I’d never told anyone about my obsession with Travis Dorsey, not even Bram.
“Food’ll be here in forty,” Jagger said, setting down his phone. He looked at me. “Want a beer?”
“Can I have a Coke or something?” I was going to need caffeine.
He opened the fridge and pulled out a Coke, popped the top, and handed it to me.
I took a long drink, then licked the syrupy sweetness from my lips. When I looked up they were all staring at my mouth.
“I think I’ll have a Coke too,” Vigo said.
“Ditto.” Jagger pulled two more Cokes from the fridge and handed one of them to Vigo.
“Grab me a beer, will you?” Hawk asked Jagger before turning back to me. “So?”
I set the Coke down and turned the cold metal can in my hand. “He’s the guy who ran my parents and Bram off the road on the mountain when I was a kid.”
“Wait a minute,” Vigo said, “is he the guy you wanted dead if you won the Hunt?”
I nodded as Jagger handed Hawk a beer.
“I thought it was an accident,” Jagger said. “That’s what everybody said, that Bram’s parents — your parents — were killed in a car accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident.” The words came out more heated than I’d intended. I took a deep breath and tried again, more calmly this time. “It wasn’t an accident.”
“You’re saying this… Travis Dorsey ran your parents off the road on purpose?” Jagger asked.
“That’s what I’m saying. And he only did six months for manslaughter.”
“Don’t they have forensics and stuff to determine how accidents happen?” Vigo asked.
“The investigation was ‘inconclusive,’” I said.
“So how do you know he did it on purpose?” Vigo asked.
“‘Inconclusive’ doesn’t mean shit.” Hawk took a swig of his beer. “Just that they didn’t have enough to make a charge stick.
I blinked, surprised to find an ally in Hawk, althoughallymight have been too strong a word. “Exactly.”
“What makes you think it wasn’t an accident?” Vigo asked.
“There was a witness,” I said. “A couple coming home from the overlook. They swore Travis ran right for my parents.”
“That didn’t hold up?” Jagger asked carefully.
I rubbed at the smooth surface of the gray countertop. “The couple had been drinking. Not a lot, but enough for the DA to worry we wouldn’t get a conviction if we went to trial. So there was a plea deal, and I was only a kid, so I didn’t have a say in anyof it. I didn’t even know about most of it until I got old enough to start digging myself.”
“When was that?” Jagger asked.
I shrugged. “Six or seven years ago?”
Vigo lifted his eyebrows. “You’ve been investigating your parents’ accident?— ”
“It wasn’t an accident.”
“Right,” he said. “You’ve been investigating your parents’ deaths since you were sixteen?”
“Somewhere around there.”
