Had a Great Fall (An Olivia Thompson Mystery) (7 page)

Fifteen years later, Nate had still seen the haunted look in Ed’s eyes when they had discussed Rosie’s murder. He could only imagine how much worse it had been back then.

“Who did you suspect back then?” Nate asked. He had read every note in the file, but he knew that sometimes investigators had hunches that they didn’t put into their notes.

“To be honest, we didn’t have a lot of leads. A lot of people suspected that it had been someone just passing through town.”

“But you didn’t think that.” Nate could see the uncomfortable way that the sheriff shifted in his seat.

Slowly, he said, “The girl wasn’t assaulted. Aside from the head wound, she had no other injuries. It wasn’t a crime of hate. The body was posed afterward, as if the person felt guilty for what they had done. To me, it didn’t seem like something a stranger would do.”

Suddenly, Nate understood. The sheriff had suspected the Thompson family.

Olivia was halfway to the hospital before she remembered that she was supposed to bring her father’s insurance information with her. She turned the car around with a loud groan. With Ed unconscious, she couldn’t exactly ask him where he kept the paperwork. That meant she would have to dig through her father’s things, something she was dreading.

Ed Thompson never threw anything away. He had five separate stacks of mail on his office desk. Olivia dug through all of them and found cable bills and old magazines, but no proof of insurance.

“Ridiculous,” she muttered as she opened the top drawer of his desk.

She found more bills and junk mail in each of the four drawers. Just when she was beginning to think she would never find the papers, she spotted a folder labeled “Insurance Documents.”

When she lifted the folder, a smaller folder beneath it caught her eye. She probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought accept the date written in the top right corner was just one month after Rosie’s murder.

She quickly opened the flap on the envelope and dumped the contents onto the desk. Several newspaper articles floated onto the desktop. Olivia reached for them with a shaking hand. Her sister’s smiling face stared back at her in faded ink on yellowed paper.

They were the articles covering Rosie’s murder in the local paper. From the looks of it, Ed had kept every article ever written about the case. Some of the articles were dated as recently as the ten-year anniversary.

While Olivia had been obsessed with tracking the investigation, she had never even seen her father read one of the articles let alone snip it from the paper. She felt a little comfort knowing that she wasn’t the only one that hadn’t been able to let it go.

Aside from the articles, a thin stack of papers had also been shoved into the envelope. As Olivia grabbed hold of them, she expected to find more information about Rosie’s cases. She did not expect to see the words “Dissolution of Marriage.”

Olivia scanned the papers quickly and jumped when the front door slammed. She probably should have been alarmed, but she was too distracted to worry about who was entering her father’s house.

“Hello?” she called out.

“Liv?” Nate’s voice was distant and confused. His footsteps were heavy in the hall. “What are you doing here?”

“Paperwork.” Olivia looked up, her heart doing a familiar thump when she saw his face appear in the doorway.

The hard edges of Nate’s face softened when he looked at her. “You’re supposed to be at the hospital, love.”

“They asked me to bring in Dad’s insurance information.” She gestured to the stacks of papers that nearly covered the desk. “It’s like an episode of Hoarders in here.”

“Want some help?” Nate stepped closer and noticed the newspaper clippings. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Like daughter, like father.” Olivia frowned as she remembered the document in her hands. She stared hard at it.

“What’s that?” Nate asked. When she didn’t answer right away, he stepped forward and took the papers from her. “Ah, I remember this nightmare. But I thought you told me that your parents never completed their divorce?”

Olivia heard a strange catch in his voice. “They didn’t. Technically, they are still married. These are just papers from a lawyer that my dad reached out to.”

“When?” Nate was trying to sound casual with his question, but Olivia heard the tinge of suspicion on his voice.

“One month after the murder,” Olivia answered. She had to read the date three times to make sure she hadn’t gotten it wrong. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Dad have been thinking of getting a divorce then?”

“Their marriage didn’t get bad until after Rosie’s murder?” Nate asked his question carefully. “They were happy before that?”

