“Let’s just get this over with,” I said.
“Okay, Toni. Take me through last night.”
“How are Ryan and Ashley?”
“Ryan’s in the hospital but it looks like he’ll make it. Ashley’s also going to be okay. What were you doing out there? And why were you carrying a knife?”
I’d violated multiple conditions of my parole, but it seemed I was screwed anyway, so I told him everything. How I’d discovered Nicole had had a secret boyfriend, about Shauna’s affair with the shop owner, and that I was positive she and her friends had killed Nicole because she was having an affair with Frank McKinney.
“Shauna said you were blackmailing her.”
“I told her I had Nicole’s diary, but that was just to get her out there. I recorded what happened on my phone.” Then I realized my cell was probably at the bottom of the lake. “Ashley said she filmed what happened too, and—”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. I want to hear what you have to say.”
I told him the rest of my theories, what I’d realized at the lake—that my sister must’ve been fooling around with Frank McKinney for months. I told him about McKinney driving her home, her sneaking out more after that, how her behavior had changed, about the missing necklace, which Shauna now claimed to have taken. I also told him how Ryan had jumped McKinney to protect me, then McKinney shot him.
At the end I said, “So what’s going to happen now? We get blamed for everything again?”
“You’re all under arrest. We’re taking statements from everyone involved, and we’re in the process of reviewing the video Ashley recorded. But you violated at least three conditions, so your parole will be suspended.”
“I’m going back to Rockland.” I said the words flat, resigned to my fate.
“If everything you’re telling me is true, you can appeal on the grounds that you have new evidence.”
I laughed. “If I live that long. Someone inside wants me dead.”
“We can put you in protective custody.”
“I’d rather die. What about Ryan?”
“He’ll be in the hospital until he recovers, then he’ll go back to Rockland. We know you two met on several occasions prior to this, which is a direct violation of your parole, and we found a knife strapped to his calf.”
“He was trying to protect me. This is such bullshit. You’ve seen the video, you know we’re innocent.” His eyes flicked to my arms, and I glanced down at the scratches. I looked back up at him. There’d been something in his expression, a realization. What was he thinking? Then I got it.
“You see now. You see how Ryan got those scratches the night Nicole died—it was from when we pushed our way through the bushes. I told you—”
“We’ll get to the truth, and if you and Ryan are innocent, you’ll be exonerated in due time. Meanwhile, we have to follow the law, which you broke when you carried a concealed weapon to meet a witness.” I hated him for his matter-of-factness, for being part of the system that had screwed me years ago.
“If anything else happens to me or Ryan, it’s on your head. You sent two kids away for years who didn’t do anything. Or is that what this is about? Did you help cover up for your buddy Frank McKinney?”
“I didn’t cover for anybody.” His face was an angry red. It was the first time I’d ever seen him show a strong emotion. I pushed harder.
“He was your friend. You were together that night.”
“He was my partner, but that doesn’t mean I won’t put him away if he broke the law.” Hicks stood up, but before he left, he said, “We will get to the truth—and the right people will be punished.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
ROCKLAND PENITENTIARY, VANCOUVER
JULY 2013
I didn’t see Doug Hicks again. I spent the night at the station jail and was flown over to Rockland the next afternoon. Outside the station, media lined the road, trying to get a photo of me and shouting questions: “Toni, did Shauna McKinney murder your sister?” “Are you and Ryan back together again?” “Is it true that you’re innocent?” The sheriffs had to shield me from the cameras as they ushered me to the van. I wondered if what had happened at the lake had been on the late news the night before, if the girls in Rockland had heard I was coming back, if Helen was already planning her assault on me.
After I went through the intake process at the penitentiary, I was unpacking my stuff when Brenda and Amber appeared in the walkway outside my cell. I looked up with a smile. “Hey, guys.”
Neither of them smiled back, their faces serious. Thinking that they must have news about Helen, I said, “What’s up?”
Brenda tried to speak but stopped, tears in her eyes. I was starting to get a really bad feeling. I sat down on my bed.
“Where’s Margaret?” I said.
Amber spoke up, her voice high and anxious. “Helen and her haven’t been getting along since all that stuff happened when you were in here, and—”