Page 8 of In Cold Blood
“You know, Dad, you didn’t seem to have any problem when Ray joined the local PD.”
“That’s because he’s still in the county.”
“Why does it matter where we serve?”
“Guys, would you stop arguing,” his mother said, coming into the room. Carol Sutherland was a strong woman who had been the voice of reason in many of the heated debates between them. She was a peacemaker at heart, so it seemed fitting that she would become mayor and eventually go on to become a historian for the area. From early on when Noah had shown an interest in enlisting, she’d had his back.
But that night ended very differently from the mud-slinging matches before.
Getting between them that evening, she looked as if she was about to succeed once again when without any warning, her legs buckled and she crashed to the floor.
“Carol?” his father said, crouching beside her. Hugh scooped her up in his arms. Before he could even ask, Noah was on the phone calling for an ambulance. Within ten minutes she was at the hospital in the critical care ward being treated for a ruptured brain aneurysm, and within twenty-four hours she was gone.
Everything changed that day.
Whatever love or peace his mother brought to the family evaporated and only grief, blame, and animosity remained. Although the doctors said the condition was rare, with only eight to ten people per 100,000 experiencing one, that did littleto alleviate or help his father. It was like a light switch had turned off.
From light to darkness. Sadness was all that remained.
Communication between Noah and his father amounted to a nod of the head, a grunt at the end of the day or him simply walking off. While he never said it outright, Noah knew his father blamed him. The number of times Hugh interrupted a conversation or raked him over the coals made it painfully clear.
Then came the order.Get out and don’t come back!
Maybe it was said out of pain. Perhaps he regretted it after the words left his lips… but that had only fueled Noah’s decision to leave the county behind.
And he did for years.
The day he left, his family had gathered as they always did for a meal. It was meant to be a get-together before he left. His father didn’t attend. Instead, he chose to work. It was a clear message to him about what was important. And the sad part of it all was that Noah had taken on the same mentality, throwing himself into work and burying himself in the business of law enforcement to avoid thinking.
Noah glanced at the clock on the dashboard.
There was still time. He tapped a new address into the GPS, the location of where his brother fell. He wanted to see it by himself, away from the others, away from the eyes of those who might judge his reaction or lack of one.
He’d yet to shed a tear since getting the news. He wasn’t sure if it was over ten years of police work that had numbed him to the grim reality of death or if it was time apart, distance from the family.
An hour later, Noah turned onto New York State Route 73. He didn’t have to go far to find the exact spot. A large blue ribbon attached to a tree trunk at the side of the road was the indication. Beneath it, a large cross driven into the earth.Surrounding that were bouquets of colorful flowers, and balloons tied to weights blown around in the light breeze. There were gifts and a slew of cards set before an enlarged photo of his brother.
A vehicle was parked at the edge of the road, a silver Land Rover. Nearby a middle-aged woman was setting down flowers.
Instead of stopping and probably scaring her by the way he looked, Noah pulled down the baseball cap on his head and drove past, opting to turn around farther down the road, hoping she wouldn’t be there when he returned.
Minutes later, relief flooded his chest. She was gone. The road was empty. He veered off. The first thing that struck him was the remoteness of the spot. It was strange, out of the way. High Peaks was a good forty minutes northwest while the Adirondack Sheriff’s Office was thirty minutes north. Of course, it wasn’t unusual for a deputy patrolling the county to be in the area, but that all depended on where he was at the end of his shift. He figured dispatch would have a record of his usual route home.
Noah stepped out of his truck and breathed in the smell of the Adirondack Park. A dampness hung in the air and the road had a slight sheen to it from where it had rained earlier. At the beginning of summer, it was humid and muggy. Noah pulled at his shirt collar as he made his way over. That day he dressed in a black suit and tie, presentable, ready for the funeral.
Until he saw his brother’s body, read the report, and spoke with the first officers on scene, he really wouldn’t have a good idea of how it all played out. Very little had been shared. Understandably the Sheriff’s Office was tight-lipped so the only information available so far came from local media. Snippets of aerial footage. Sound bites from the chief, BCI, and public opinion. He’d watched several videos on the flight over. It made himsick to his stomach. The brazen nature of it had sent shock waves throughout the quiet community.
Now as he stood before the touching memorial and gazed at his brother’s photo, it brought a lump to his throat for the first time. It was like staring at himself in the mirror. It could have easily been him. Years ago, he’d contemplated staying in High Peaks to appease his father when the grief of his mother’s death was raw, but he figured working under his father would have been hellish.
Being told to leave had only made it easier.
Still, his words had cut deep.
Noah’s gaze drifted. Despite what some believed about identical twins, he didn’t feel anything on the day Luke was gunned down. His friendship with his brother was the only thing special about their bond. Although he hadn’t been back in years, he had been in communication. How could he not? Lena Grayson, his ex, and their children were here.
The marriage had lasted longer than it should have.
She gave birth to a beautiful girl and boy but even that joy couldn’t save their doomed relationship. Contrary to the statistics, it wasn’t their work, or even infidelity, that drove them apart, it was just life.
