Betraying Innocence (34 page)

Ana didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t think she could speak without throwing up.

Drewer folded his fat fingers over his belly. “Sick boy. Even his father wasn’t such a monster.”
He flipped the folder shut and threaded his fingers together on top. “What if I told you I have evidence linking Mr. Ramirez to the murder of Vincent Andrews?”

Ana snorted, but the sound came out shaky. “Bullshit.
”

“Don’t say another word, Ana.” Her mother put a hand on Ana’s arm.
“I know exactly what you’re trying to do, Sheriff. You’re hoping to use my daughter to build your case against Rafael. I won’t have it.” She rose to her feet, dragging Ana up with her. “The real killer is out there. Perhaps you should focus a little more time on finding them rather than framing an innocent young boy. We’re done here.”

Ana couldn’t even muster a smug smile as she was propelled to the door.

“You’re making a mistake, Mrs. French. I wouldn’t let my daughter near that boy if he was the last—”

Her mother stopped on the threshold and looked back.
“Did you ever consider that maybe it was people like you who made that boy the way he is? If anyone needs to stay away from my daughter, it’s you.”

Ana threw her arms around her mother the moment they were out of the sheriff’s department.
She squeezed her tight, breathing in her scent of citrus and coconut.

“Thank you,” she said.

Her mother patted her on the back. “For what?”

“Everything.”

There was a familiar gray BMW parked in their driveway when they reached home. The sight of it was such a shock, Ana was momentarily expecting Vinny to step out when the door opened, but it was a woman.

“Krissie.” Her mom got out of the Mercedes and hurried to the
blonde.

Ana stayed in her seat a moment longer, collecting the scattered remains of her emotions before throwing herself out of the car and joining the two.

“I’m sorry,” Krissie was saying. “I was driving around, not really … not really going anywhere and then I was here and I...” She pressed an unsteady hand to her mouth.

She looked like a mess, Ana thought with a pang of sympathy. There were dark smudges beneath her eyes and her face was a hollow, gray color. Her hair was dull, lifeless and in matted knots around her shoulders. She looked nothing like the woman Ana had seen only days before.

“I’ve been meaning to call,” her mother said, hands wringing at her midsection. “I just didn’t think…”

Krissie shook her head, lowering her hand. “
No, no I understand. It’s natural that you would think it was your fault, but I know it’s not.”

Ana blinked. “You do?”

Krissie nodded. “Of course. Vinny thought the world of you. He was always such a good judge of character, like his daddy. I lost count of the number of times he told me what a great girl you were. I don’t believe for a second you would hurt him.”

Ana could say nothing around the lime-sized ball wedged in her throat.

“Would you like to come inside?” her mother asked.

Again, Krissie shook her head.
“No, thank you. Bad things happen in that house.” Her gaze roamed over the windows and flower boxes. Tears trickled down her cheeks. “First Johnny and now…” She licked her lips. “I’m beginning to wonder if I’m being punished. If somehow, this is all my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“They won’t let me take his body,” Krissie said as though Ana’s mom hadn’t spoken. “It’s evidence in an ongoing investigation.” She gave a bitter laugh. “I don’t even know what that means. He’s my son. He’s not some...” She broke off with a choked sob.

“Come inside, Krissie. I’ll make us some tea and call Philip—”

“Oh please don’t do that.” She wiped viciously at her tears. “He’s been so distraught since all this happened. Being a mayor and a father has taken such a toll on him and he’s trying so hard to show a brave face. He doesn’t need to know I’m not as strong as he is.”

Mom slipped a hand around the blonde’s shoulders and drew her into a hug. “
I am so sorry for everything.”

Krissie’s
unpainted mouth opened, but only a strangled gasp emerged. Her green eyes widened in horror as she stared up at the second floor. Ana followed her gaze and saw nothing but the window leading into her parent’s bedroom. Yet Krissie stared as though her very nightmares had just manifested.

“Krissie?” her mom touched the woman’s shoulder lightly.

“Lord have mercy.” Krissie tore away and ran for her car.

“Krissie, wait!”

But the blonde had already thrown herself into the car and was speeding backwards out of the driveway. A cloud of dust followed in her wake as she disappeared down the road.

“What in heaven’s name…”

Ana said nothing. She continued to study the second floor window, certain she knew exactly what Krissie had seen.

Ana

Peter Carrick was found dead in his apartment. It was all over the paper, all over town, all anyone could talk about. He’d been single all his life so he hadn’t left any loved ones behind. People speculated that it was loneliness that drove him to attach a cord to his ceiling fan and take his final step off the stool. Ana knew otherwise.

“It was guilt,” she told Rafe
as they drove into town. “I think it finally did him in.”

Rafe snorted. “Well that’s one off Johnny’s list. Only three more to go. Maybe guilt will get them, too, and save us the trouble.”

Ana cast him a dry glower. “It’s not funny.

“It kind of is,” he argued. “For thirty years, these four held on to this horrible secret. Then, one day
it just suddenly becomes too much?”

