Where One Road Leads (5 page)

Standing, Krista followed him to the door, opening it for him. “Again, thanks for your help. If you need anything, please let me know. I’ll be here for the rest of the day trying to get things straightened out.”

“We’ll be in touch. Something I highly recommend is installing security cameras in this place. You may need them.”

“Good idea. I’ll make those arrangements now.”

A few minutes later, Matt and a few of Quail Ridge’s finest dealt with Ricky.

“I was with Rachel and my parents at a dinner party in Boston,” he said smoothly. “We left Quail Ridge at three PM and stayed at the Boston Harbor Hotel. We checked out of the hotel at eleven o’clock this morning and came home. Sorry, Officer Burgess, I couldn’t possibly have been vandalizing the youth center.”

Ed Burgess wrote the information down and nodded at Ken Pickford to verify the alibi. Matt knew it would check out beautifully.

This time they’d gone by the book, questioning Ricky. There was still a chance he would cause trouble for them, but at this point Matt doubted it.

“Look at me.” Ricky held his arms out. “Do I seem like a common vandal? I’m past those days.”

Matt eyed him sharply. He didn’t like Ricky. Didn’t like the sharpness, the smugness, the way he seemed to laugh at everyone. As if he had a secret he kept from the world.

“Okay, we’ll check it out,” Ed told him, his voice flush with resignation. “You can leave now.”

Ricky laughed. “You sound so disappointed, Officer Burgess. Apparently you and your son are eager to pin these things on me. I wonder if you’re even looking for other suspects.” He stood and straightened his expensive jacket.

“You’ve done well for yourself over the past fifteen years,” Matt noted blandly.

Ricky shot him a harsh glance, his eyes narrowing. Some of the humor disappeared from those dark depths. “Meaning what?”

“Meaning if your story about what happened the night Liz, Jay, and that other man died turned out to lack some important details, you’d have a lot to lose.”

Ed laid his hand on Matt’s shoulder to stop him. Matt didn’t even know why he said the words. He’d had no prior doubts about the validity of Ricky’s version of the events leading to the accident, until all this started. It seemed a bit of a coincidence.

Ricky’s lips pulled back into a smile, a sharp-edged grin that didn’t touch his eyes. “If I were you, Officer, I’d really watch my words. I thought we got that straight the other day.”

Matt shrugged. “No accusations, Ricky. Just thinking out loud.”

“You’re free to leave now,” Ed said quickly.

“Yeah, yeah, I know . . . and I’ll make sure I don’t leave town either.”

As soon as he left, Ed spun to Matt. “Are you crazy, taunting him like that?”

Matt turned his gaze from the door to his father. “Whose story do you believe? His or Krista’s?”

“To tell you the truth, I’ve always believed her. But he had the right people on his side. It didn’t matter what I believed. I know you always thought she was solely at fault. Are you changing your mind?”

Matt rubbed his forehead hard. A headache formed right above his brow. “Honestly, I don’t know, Dad. I would’ve gone on believing him if all this hadn’t happened. It was damned less complicated blaming her, for sure.”

“That’s certainly not fair to her, now is it? She’s paid her dues, Matt. Cut her some slack.”

“If I hold on to what I’ve believed for all these years, there’s no way she’s paid her dues. Her dues won’t bring Jay back.”

“It was an accident. A damned unfortunate accident caused by a split second’s bad decision. Both your mother and I have made peace with it. You need to let it go, too.”

Shaking his head, Matt curled his lip. “Not yet. Everything is being ripped open all over again.”

Ed squeezed Matt’s shoulder. “I want you to do something for me. Take a couple days off. You need to go and relax. You’ve got yourself in knots over this.”

“Time off isn’t going to solve things here.”

“We’ll take care of things here, Matt. I think you need to distance yourself from the situation, from Ricky. He’s trouble through and through. I don’t need it coming down on you.”

Krista packed a turkey sandwich, a banana, a bottle of water, and three dog biscuits into her old khaki backpack and grabbed Gus’s leash. She slipped her camera strap around her shoulder and called for the dog.

She’d tried all the day before to get things done, but her head ached and she found herself to the point where she couldn’t concentrate. She needed some fresh air, even for just a few hours.

