He started the engine and drove to the airport. The flight home would put him back in the Adirondacks by midnight. Route 73 would be empty at that hour. The same road where Carter's GPS had placed him on the night Kara Ellison disappeared. The same mountains. The same silence. The only difference between then and now was that a man was dead, and Noah knew why, and knowing changed nothing at all.
36
The trail behind Noah's house followed the ridgeline for two miles before dropping through a stand of white pine and looping back along the creek. He ran it most mornings when he was home. He’d been running it since the first week he moved to High Peaks. In that time the trail had gone from something he endured to something he needed. The air was cold and the ground was soft from last night's rain and his breathing found its rhythm by the quarter-mile mark, the way it always did, his body remembering the pattern even when his mind was somewhere else.
Ed Baxter was twenty yards behind and losing ground. The old war hero, even in his seventies, could run circles around Noah when he first came to High Peaks. Now Ed could barely keep up. But barely was still enough. The gap between them closed on the last hill and they finished together at the trailhead, both of them bent forward with their hands on their knees, breath coming in clouds in the morning air.
"See you tomorrow," Ed said, straightening up.
"You bet," Noah said.
Ed headed across the yard toward his property and Noah walked toward the house, pulling his shirt away from his chest where the sweat had glued it. He was reaching for his water bottle when he saw the truck parked along the curb. Ray's truck. And Ray standing beside it with his hands in his jacket pockets, watching Noah come down the trail.
Noah slowed. Ray pushed off the truck and walked toward him. Noah unscrewed the cap on his water bottle and took a long drink. He didn't hurry.
"I tried calling yesterday but you never answered," Ray said. "Heard you flew to Indiana for the execution. When did you get in?"
"Late last night."
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"No you didn't, Ray. You wanted to make sure you were okay." Noah wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Well, don't worry, brother. Your secret is safe with me." He said it in a way that left no ambiguity about how little choice he felt he had, and brushed past Ray toward the front steps.
Ray followed him up to the house. Noah stopped at the door but didn't open it. He stood on the porch with the morning light coming through the trees and his brother behind him.
Ray took hold of his arm. “Hey, it was the right thing. He was a murderer, Noah."
"Keep telling yourself that, Ray. You might actually convince yourself."
"A jury decided."
Noah whirled around. "No. You did. You and Luke." He pulled his arm free. "He didn't kill his girlfriend, Jenny Walters, and he sure as hell didn't kill Kara Ellison. His brother Eugene was responsible for Jenny. Eugene's kid nearly died because Jenny got high and left pills on the table while she was watching him. Eugene confronted her and lost it. Grabbed a knife fromCarter's kitchen and killed her. Carter found out after. Covered for his brother because it was his knife, his apartment, his history, and no one was ever going to believe Eugene did it. They burned the body. Eugene kept the knife. A year later they had a falling out and Eugene walked into the station and handed that knife to Luke and said Carter confessed to killing Kara Ellison." He stared at Ray. "You checked the blood. Too degraded. But you saw the opportunity from a bungled Ellison case you were both involved in and you fabricated evidence. Then you made sure that knife vanished from storage so no one in the future could test it. Like me wanting to test it against the DNA from the jacket and the college ID that Brooke Danvers had on her." He paused. "Eugene couldn't take the stand because he died before it went to trial. You knew that. You saw the opportunity. The only crime Carter committed was covering up for his brother's actions and burning the body."
Ray lifted a hand over his head. "That's bullshit and you know it. It was a last-ditch attempt at getting a stay of execution."
"Ray, you know as well as I do he wasn't going to get that stay based on the lack of evidence and his past criminal history. The man had nothing left to lose. I had to push him to tell me." Noah's voice dropped. "The only thing he was guilty of was covering up for his brother. And who am I to judge him, seeing as I just did that for you."
There was a pause. The trees moved overhead. A bird called from somewhere near the creek.
"Did you tell the attorney general about me?”
"Of course not. All I had was two pieces of paper. The lab report that read it was inconclusive due to insufficient viable genetic material, and the conflicting prosecution summary that said the blood on the knife was a match to Kara Ellison. The knife was the only item that could have resolved the discrepancyand that had vanished from evidence storage." He let the sarcasm land. "What a surprise. I was able to get them to consider a review, but the attorney general denied it. Insufficient to halt the execution so close to the date." He stared at Ray. "But hey, he was a guilty man, right? Unlike you."
Noah opened the door and went inside, leaving Ray on the porch.
Ray followed him in. Noah was at the kitchen counter filling his flask with water from the tap. He glanced at his brother standing in the doorway of the kitchen with his hands at his sides and something on his face that wasn't quite guilt and wasn't quite defiance and wasn't quite anything Noah could name.
"See, that's what makes you different, Noah. It's what riled Dad up. You tried to help Carter because you value the truth."
"And you don't?"
"One person's truth is another person's falsehood," Ray said.
"That makes it more palatable, does it?"
"The line between right and wrong is so fine."
"It is when you're the one drawing it," Noah shot back.