“Do you think it was us? Do you think we drove him to it?”

He pulled up in front of the library. “I hope so.”

He climbed out of the car before Ana could
respond. She hurried out after him.

“
And you’re okay with that?”

He shrugged. “They’re murderers. They had thirty more years than Johnny will ever have. Can’t say I feel much sympathy.”

He spoke so lightly of it, like it didn’t bother him in the least if some cosmic force was finally serving vengeance. She wondered if it had anything to do with his father, but couldn’t find the right way to ask. She had yet to even tell him about her talk with Drewer.

“So what are we doing here?” he asked as he held the door open for her.

Ana slipped past him into the dusty scent of old pages and adhesive. “I want to see if they have the school yearbooks here. I think if I see the boys again, we can find them.”

Rafe chuckled. “Genius
!”

She grinned and led the way to where
Sally sat, expertly gluing the pages onto the spine of a hard covered book.

“I’ll
just be a minute,” she said without looking up.

“We just need to know if you have
copies of the high school yearbooks here,” Ana said.

“Nope. You need to go to the high school for that.
The library there will have them.”

Thanking her, they left and got back into the car.

Ana slumped back in her chair. “And we’re not allowed anywhere near the school.”

“Says who?”

Grinning at her wickedly, Rafe told her to buckle up as he tore out of the parking spot and sped down the street in the direction of the school. Ana’s stomach was in knots by the time he parked, but she didn’t stop him as he took her hand and led her inside.

The halls were quiet, all the students already in class.
Ana couldn’t help fret over the possibility of getting caught and arrested. They were technically trespassing.

“It’s not trespassing when you’re just a visitor,” Rafe told her.

“Then shouldn’t we sign in at the office?”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s only in the event that there’
s a fire. I don’t plan on setting any today.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes.

The pretty brunette behind the desk in the library smiled at them kindly when they stepped through the double doors. Her brown eyes sparkled when they settled on Rafe.

“You know you’re not supposed to be here,” she told him.

“I couldn’t stay away,” he remarked carelessly with a shrug. “You know how I adore you.”

The woman scoffed, but she
was beaming. “Only because I fed your dirty habit.”

“That you did.”

Ana looked from one to the other, feeling like an outsider eavesdropping on a private moment. Something in her movement must have alerted the woman to her presence, because she blinked in surprise and straightened.

“Oh, hello!”

Rafe shifted aside so Ana was visible to the woman. “Ms. Kerr, this is Ana. Ana, this is the woman who kept me in non-school sanctioned crime novels.”

“Yes, of course, the new
student.” Ms. Kerr leapt off her stool and hurried over to them, hand extended. “We never actually met, but I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty popular lately,” Ana muttered, accepting the hand.
“It’s nice to meet you.”

The older woman took a step back, relinquishing Ana’s grip. “
What brings you two here?”

“We need some help looking up yearbooks,” Ana said. “Preferably the older the better.”

Ms. Kerr pursed her lips and knitted her brows. “Yearbooks, eh?” She turned and scanned the shelves. “No one has asked for those I think, ever. I’m not even sure I know where…” Breaking off midsentence, she turned and hurried back to her desk. She threw herself down onto her stool and began rapping at the computer. “Oh!” she said at last, the surprise on her face making Ana lean in. “They’re in the History section.” She laughed. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

Without waiting for them to comment, she hopped off her stool and hurried to show them where.

“They’re placed by order of year,” she told them, crouching down to have a better look at the spines. “What year were you looking for?”

“Nineteen eighty-three,” Ana supplied, bending down to help look.

It was Rafe who saw it first. He tucked a finger into the binding and tugged it free. Ms. Kerr left them to find their own way to one of the tables in the back. They each took a seat on either side and started the slow process of flipping through each page. The year of eighty-three was enormous.

They’d only gotten halfway through when they heard
angry voices from the front of the library. They exchanged glances.

“Probably just some teacher asking for a book,” Rafe said, but he was whispering. “I’ll
go check.”

There was no need. Mr. Finnegan rounded a row of bookshelves and stopped at their table. His gaze swung from one to the other before settling on the book open in front of them.

“I think I told you both you weren’t allowed back,” he said.

“We didn’t think the library applied,” Rafe said. “Seeing as how books are for everyone.”

Mr. Finnegan didn’t look remotely amused. “The library is inside the school, thus a part of the school.”

“Please,” Ana quickly said. “We won’t be very long. We just needed to look something up.”

Mr. Finnegan’s gaze dropped to the book again. “And what’s so important about a yearbook that you needed to break the rules for?”

Ana exchanged a glance with Rafe before facing the principal once more.
“We’re researching the death of Johnny Baits,” she said evenly. “We believe he was murdered by four boys who we’re sure are in this yearbook.”

Seconds ticked by loudly from the large black and white clock at the front of the library.
No one said anything as Ana’s confession hung in the air. Mr. Finnegan no longer seemed to even be seeing her and she wondered if he was trying to think whether or not to call the police and have them escorted off school property.