Patricia Frechette had practically ordered her from the office, claiming she could handle anything that came down the line. She’d been working for Krista for just over a week now, despite her husband’s protests.

“Call me on my cell if anything happens.”

Patricia offered a motherly expression, edged in concern. “No, you need a break.”

“I need to know if there’s anything here that requires my attention. I won’t be more than an hour or two away. Please promise me you’ll call if you need me.”

The older woman sighed, a sound Krista remembered well from her childhood when she and Liz were bothering her. She bit back on a bittersweet smile.

“If it’ll get you out of here, I’ll promise anything,” Patricia replied.

Krista leaned over and gave her assistant a peck on the cheek. “Thanks. I’ll check in with you in a while. I’m going to take Gus out for a hike along the ridge.”

“Got any pepper spray?”

“Are you joking?” Krista asked with a chuckle.

Patricia didn’t share in the humor. “No, I’m not kidding. Take mine. Just in case.” She rummaged through her big purse and came out with what she wanted.

Krista held the small canister reluctantly. If it would help the woman feel more secure, she’d take it.

“I won’t need it, but I’ll carry it with me if it puts your mind at ease. And my cell phone.”

“Thank you for humoring an old woman.” Patricia nodded, apparently content.

An hour later Krista parked at the end of a dead end road. She locked the Jeep and walked Gus along the narrow trail that would lead to the wilderness side of Quail Ridge. Trails intersected each other, but she just headed uphill. For the first twenty minutes, she enjoyed being surrounded by russet and gold, sunlight spilling through the trees in a spray of glittering light.

Finally, she felt peaceful. The smell of decaying leaves in the crisp air revitalized her. She’d forgotten how much she loved the bite of autumn in the woods. Gus dashed from tree to tree, investigating every scent, every essence that Krista couldn’t detect with her human nose.

He had such a love of life, probably more so after his brush with death. She realized they were similar. She’d nearly lost her life, and her recovery had been a long, hard road.

They had come out of it in different ways, Gus with a love and appreciation of life. Krista had gone in the opposite direction. She worked hard to make her life better, but she never fully enjoyed it. She made it meaningful, never fun. Maybe she needed some of that, to take a page from Gus’s book.

Lifting her camera to her eye, she snapped several pictures of the dog.

When she got to the top of the ridge, above the tree line, she settled on a granite ledge and took out her lunch. The breeze had kicked up again and now that she’d stopped moving, the chill settled in through her clothing. She zipped her fleece jacket to her chin and sat back to enjoy the view of the surrounding area, capturing its beauty on film.

Several small towns spread out below her. While the ridge wasn’t the highest spot around, it still offered a good view. From where she sat, she could see as far as Nashua. If she had climbed Mt. Monadnock, several miles away, she could’ve seen all the way to Boston or the seacoast on such a clear day. She’d settle for Milford today.

She finished her sandwich, gave Gus the crusts, and took a long drink of water.

“I could stay here all day,” she told the dog as he finished off the first of his biscuits. “Maybe we can come back and camp here in the summer.”

“You really think you’ll be here that long?”

The intruding voice almost sent her off the ledge. It would’ve been a short drop, but it would’ve hurt nonetheless. She put her hand on the canister of pepper spray as Gus burst to his feet.

Matt stood over her, a hulk against the powdery blue sky above. As soon as she recognized him, her heart rate slowed to normal.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologized.

“I bet you did,” Krista replied dryly, eyeing him. “Apology accepted.”

A half smile tugged on his mouth. “Thanks. You found my favorite spot, I see.”

Krista noticed the straps of the backpack he wore. It was the first time she’d seen him without his uniform since she arrived in town. She had to admit—reluctantly—he looked just as good in faded Levi’s and a hunter green sweatshirt as he did in the dark blue cop suit. The wind ruffled his light brown hair and he seemed more at ease than she’d ever seen him.

“I can leave and find another spot,” she offered. She didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t want to create any more animosity with him.

“No, please don’t. You got here first.”

“There’s plenty of room for another person if you want to sit. If you don’t mind the company, that is.”

He hesitated for a long moment, staring at her, probably weighing the pros and cons. A beautiful view in trade for sitting next to someone he’d hated for fifteen years. Surely he’d take a pass on her offer and move on.

