Claire stepped back out of the kitchen. The look on his daughter’s face cut Garrison to the quick.
“Angie was trying to figure out where allegiances lie in this town,” she said. “I reckon she was asking herself, if a bunch of guys could kill Porter to punish him, then maybe they could have killed Jasmine, too. They’d have been bonded in secrecy over the first murder, so maybe no one would talk about a second, either.” She paused, watching him intently. “Apparently Jasmine made some people really angry in the pub on her first night in town.”
He stared at Claire, his heart beating into his throat. “Well,” he said softly, “turns out Angie Pallorino was wrong, because no one from town laid a hand on that Jasmine woman. It was Eden Hart, and it’s all over now.”
She held his eyes. “You really don’t know who drowned Porter Bates?”
“I know that was over a long, long time ago, Claire. If you go dragging that up and mentioning it around town, it’s going to hurt your uncle Axel real bad.”
The phone on the oak server near the dining table rang. Claire glanced at it, then turned irritably and went into the kitchen. Garrison got up and saw the caller ID on the landline. He called out over his shoulder, “It’s for me. I’ll take it in my study.”
When Garrison reached his office, he quickly shut the door and picked up the phone on his desk.
The voice on the other end was cold, firm. “Her Mini Cooper is parked in the rental lot. She’s back.”
Shock rippled through him. He eyed the door and lowered his voice. “What?What’s she back for?”
“I asked Freddie at the rental shop. He said she and some cop from the city rented an all-wheel drive to head up the logging road on the south side of the Nahamish, but first they called Sea-Tech to check if Axel Tollet was working or at home.”
“Fuck,” he whispered. “It’s supposed to be over.”
“She must know something. If they go up there and look around his place, they’ll find something to pressure him. You know Axel; he’ll talk. And when he talks, we’re done. All of us. I mean really done. Prison for life done.”
“Bates, I only lured him. I wasn’t part—”
“You listen to me, Garrison. You helped Axel bury that woman. You helped him hide everything because he threatened to squeal about Bates. Your helping him was a mistake.Yougot us all tied into this. Now you’re in as deep with the Bates shit as the rest of us.”
His brain reeled. He was going to throw up. If this got out ...
“What do you want to do?” he almost whispered.
“What we have to do, Garrison. We have to tie up that loose end.”
“Axel?”
Silence.
“Jesus, no. No—”
“It’s him. Or us. We’re already on our way. Meet us there, because we’re not doing this alone. It’s all of us or nothing.”
Claire carefully replaced the receiver.Bury that woman? Helped Axel? Prison for life done?
She heard the downstairs door slam. Claire hurried to the window. She looked down to see her father’s truck reversing out of the carport at speed. He turned west on the logging road.
Fear, worry, sickened her stomach.
She’d recognized the voice on the phone. Nothing made sense.
She hastened down the passage and stopped to look in on her mother. Her mom’s head was bent over her sewing machine, the radio tuned to some talk show playing loudly. Claire had seen the crazy way in which her mother had sent Angie off the other day. Claire had watched from the upstairs window. She made her way to her room and found the business card Angie had left for her.
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, pulse racing, Claire studied the card. Was it a betrayal? Or would it stop more people from getting hurt? Would it stop her father from doing something else terrible? No, not Angie. Claire had a better plan. She scooped her cell off her dresser and dialed the nonemergency number for the Port Ferris police station. Her call was picked up instantly.
“Hello, it’s Claire Tollet. Is ... is Officer Jacobi there?”
CHAPTER 44
Angie and Holgersen negotiated the rutted logging track in the small Subaru Crosstrek they’d obtained from the rental outfit in Port Ferris. It was cold but hauntingly beautiful along the river. Cloud sifted in skeins through the dense, dripping trees, and as they gained elevation the rain turned to thick sleet that began accumulating on the ground.
