Hard Rain (25 page)

She answered on his third knock, wearing T-shirt and jeans. She didn’t look sick, but she was the owner of the diner so she could call in sick whenever she wanted.

Opening the door only a few inches, she asked, “Yes?”

“I need to talk to you,” Frank said, taking off his Stetson.

“I’m home sick and I—”

“This can’t wait, I’m sorry.”

He could see her debating letting him in for a few moments before she relented and opened the door.

The house smelled of freshly popped popcorn. The television was on to a soap opera that Lynette always watched and there was a large cola drink on the chair next to where Amber had been sitting.

She snapped off the television. “What is this about?”

Frank sat down in a chair near the one she’d been sitting in. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I need your help.”

“I can’t imagine how I could—”

“Maggie was raped five months before she was murdered.”

Amber blinked as if surprised, but Frank saw that she’d known. She seemed at a loss for words as she finally took her former seat. “What does that have—”

“I know your brother was one of the men.”

She shook her head. “No, Ty—”

“Maggie was also five months pregnant when she was murdered. I have the DNA results from the baby. It was your brother’s.”

Tears welled in her eyes. Her lower lip began to tremble. “He didn’t want to do it. They goaded him. He...” She looked away as she tried to pull herself together.

“It’s why he killed himself. He couldn’t live with what he’d done. What else did he write on his suicide note?”

She shook her head and said nothing.

“I know you ripped off the bottom of the note. Do you still have it?”

“I burned it.”

“Who were the others? The ones who goaded him into it?”

Her face was hard as stone, her eyes glistening like flint, when she finally looked at him. “Kyle Parker and Will Sanders.”

Not Bobby Barnes? “You’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“Did he name them?”

“No, but I saw him with them the day before he killed himself. They were arguing. When they saw me they shut up, but they were bullying him. I heard them say they would kill him if he ever opened his mouth about it.”

“You didn’t know then what they were referring to?”

She shook her head. “Not until I read the suicide note. But it wasn’t his fault. Maggie—”

“You aren’t going to say she was asking for it, are you?”

Amber met his gaze. “If she hadn’t been the way she was...”

Frank got to his feet. “She didn’t ask to be raped by three men. Thank you for your help. I’ll see myself out.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

G
RACE
KNEW
SHE
shouldn’t have brought up Maggie and her upcoming marriage. Mabel Murphy had told her when she’d come to clean. Grace couldn’t help rubbing it in her husband’s face.

Now she grabbed JD’s shirtsleeve as he tried to leave, pulling her to her feet. She took a few steps away from her wheelchair before he stopped and turned in surprise.

“You can walk.” The shock on his face was quickly replaced with disgust as he freed his sleeve from her grip.

She stood there, her lie the elephant filling the room. “JD, you have to understand—”

“Oh, I understand, Grace. I finally understand. All of this, a ruse to what? Keep me tied to you?” He shook his head. “Why, Grace? I told you I would never leave you.” He seemed to see the truth in her expression and let out a curse. “It was never about me. It was Buck. You did this to hang on to your son?”

She searched for the words to explain but knew he could never truly understand.

“You know what’s heartbreaking, Grace? You still lost your son.” He took a step back. “You pushed him away just as you have me.”

She took a step toward him, reaching again for him.

He shook his head and retreated to the top of the stairs. “This whole charade...” He waved a hand through the air and she saw the future etched into his handsome face. “You’re sick, Grace. I thought I could help you, but I was wrong. You don’t give a damn about me.”

“You can’t leave me.”

He laughed. “That’s what I kept telling myself. But you know what? I can. I have a chance to be happy and damn if I’m not going to take it.” JD turned then and started down the stairs.

“You’re going to that redheaded harlot?” she cried.

“I am. I think I can make her happy. I’m damned sure going to try.”

She rushed to the top of the stairs. “You can’t leave me! If you do, Sarah will come back and kill me! JD! It’s the truth.”

He’d reached the bottom of the stairs, where he turned to look back up at her.

“You mean the truth like you can’t walk, Grace?”

She met his gaze and knew she’d lost him. “You were just looking for an excuse to go to her. So go.”

He hesitated, but only a moment, then he turned and stormed out.

Grace stumbled to the top of the stairs. She gripped the top railing, leaning over it and yelling down at him as the door banged closed.

Finally, she turned away, telling herself he would be back. He always came back. She’d only just reached the bedroom when she heard someone behind her and spun around.

“What are you doing here?” Grace demanded, startled to see Sarah in the doorway. One look at her, and she knew that Sarah had heard the whole argument.

“I just saw JD leave. He asked me to check on you. He failed to mention that there’d been a miracle.” She motioned toward the small, empty wheelchair JD had bought so they could be together on the second floor.