Instead, he sat on the other side of Gus and took off his backpack.

“Well, maybe we’re making progress,” she noted with a smile.

He shrugged and removed an apple from his pack. “Just a chance to see if there’s been anything else going on that I should know about.”

Yeah, right. “No, nothing. Thankfully.”

He nodded. “Good. Glad to hear it. Maybe the perpetrator has had his fill.”

She doubted it, not after the bold move on the center.

“Do you really think it’s Ricky?”

Matt shrugged again. “He’s the most likely suspect regardless of his rock-solid alibi for that night. I can’t see him getting into that kind of trouble, firsthand. I wouldn’t, however, put it past him to hire someone to do it.”

“But why? Why do you think he’d target me?” Krista wanted him to spill it, what he had against Ricky. Something stewed there. If he didn’t blame Ricky for the accident, logic stated he shouldn’t have this intense dislike for him.

“I can’t say for sure. I have my theories.”

“Tell me about them. I want to know.” No doubt she’d have to pry the information out of Matt, but now she had him here. Away from the office, the town—and his uniform—maybe he’d be more comfortable telling her, human to human. If he could leave his dislike of her behind.

“I’d rather hear your side of the story, about the night of the accident.”

It surprised her. She didn’t think he’d want to hear about it, most of all from her. “I told my side a long time ago,” she replied quietly.

“I want to hear it again. I didn’t care before. Not really. But I’m ready to listen. Tell me what happened.”

Krista drew in a deep breath. Hearing him say he didn’t care before hurt her more than she would’ve expected. Though she shouldn’t have been surprised.

She hadn’t gone into the details of that night with anyone from her past since the trial. Already rehashing every aspect in her brain, she didn’t particularly want to dig through it again, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Maybe Matt would actually believe her, even if just a little.

She took another breath of sweet air and released it slowly.

“Jay called me about nine that night.” She forced her voice to remain steady, staring at the brilliant autumn foliage spread out beneath them. “He and Ricky were at a party at Frank Del Rossi’s beach house and they didn’t have a ride home. So I picked Liz up and we went to get them. I was so pissed at them. He’d been getting drunk a lot and I was sure he was going to get in trouble, especially being the son and brother of town cops. He always said he’d never get in trouble
because
he was the son and brother of town cops.”

“Yeah, he had that wrong,” Matt muttered.

“I couldn’t convince him of that. Maybe if he realized it, he’d be here today.” Krista drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“Continue.”

“So we picked them up. They had a couple beers with them although they were already really drunk. I didn’t know they had the bottles until we were driving. Must’ve shoved them down their pants or something.”

“You didn’t have any?”

Krista picked up on the slight indication of an accusatory tone to his voice. She chose to ignore it.

“No. I drank some back then, but never when I had to drive. My parents would’ve killed me and taken away my car.” She didn’t add she’d been pregnant with Jay’s child and she was morally against pregnant women drinking or smoking.

“Ricky said you were driving erratically, trying to make him and Jay sick, and you were yelling and carrying on. That you wanted them to pay for you having to go get them.”

Krista shook her head. Such a ridiculous claim. “Yes, I remember him saying that. As if I wanted anyone puking in my car, excuse my vulgar term, but come on. Really?” She had to laugh, though it sure wasn’t funny. “Actually Ricky and Liz were getting, um, close in the back seat and Jay started ragging on them, which led Ricky to ragging on Jay. All that good-natured joking led to them wrestling with each other over the seat.”

Krista shut her eyes. She could see the moment as clearly as if it were on a movie screen in front of her face. She’d yelled at them, threatening to dump them off at the side of the road so they could walk the rest of the way home. Ricky had laughed and grabbed her by the shoulders, giving her a shake that sent her into the opposite lane.

“Before I could pull over, Ricky decided to try to climb over the seat, which instead turned out to be practically in my lap. I’d had enough, it was getting too dangerous.”

So she’d hit the brakes. Even now she could feel the moment, the sound of her tires squealing on the pavement, the bulk of Ricky’s body as the abrupt stop sent him over the seat and against the dashboard. And lastly the sight of the headlights in her rearview mirror in those final moments before the car she hadn’t noticed behind her struck them full force.