Ray exhaled a blast of fatigue. “Look at what you and Emily are doing. Her folks are all torn up. The Bakers are worried sick about her. They just want her to let it go. The whole town is in an uproar, Clint. It’s my job to keep the peace, to take care of the citizens of Pine Bluff, and you’re both making my job damned difficult. You’ve got to put the past behind you and stop trying to make it right. It won’t ever be right, no matter what you do, and that’s the God’s truth.”
Clint laughed, the sound a perverse mockery of amusement. “So I’m just supposed to pretend it never happened. Just sit back and let whoever did this do it again?” He stared out at the pile of rubble that used to be his home.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Ray promised. “We won’t let anything like this happen again. You have my word.”
Ray wasn’t going to change his mind. That left Clint with only one option. He looked Ray square in the eye and let him in on the revelation: “I want to see the case files.”
Ray choked out a laugh. “What?”
“You heard me. I want to see the files on the Heather Baker murder investigation. I have the right to request a look.” He’d learned that in prison. Legally, Ray couldn’t refuse. He could delay approval, but he couldn’t refuse. He’d seen some parts of it during the second trial—enough to know the investigation had been a joke.
“And what in the hell do you hope to accomplish, Clint? Just tell me. You know there wasn’t a trace of evidence to indicate anyone else was in the room. Going through those files won’t help you find what you’re looking for.” Ray held out his hands, palms up. “And what if you did find something?” he pressed. “Something Ledbetter overlooked, which, as you know, isn’t likely. Your appeal overturned theconviction. We don’t have anything new to take you back to trial. No one is even trying.”
“My conviction being overturned,” Clint argued, “isn’t the same as being declared innocent.”
Ray exhaled another big sigh. “Even if you could prove your innocence, you know as well as I do that the folks in this town will always see you as guilty. You can’t go back to the way things were, Clint. There’s nothing you can do about any of this but live with it. Things will get better; people will forget ... if you’ll just let them.”
“Sounds like you’re the one worried, Ray.” Clint let Ray know with a look that he was dead serious. “I want to see for myself. All of it. Seems like you’d want this as much as I do. I’m innocent; that means a murderer is still out there.”
27
12:30 p.m.
Someone had tried to kill Clint Austin.
Emily wasn’t alone in her conclusions. The headlines of theHuntsville Timesonline had heralded the same.
And she had heroically, according to both theHuntsville Timesand thePine Bluff Sentinel, also online, saved Austin’s life.
Emily lay back on the cool sheets of the bed. Plain old human compassion. Her actions had been instinct, nothing more. She would have done the same for anyone. For a dog or a cat. How many times had she told herself that already?
But it didn’t change the momentum of the uncertainty mounting inside her.
She hoped the police wouldn’t discover that Troy had been involved in the fire. He’d warned her that he was going to take care of Austin personally. For Troy’s family’s sake, she hoped he hadn’t done this.
Dealing with her own unchristian thoughts about revenge after Heather’s death had been a difficult aspect of facing life without her friend. But this uncertainty Emily faced now was far worse.
Ten years ago, Emily had been certain she was right.
Whatifshe had been wrong?
The prospect shook her.
She had been there that night. He was there. No one else. No other suspects ... just him.
As much as she didn’t want to, she closed her eyes and allowed the memories to surface. Megan had rushed to get Emily home as soon as they’d finished leading the freshman girls through their final challenge: decorating the outside of Principal Call’s house for Christmas in July, complete with lights and light-up characters like Frosty the Snowman. In her haste to leave, Megan had backed into Mr. Call’s mailbox. Seconds later the principal was hot on their tail.
Knowing how much trouble Emily would be in if her parents found out, Megan had let Emily out at her house and barreled away. The principal had followed Megan’s car to the other end of the block, taking the unavoidable confrontation away from Emily’s house. Emily had only one thing on her mind. Hearing the secret Heather had to tell her. It wasn’t until she’d reached her bedroom window that she recognized something was wrong. She had climbed inside ... straight into her worst nightmare.
Her heart pounded mercilessly as she recalled the instant she realized it was Clint in her bedroom.
She pushed the painful images away and opened her eyes to stare at the bland walls of the room she had booked. The question that she had ignored at the time was why hadn’t Austin left while he had the chance? That was the one aspect of that night that couldn’t be answered logically by anything she knew or remembered. She’d told herself that the horror had just occurred. That her coming in unexpectedly had confused him, especially if he’d only just realized he’d killed the wrong girl. But looking back now, Emily had to ask herself if running had even entered his mind.
Even when she’d managed to push him away from Heather, he hadn’t run.
Why was that?
And if there had been drugs involved, as some speculated, though blood tests hadn’t backed it up, why hadn’t he finished what he’d gonethere to do? Why hadn’t he killed Emily? The knife had been lying on the floor right by the bed where he supposedly dropped it. Her parents hadn’t been home yet, and several minutes had passed before the principal had heard Emily’s screams and called the police.