“You’ve always known I could walk.” She narrowed her eyes at her daughter-in-law. “Why didn’t you tell JD the first time you caught me standing?”

“I’m actually on your side.”

Grace laughed. “The only side you’re on is your own. You didn’t tell because it must benefit you to have me married to him. Of course, the presidency. He has a much better chance with me by his side instead of that...redhead next door.”

“I can see that you don’t want company.” Sarah turned and headed for the stairs. “So I can tell JD that you’re fine.”

Grace went after her. “I saw through you the first time I laid eyes on you. You didn’t marry my son because you loved him. So why did you?”

Her daughter-in-law stopped at the top of the stairs. “Does it matter why I married him? Your son is happy. Isn’t that enough for you?”

Incensed, she lunged for her daughter-in-law, wanting to shove her down the stairs and put an end to this.

But Sarah was younger, more agile. She dodged the attack, throwing Grace off balance. She teetered on the top step for a moment as she tried to regain her footing. When she realized she was going to fall, she reached for Sarah. Their fingers brushed. She looked up at Sarah that instant before she tumbled down the stairs. As she fell, Grace realized that Sarah’s would be the last face she ever saw.

* * *

A
FTER
SHE
’
D
LEFT
Brody the message, Harper couldn’t bear another minute in the house. She saddled up, just planning to go for a ride to clear her head. Her heart was breaking at the thought of never seeing Brody again. But in this case, she feared her mother was right.

He’d lost everything because of her. She was kidding herself thinking that the past and old secrets didn’t matter. Maybe that’s why she headed in the direction of the spot where she’d first seen him again. The day was warm, the sun high and bright in a robin-egg blue sky. Only a few clouds drifted on the breeze.

But over the Crazies, dark clouds were gathering, promising rain before the day was over.

As she rode, she thought about the last time she’d ridden this way. She’d been so happy that she’d been racing her horse across the pasture screaming her jubilation—and her life had collided with Brody’s.

Maggie had brought them together only to tear them apart. She felt as if history kept repeating itself. Maggie and JD. Her and Brody. Neither got their happy ending.

She slowed her horse as she neared the hillside where they’d found Maggie’s remains. Dismounting, she ground-tied her mare and walked the rest of the way. Maggie had been buried at the top of the hill. If it hadn’t been for the rainstorm that washed her casket out...

The sheriff and coroner had taken away any sign of casket and remains, but there was a spot in the dried mud where she recalled the body had been lying that day.

She glanced up the hillside for a moment, thought she saw movement. Was there someone up there? “Hello?” she called as she began to climb. It was steep as she wound her way through the dark pines. When she topped out on the barren hill, she stopped to catch her breath. Just as she suspected, there was a hole where Maggie had been buried. Soaked from the rain, the earth had sloughed off and slid down into the pines, taking the casket with it.

She looked around but saw no one. Had she only imagined movement? A flash of color? Apparently.

Standing up there, the wind buffeting her, she thought about Maggie. She felt as if she’d come to know her after reading her diary and sharing her despair. That filled her with a deep sadness, since in getting to know her she’d also gotten to know Brody better.

Harper brushed at her sudden tears and was about to start back down when she realized she wasn’t alone. Turning, she blinked in surprise at the person holding a shovel handle in one dirty hand and a gun in the other. The gun was pointed at Harper’s heart.

* * *

T
HE
SHERIFF
DROPPED
by the lab to find the coroner finishing up. A tech was chipping away at the dried mud on the boards that had made up Maggie’s casket.

Frank looked away. “I got another call from Flannigan McTavish,” he told Charlie. “He wants to know when he can bury his daughter’s remains.”

“We have a few more things to do before they can be released. We’re still sifting through the debris, but should be finished later today.”

“I’ll check back with you,” Frank said.

“You all right?” Charlie asked.

“Just tired.”

“This has been a rough one,” the coroner agreed. “Makes me wonder why I keep doing this. But while horrifying, the case was also fascinating. That alone makes me think I should quit.”

The sheriff nodded. “As awful as my job is sometimes, when we catch the bad guys, it makes it seem worth it.”

Frank returned to his office, feeling old and tired and discouraged. Maggie had been able to tell them so much—and yet they still didn’t know who’d killed her.

He was also no closer to finding out who had killed Collin Wilson. Dropping into his chair behind his desk, he noticed Collin Wilson’s yearbook, which Harper had left with him.

Opening it, he thumbed through the senior section of it, stopping on a photo of Collin. Then studying Maggie’s face. From her diary, he knew that she’d been through so much before her final hours.

His phone rang. He pushed the book aside, surprised to hear the coroner’s voice on the other end of the line.