Olivia could barely remember her family ever being happy. But then again, she could barely remember anything before Rosie’s murder. Occasionally a random memory would flood her brain, washing her in a past that hardly seemed real. But those moments were few and far between.

“I think they were. I don’t remember them ever really fighting, except for right after Rosie was found. I remember they were blaming each other.” Olivia had heard their hushed arguments through closed doors. They were usually accompanied by days of silence. “I don’t understand why Dad would have reached out to a lawyer so soon. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe it does.” Nate wore a pained expression on his face. “Sheriff Merriweather told me something interesting about the investigation.”

“He did?” Olivia had almost forgotten that Nate had gone to speak with the sheriff. “Did he remember something new?”

“Not exactly.” Nate shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “We should sit down.”

Olivia’s stomach twisted into a knot. “Just tell me, Nate.”

“You aren’t going to like it.” Nate couldn’t quite make eye contact with her. “The sheriff had some pretty strong opinions on who killed your sister.”

“Who?” The word came out in a whisper.

Nate took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He thinks it was someone in your family.”

“My family?” Olivia expected the words to sting more than they did. She remembered that in the weeks following the murder, both of her parents had been questioned at least a dozen times. Olivia herself had also given multiple statements. At the time, she had just assumed it was standard procedure. She had never really thought that any of them were suspects. “My parents were at a party. They had a dozen alibis.”

“I know.” He shrugged. “They sheriff didn’t think those alibis were very reliable. He also didn’t say it was definitely your parents, just that it was someone close to Rosie. He thought it was probably family, or a very close friend.”

“Did you tell him about Tim?” Olivia refused to believe that someone she loved could have been responsible for what happened to Rosie. Everyone loved Rosie. “It’s way more likely that a psycho like Tim was responsible for the murder.”

“Why did your dad file for divorce so soon after the murder?” Nate asked quietly.

Olivia gasped. “You think my dad killed Rosie?”

“No,” he said quickly. “But there had to be a reason why he would be so desperate to end his marriage. A guilty conscience would do the trick.”

“My dad didn’t kill Rosie.” Olivia glared at him, angry that he would even suggest it.

“Okay.” He held up a defensive hand. “I didn’t say that he did it. I just think it’s important for us to keep all options on the table.”

Olivia could tell that he still wasn’t convinced. She suddenly, for the first time in a very long time, didn’t want to be around him. “I need to get to the hospital.”

“Liv.” Nate reached out to grab her arm, but she slid away.

“Brian is expecting me and I’m already late. I’ll see you later this afternoon.” She hurried from the room, hoping he wouldn’t follow her.

It was a long, lonely day at the hospital. Even with her brother there to keep her company, it was hard for Olivia to keep from thinking about what Nate had suggested. Once she got it in her head, she couldn’t stop considering the possibility.

“Hey, Bry.” She spoke quietly even though they were alone in their father’s ICU room. He was still unconscious. “Do you really not remember anything about Rosie?”

Brian’s eyes reluctantly drifted up from his phone. “I dunno. I remember some stuff I guess. Just not a lot.”

“That’s a shame, brother. Rosie was amazing. She was smart and funny and kind. She was a great big sister. And she loved you best.” Olivia could remember the day that Brian was brought home from the hospital. Rosie had begged to hold him and didn’t put him down for hours.

“I remember her laugh,” Brian said quietly. “Sometimes, at random moments, I hear it and it’s like she is right there. Every time, it hurts. It’s like being stabbed in the chest.”

“I know.” Olivia swallowed hard, unwilling to give into the wave of emotion rising in her chest. “It still hurts as bad as it did fifteen years ago.”

The room was quiet except for the beeping monitors. Each beep echoed in the quiet room.

“Dad talked to a lawyer about getting a divorce the month after Rosie’s murder,” Olivia said. She wasn’t sure why she decided to tell her brother about what she had learned.

“What?” Brian’s head whipped in her direction. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he have done that so quickly?”

