him, he had to kill them. But Aurora? She was a young girl who was strangled and thrown in the river. I’m guessing her murder had to be sexually motivated.” She shrugged. “I’m no FBI profiler, but it just seems like two different kinds of killers to me.”

His wife was clever. He had to admit that. He just hopedshewouldn’t be the one to outwit him, because the truth would destroy her life, too. “I don’t know. I just know she and Ford are barking up the wrong tree, becauseIhad nothing to do with it.”

---