“You need to leave,” he said at long last, his voice the carved edge of
a blade made of ice.

“Mr. Finnegan, please let us just—”

“Now!” His roar sent Ana scurrying out of her chair.

She hastily grabbed the book.

“Leave that,” he hissed, no longer looking like the cool, handsome principal she’d met on her first day.

Not sure what to make of it, Ana hurried around the table towards the
exit sign. In her haste, she stumbled over her own feet and slammed into a cart of unsorted books. The thing tipped.

“I’m so sorry!” She
scrambled to gather the fallen books.

“Leave it!” Mr. Finnegan barked,
as he grabbed her arm and jerked her away.

“Ow!” she cried when his fingers dug into her skin, leaving marks.
“You’re hurting me!”

He released her at once, but looked nowhere near apologetic. “Leave.”

Rubbing her arm, Ana hurried around him. Rafe was at her side then, his features twisted in rage. Ana quickly took his hand and dragged him along with her. Ms. Kerr never glanced up from her desk as they hurried past.

“She ratted us out,” Ana muttered bitterly. “What a bitch.”

Rafe said nothing as they crossed the parking lot and climbed into the car.

“Now we’ll never know
if those boys were in the yearbook,” she said with a dejected sigh.

“Are you sure about that?”

With flourish, he yanked down the zipper of his jacket to reveal the yearbook tucked inside.

Ana gasped as he passed it to her. “Oh my God, you got it!”

Grinning at her, he pulled the car into drive and backed out of the lot. “I would never have been able to accomplish it if you hadn’t distracted Finnegan.”

Clutching the book to her chest, Ana gaped at him. “I’m
an accomplice to a crime?”

He laughed. “How does it feel?”

“Scary,” she confessed. Then added, “And a little exciting.”

He reached across the console and took her hand. “
Glad to hear it, because it’s going to get a lot more exciting in the next little while.”

Ana blinked. “How?”

“I’m pretty sure Finnegan will have noticed the book is missing by now and he’ll be on the phone with the sheriff, who will be looking for us.”

“Oh my God!”

“Calm down.” He squeezed her fingers. “I’m going to return it, after we’ve had a look.”

“But—”

“I’ll take care of it. Trust me.”

Nauseous, but determined, Ana agreed as he turned down the abandoned road. He pulled into park and turned to her as she flipped the book open on the console.

“There’s Peter,” Rafe said, pointing to the picture of a skinny boy with massive rabbit teeth and thick glasses.

“That’s him!” Ana said, stabbing the photo with her finger. “He’s one of the boys.”

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him.” He turned the page. “What are we going to do when we find all four?” he asked.

Gaze sweeping the page, Ana frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, are we turning them into the police? Are we killing them?”

Ana’s head came up. “We’re not killing anyone.”

“What then?” Rafe tilted his head to the side. “Why are we working so hard to find these guys?”

“Because they killed someone!” she said, baffled
how he could even ask.

“Right, but what can we do? It’s not like we can just walk into the
sheriff’s department and say we’d like to report a murder. There’s no body. The file is closed. We have no evidence. It’s our word against theirs and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure they won’t listen to me. And something tells me that if you tell them you had a vision—”

“I don’t know!” she snapped. “I just
… I just need to do something. Maybe I’ll confront them, tell them I know what they did. Maybe that’s all Johnny needs, for someone to know what was done to him.”

“And if it’s not? What if he wants you to find them so you can kill them?”

Ana swallowed hard. “If I don’t solve this, it’ll just keep happening to the next person who moves into that house. What happens if this is never figured out and the people responsible are all dead? Johnny will never get peace.
”

“Or maybe once they die, he will,” Rafe countered.

“Do you know how long that could be?”

He eyed the yearbook. “Another twenty, maybe thirty years.”

She glowered at his sardonic remark. “I need to do this. I’ll understand if you want out.”

His fingers closed around her chin. He lifted her face to his and kissed her. “I’m not goin
g anywhere, but I’m telling you right now, if it looks like you’re going to get hurt, I will set that damn house on fire and to hell with Johnny. Agreed?”

The intensity in his eyes forbade her to do anything but agree. She nodded.

They continued through the book, skimming faces until she recognized another.

“That’s the girl Johnny liked,” Ana said, pointing.

“Kristen Milbrook,” Rafe read.

“She’s the reason those boys went after Johnny,” she told him. “
They lured him into the basement with a letter Johnny assumed Kristen had written to meet her.”

Rafe
just shook his head.

“Do you have a pen and paper in here?” she asked, looking up from the book.

He reached across her to the glove compartment. He flipped down the little hatch and rifled through the candy wrappers, used napkins, square packets of foil and scraps of paper. He snatched one at random and a ballpoint pen and passed them to her.

Ana accepted them, but used her free hand to pluck up
one of the silver foils and arch a brow in amused questioning.