Down a Dark Road (Kate Burkholder #9)

She reads, “‘The victim claims she was pulled over by Deputy Wade Travers around three A.M. on a desolate road southwest of Chardon. When she failed a sobriety test, he arrested her and placed her in his car. Instead of taking her to jail, the victim claims, he offered to let her go if she had sex with him. When she refused, she alleges he pulled her from the car and raped her. The situation is under investigation by the Geauga County Sheriff’s Department.’”

“Wade Travers?” Exhaustion forgotten, I get to my feet. “I’ve met him.”

“Don’t get too excited,” she tells me. “There’s a twist.”

Mona looks down at the paper. “This story came out of the same newspaper four days later. ‘Nineteen-year-old Kelly Dennison admitted to detectives that she lied about being sexually assaulted by Geauga County sheriff’s deputy Wade Travers in the course of a DUI arrest. Travers, who had been detained and was facing termination and arrest, was reinstated yesterday.’”

“That’s interesting as hell,” I say.

“But it’s a false alarm, right? I mean, he was exonerated.”

I think about Joseph King and the purged records, the alleged affair between Naomi King and a cop. And I wonder …

“Get me everything you can find on Kelly Dennison, including contact info. Social media. Ask Glock to run her through LEADS to see if she’s got a record or warrants.”

“Will do.”

She starts to leave, but I stop her. “Oh, and Mona?”

“Yeah, Chief?”

“Nice job.”





CHAPTER 22

I was fourteen years old the last time I saw Joseph King. He’d been on my mind a lot that cold and rainy spring. All winter, I’d pined for summer. To endless afternoons spent at the creek, fishing or swimming or wading where the water ran clear and fast. I could just see the roof of the King house from my place at the kitchen sink, and while I washed the dishes in the evening, I’d find myself straining my eyes, just to catch a glimpse of him. I’d daydream that he’d emerge from the woods between our farms the way he used to with that I-don’t-have-a-care-in-the-world grin on his face and that old bamboo fishing pole at the ready.

But he never came. Things had changed over the winter. I hadn’t seen him much since his datt was killed in a buggy accident last fall. He didn’t come over anymore. When he did, it was only to help Jacob or Datt with some big project. I was never included.

Our family attended the funeral. Even at such a solemn occasion, I’d secretly watched Joseph, hoping he’d come over and talk to me so I could offer my condolences. But he’d been stone-faced and sullen and didn’t even look my way.

That had been months ago and I was still young enough, na?ve enough, to believe things could be the way they were before the accident. I wanted to see Joseph laugh again. I wanted him to say things that would make my mamm frown. Most of all I wanted to go on another grand adventure—like our search for that trunk buried in the gravel bottom of the creek, or the exploration of some mysterious Indian burial ground.

It wasn’t to be.

I was in the horse stall mucking when I heard the barn door slide open. I glanced over the gate to see Joseph silhouetted against the daylight. My fourteen-year-old heart leapt so hard I had to put my hand to my chest. But I’d known he would come back. Now, I thought, everything would be the same and we could get back to the way it had been before.

“Joseph!” Dropping the pitchfork, I rushed from the stall, almost forgetting to close the door behind me.

He’d stopped ten feet inside the sliding door. He didn’t speak as I crossed to him, just watched me with a sort of quiet intensity, as if he didn’t quite remember who I was. He was taller now. His face had grown lean. An odd sense of self-consciousness assailed me. “I was wondering when you were going to come over,” I said, a little too breathlessly.

“Katie.” His voice was deeper. It was the voice of a man, not the boy I’d splashed in the face with water. Certainly not the boy I’d beat in a footrace the day he walked me home from school.

I didn’t know how or when it happened, but he was a stranger to me. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know what to say to him.

“How are you?” I asked.

“Fine.” He angled his head. Relief swept through me when I thought I saw the hint of a smile. “Du gucksht gut.” You look good. “You’ve gotten pretty.”

“You, too.”

He smiled then, but it was a fleeting twisting of his mouth that wasn’t reflected in his eyes.

It was a silly thing to say. Boys weren’t pretty. My face heated, but I forged ahead. “I haven’t seen you much.”

He shrugged. “Been busy. Is Jacob around?”

“He’s putting new chicken wire on the coop. Something got in and killed two hens last night. Our best layers.”

He nodded. “Damn coyote probably.”

I was inexplicably nervous and reminded myself this was Joseph. But it was as if there were another person in the room with us. A person I didn’t understand and didn’t necessarily trust.

“What are you doing here?” I blurted.

“I came to tell you good-bye.”

“Good-bye?” I choked out a laugh. “You’re not going anywhere.”

It was a stupid thing to say, but he laughed. “We’re moving to Geauga County.”

“But…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I couldn’t grasp the meaning of what he’d said. He couldn’t move away. It would ruin everything. All my plans for summer. “When?” I managed, hoping against hope he was kidding.

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” he told me.

The words hit me like a sucker punch. I actually took a step back, brought my hand up to my stomach. “But … why?”

Glancing toward the door, he shrugged. “Mamm has family there. My grandparents. An aunt and uncle. After Datt … She wants to be with them.”

I blinked at him, overwhelmed with an emotion I couldn’t identify. “But … what about us?” Realizing how that sounded, I quickly added, “I mean, all of us. Jacob and me and…” I ran out of breath, struggled to get oxygen into my lungs. “We’re your family, too.”

“I don’t have any say in the matter.”

“But … we were going to spend the summer together. Like before. You and me and Jacob. We were going to swim and … what about the trunk? I mean, in the creek? We have to find it, bring it out, and find out what’s inside.”

His smile was so sad it brought tears to my eyes. “There is no trunk,” he said after a moment. “I made it up.”

That he would lie about something so important infuriated me. He was making fun of me, I realized. Purposefully hurting me and getting a good laugh out of it.

“I’m not a kid anymore,” he said.

I stood there, mortified and humiliated because at some point I’d begun to cry. I’d never let him see me cry. Not even the time I ran into the barbed-wire fence and cut my arm and Mamm had to take me to the doctor for stitches. I always made sure Joseph knew I was tougher than that. Crying was for girls and I wasn’t just any girl.

“Katie.”

I knew it was irrational to be angry with him. I knew better than to feel so betrayed. But when you were fourteen, it wasn’t easy to hold those kinds of emotions inside. “Why don’t you just go ahead and go then,” I told him.

“You don’t mean that.”

Rolling my eyes, I brushed the tears from my cheeks. “I never liked you anyway.”

“I can tell.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Same here.”