“Good question.” Olivia looked at her father’s prone form. It felt like she was looking at a stranger. “They were happy, weren’t they? Before everything, I mean. I thought they were, but now…”

Brian said, “I think they were. I think we all were.”

“Yeah.” Olivia realized for the first time that Brian had been just as effected by the murder as the rest of them. She had always assumed that because he was so young at the time he had been sheltered from a lot of the horror and pain. But the reverse was true. At least Olivia had been given fourteen years of happiness with her family before the grief washed everything away. Brian hadn’t been that fortunate. His entire childhood had been shaped by the sister that he never got a chance to know.

“I’m sorry you were cheated out of a normal life, Brian.” She sighed, wishing that so many things could have been different.

He offered her a small smile. “Normal is overrated. Besides, my life has turned out okay. You’re the one that hasn’t been able to move on, Liv.”

It was a hard thing to hear from her younger brother, but he wasn’t wrong. Olivia had been living half a life, clinging desperately to the ghost of her sister. In fact, Nate was the only person she had allowed herself to love since that day. When she thought of Nate, her chest tightened. Why had she left things on such bad terms? He had come all the way to Mercy just to be with her and she had pushed him away yet again.

“I need to make a phone call,” she said, hurrying to her feet. Her cell was already in her hand when she stepped into the hall. The nurse’s station was right outside her dad’s room so she headed to the right, down a long hallway. Ten yards away from the end, she looked up.

“Nate.” His name left her lips in a hurried breath. Any trace of annoyance from earlier in the day was long gone. “You’re here.”

“Thought you might need a friend,” he said, smiling at her the way he used to, when they were just friends.

“I need you,” she corrected him.

His shoulders sagged in relief. “I’m here, Liv. I’m always here for you.”

She closed the last few feet between them in a hurry, falling into his open arms. “Thank you,” she said, breathing him in.

“For what?” he asked with a chuckle.

Looking up at his messy hair, heavily stubbled face, and crooked smile, Olivia wasn’t sure what she had done to deserve him. “For everything.”

Ed’s health continued to slowly improve and in the morning, they would lower his sedation and remove the breathing tube. All signs pointed toward him making a full recovery. The doctor called it a miracle.

“He looked better today,” Nate said later in the evening.

Olivia had convinced him to start a fire in her dad’s fire pit. Nate had pulled two oversized chairs close to the flames, but they had settle snuggly into the same chair, leaving the other empty.

“He did,” she agreed, grazing her fingers over the back of his neck. She loved how perfectly their bodies draped together, how strong his arms felt around her. Olivia felt safe. “We used to start a fire in here almost every weekend. Rosie loved poking around in the flames.”

“It’s incredibly peaceful out here.” Nate’s hand brushed over her arm, sending a familiar tingle through her body. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the moon that bright.”

“That’s because you are in the country, City Boy.” She kissed his cheek. “At least you’re growing the beard to match your new lifestyle.”

He smirked. “Is that a hint for me to shave?”

“Nope. I would never ask you to change anything.” This time she kissed him on the lips. “You’re perfect just the way you are.”

“I am,” he agreed with a smug look. “You’re definitely out of your league with me.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Your humility is such a turn on. I feel so lucky that you have decided to slum it with little old me.”

“I’m only in it for the hot sex.” Nate’s hand started sliding under her shirt.

“Hold that thought,” she said, pushing his hand away. “You never told me about the rest of your day. Where did you go before coming to the hospital?”

“Around.” He looked up at the sky, his face beautifully illuminated by the moonlight. “I tracked down a few people that were interviewed back in the day. None of them had any new information for us.”

She wanted to know more details about who he had talked to and what he had asked them. Olivia wanted to know everything. But a long look at Nate told her that he wasn’t planning to tell her everything.

“Do you really think my dad killed Rosie?” she asked in a small voice. Olivia knew that she couldn’t trust her own feelings in the matter. There was no better judge of character in her life than Nate.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” He exhaled deeply. “I think the sheriff was right that it was someone that knew Rosie well. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it was your dad.”