“I can’t believe it, but we found something in the mud from when the casket broke open. It’s a bracelet. But the name on it isn’t Maggie. It’s Karen.”

Frank hung up and pulled the yearbook back over, found Karen’s photo. Something gleamed on her right wrist. He took out his magnifying glass from inside the desk drawer.

The lettering was scrolled across the silver.
Karen.

Karen. Harper was convinced Karen Parker had called Collin from the library the day she’d gotten the copies of the yearbook photos.

Karen. But she hadn’t acted alone. Is that what Collin had wanted to confess?

* * *

B
RODY
SAW
THAT
Harper was calling and quickly picked up. “If you think for a minute that I am going to let you go—”

“I have Harper.” Not her voice. Another female voice, but not one he recognized. “If you ever want to see her again, I suggest you listen carefully.”

Brody listened, already heading for his pickup as he grasped the untenable situation. He tried not to drive too fast, afraid he would lose control on the gravel road. Karen had Harper and was threatening to kill her if he called the sheriff. He should come at once—and bring what he and Harper had taken from Maggie’s grave the day they found it.

He hadn’t known what she was talking about. They hadn’t taken anything, but he wasn’t going to argue that with her, not when Harper’s life was at stake.

Brody took the back road, driving along the dirt track just as Maggie’s killer had all those years ago. His mind raced as the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. The day Harper got copies of the yearbook photos, Karen had called Collin. Just as she must have called him the night she killed Maggie.

The wind howled on the hilltop as he crested the rise and saw the two figures silhouetted against the skyline. Karen had the gun to Harper’s head as he drove up, killed his engine and got out.

“You better have brought it,” Karen said as he approached the pair.

Harper’s eyes filled with tears at the sight of him. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come after...after everything.”

He shook his head. “Not rescue you? Not a chance.”

“Enough. Where is it?” Karen demanded.

“She thinks we took her bracelet from Maggie’s grave,” Harper said.

“Why would you think that?” he asked Karen.

“Because Maggie grabbed it off my wrist that night. I didn’t even realize it was missing until I got home and by then it was too late. She was dead and buried. I thought it would never turn up. Then the two of you found her body. I’ve looked everywhere, but it isn’t here and since the sheriff hasn’t found it, that means one of you took it.”

“Sorry, but we don’t have it,” Brody said as he stepped closer. He knew he couldn’t get hold of the gun, not with it pressed to Harper’s temple, before Karen got off a shot.

“You’re lying.”

“Why would we lie?” Harper asked. “If we’d found anything we would have given it to the sheriff. We’ve been trying to find out what happened to Maggie. That’s all we cared about.”

“What
did
happen?” Brody asked.

Karen looked past him to the hole in the ground where Maggie had been buried. “I don’t expect you to understand. She was going to ruin Kyle’s life because of one stupid mistake.”

“He and his friends raped her,” Brody said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

“They’d been drinking. They were just fooling around when they grabbed her. They hadn’t planned to do anything, but then she got mouthy with them.”

“So they decided to rape her.”

Karen had the good grace to avoid his gaze. “It was Will. He started it, demanding Kyle and Ty hold her down, then taunting them until they... Kyle was so sorry for what he’d done. He just wanted to forget it ever happened and then he found out that Maggie was pregnant and that it could be his baby.” Her voice broke. “I told him the night it all happened that I was pregnant. I was afraid I was losing him. I loved him so much that I lied, knowing he would do the right thing and marry me.”

“But five months later, Maggie would have been starting to show and you...” Harper stopped as Karen pressed the gun harder into her temple.

“A month after the wedding, I told him I miscarried,” Karen said. “I had hoped to get pregnant so it wouldn’t be a lie, but it didn’t happen. Meanwhile, Maggie was maybe having Kyle’s baby? He was convinced that was the case and was beside himself even before he heard that Bobby Barnes was going to marry her. He would have died before he let Bobby raise
his
child.”

“So you decided to kill Maggie,” Brody said.

“It wasn’t like that. I just wanted to talk to her. I had saved some money. I asked her to meet me.”

“Up here?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Outside of Big Timber. I didn’t want Kyle to know. I offered her money to leave town and never come back. She laughed in my face.” Karen’s expression turned sour. “She threatened to go to the sheriff if Kyle or I ever bothered her again. As she started to walk away, I picked up a rock. I just wanted to stop her from ruining my life.”

“What did you do after you killed her?” Brody asked.

“I couldn’t believe what I’d done. I drove back to town. I knew I couldn’t go to Kyle. He would never forgive me, believing I’d also killed his baby. I stopped by Bill’s Auto. Collin was there working late. We were friends...”