“It seems more like you want to get me sent back.”
“I want you to stay away from Ryan. He’s trouble and always was. Everything I told you before was true. I think you were a good kid who just got hooked up with the wrong guy. I’d hate to see you go down that path again.”
His arrogance was pissing me off—his certainty that he knew all about Ryan.
“Is that all? Are you going to write me a ticket?”
“I’m not messing around, Toni. If you want us to reopen the case, stay away from Ryan.” He rapped on the top of the roof, making me flinch. “You’re a young woman, got a lot of life left. Let’s keep you on the outside.”
I watched him walk back to his car, my blood still pulsing hard and my chest tight. After he pulled back into the traffic I eased out myself, my body vibrating with nerves. What the hell was I going to do? Was he just bullshitting me about opening up the case again? Trying to get me to stop Ryan from talking to people because the cops didn’t want the real shit to come out? But what if he’d been telling the truth? I didn’t know who to trust anymore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CAMPBELL RIVER
JULY 2013
An hour later, back at the campground, I was still trying to recover from my run-in with Doug Hicks when my cell rang. I didn’t recognize the number, so I answered with a cautious, “Hello?”
“Toni, hey.” It was Ryan.
“I’ll call you back.” I knew the cops probably couldn’t tap my phone without some sort of warrant, but I was still freaked. I grabbed my disposable phone and dialed the number that had shown up on my call display.
When he answered, I said, “Doug Hicks stopped me today when I was coming back from talking with Rachel. He’s watching me.”
“Shit. Did Rachel or Kim call the cops on you?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t think they did, so it’s weird.”
“Then what did Hicks want?”
I told him what Hicks had said, finished with, “If he’s right, we could screw things up.”
“Come on, you don’t really believe him?” Ryan was pissed off. “There’s no way he’s looking into the case again. Why would he want everyone to know he screwed up and sent the wrong people away? He’s trying to stop us from finding out the truth, not help us. What are you thinking? You just want to believe him.”
I’d had similar thoughts, but Ryan’s angry tone was pissing me off. I wasn’t sure who I was more annoyed at, myself because I had wanted to believe Hicks or Ryan because he saw through it faster than I did.
“I’m thinking that something’s up,” I said. I told him what had happened with Kim and Rachel. “The way Shauna was talking to Kim in the car? Kim was nervous, really nervous. I’m worried there’s something else going on.”
“Like what?”
“Like they have a plan—something to get rid of us for good.”
“They’re not going to kill us, Toni. Nicole was young, they caught her off guard, and Cathy trusted Shauna. That was her mistake.”
“And you’re too damn confident—that’s your mistake. They’re going to get us one way or another. Back to jail or on a slab at the morgue.”
“So what do you want to do?” He sounded as frustrated as I felt. “How are we going to end this thing?”
“We need to lie low, stay away from each other, and see how the next few days go. One of them will make a move, I’m sure of it.”
“You can do whatever you want, Toni. But I’m not going away on this. I’m still talking to everyone who was at that party that night, anyone who snorted coke with Cathy over the years, anyone who knows something about anything.”
“That’s a mistake, Ryan. We need to be careful right now. Let’s wait and see if my talks with Kim and Rachel have any effect.”
“I’m done with careful. It’s time we blow this shit wide open.”
“Ryan, that’s not—”
He’d hung up.
*
Still angry and worried as hell about what was going to happen now, I decided to go for a walk on the beach. I’d just left my cabin and was heading down the path leading to the beach when I noticed Ashley’s car outside one of the trailers, where loud music was playing. What was she doing here? I paused, and she stumbled down the front steps, the door banging shut behind her. She was giggling as she opened her car door and grabbed some cigarettes from inside. She turned around and tried to light one of them, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glassy. From where I was standing, I could smell the pot smoke leaking out of the trailer.
She cursed at her lighter, gave it a shake, and tried again. She took a drag and glanced up, finally noticing me.
“Toni, hey.” She came toward me. “What are you doing here?”
“I live at the campsite.” I thought about her standing outside her mom’s place, watching. And I wondered if she’d followed me before and already knew I lived here. Had she ever videotaped me? The thought was alarming—especially if she’d seen Ryan there.