Shea had been terrified, screaming, “Don’t shoot my mama, Daddy. Please don’t shoot her!” Dru could still hear her voice, ragged with hysteria. Even all these years later, the memory of that night, what Shea had witnessed, her fear, and Dru’s over what could have happened, had the power to make her chest pound. It had been the final straw. She’d taken Shea and left Rob before the police, whom neighbors had summoned, arrived to arrest him. Months later, she’d gone alone to a psychologist, who had explained that Rob was likely suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of the assault. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t do it again even if he got counseling and, if necessary, medication. Dru had filed for divorce then. It had nearly killed her, ending her marriage, but she couldn’t risk taking Shea back into that situation.
Now Shea was grown, and she’d fallen in love with a man who, for different reasons, had received the same diagnosis. A man whose dark side was evident, at least to Dru. And that man might be a murderer. Damn straight, she was scared. She looked through the bank of windows above the kitchen counter. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun had dropped, making the light uncertain. Shadows crept like thieves toward the house.
Behind her, Shea was telling the detective that she’d last spoken to AJ the night before. “At around ten thirty,” she said, “when he was leaving work. He usually doesn’t get off till midnight, but they weren’t busy. We always talk last thing before bed.”
Pause.
“No, he wasn’t lying to me about being at work. We don’t lie to each other.”
Pause.
“Who did you talk to at Café Blue? It can be crazy—” Shea stopped, listening to the sergeant.
“What neighbor saw him? What’s their name?”
Pause.
“No, Detective, he wasn’t seeing Becca or anyone else. I already told you, he’d never do that to me.”
Dru’s heart contracted. Shea’s certainty—that kind of certainty could be so horribly misplaced.
“Well, of course I know a person using a cell phone can be anywhere.” Shea caught Dru’s glance and rolled her eyes. “Yeah,” she said, “if I hear from him, I’ll let you know,” and her response was shaded with sarcasm. “Jerk,” she muttered, ending the call.
“Will we be questioned?” Vanessa asked.
“I’m wondering, too,” said Leigh. “It’s scary. I mean, we don’t really know what this is about. Why Becca was killed. What if it’s some kind of vendetta? Someone who’s angry about the wedding? We could all be in danger.”
“What are you getting at, Leigh? Who would be angry? AJ?” Shea huffed a disgusted breath. “Not even the cops are suggesting anything like that.”
“You really don’t know where he is?” Vanessa was staring at Shea. She wasn’t buying it, but then Dru knew her to be a natural skeptic.
“Do you think I’d be standing here if I knew?” Shea asked, and her eyes skipped from Vanessa to Leigh to Kate, but none of the girls returned her glance, and in that telling moment, Dru realized that with the possible exception of Kate, Shea didn’t have the support of her friends. But neither did she have Dru’s support in her belief that AJ was innocent, as much as Dru might wish it were otherwise.
“You think he did it.” Shea set her phone down on the table harder than necessary, making Vanessa jump, making Kate and Leigh flinch. Even Dru flinched.
“He dated her!” Vanessa stood up, voice rising, a challenge. “Before you.”
“That was more than a year ago. And it lasted how long? Six weeks? Does that even qualify as serious?”
“It did in Becca’s mind,” Vanessa answered. “She never wanted you to know it, but she still had feelings for AJ.”
Shea kept Vanessa’s gaze. “But she introduced us. She told me it was over between them.”
“Maybe for AJ,” Vanessa said.
Shea glanced at Dru, hunting for reassurance, but Dru had none to offer, because quite possibly there could be some element of truth to what Vanessa was suggesting. It wasn’t an unreasonable stretch. Joy had commented on occasion, ruefully, about Becca’s fickleness, her tendency to create drama.
Leigh said, “I didn’t know, either—that Becca still had feelings for AJ.”
“I’m not making it up,” Van said, looking to Shea and then Kate for support.
Kate shifted her glance.
Keeping her opinion to herself, Dru thought.
“Well, I’m sorry if she was still carrying a torch,” Shea said. “But it doesn’t mean anything.”
The girls exchanged glances, and Dru saw their reactions, how they might have protested. Becca was in AJ’s apartment. He left work early and was seen there. Now he’s disappeared.
But no one spoke.
Leigh doodled a line along the table’s edge with the tip of her finger. She’d been the first of the five of them to marry. Right out of high school, the boy she’d loved since sixth grade. She’d told Dru once it was all she wanted, a husband and children and a home to take care of. At the wedding, Terri, Leigh’s mom, had tipsily told Dru she and Leigh’s dad had wanted more for their daughter. But once a kid turned eighteen, it didn’t matter what the parents wanted, she’d said. Remembering Shea at fifteen, the tattoo on her neck that every morning before school had to be covered if she wanted to avoid suffering a range of consequences from her peers, from school authorities, Dru had thought that as far as stubborn went, age had nothing to do with it.
“I know how it looks, trust me,” Shea said. “But how things look isn’t always how they are.”
“The last couple of times I talked to Becca, she seemed pretty stressed out.” Kate looked around the table. “Did y’all notice?”
“Yeah,” Van said, “it was like she had something on her mind, but when I asked, she blew me off.”
“That whole deal about her being sick yesterday when we went to pick up the jars?” Leigh said. “I didn’t believe it.”
“No, me, either,” Vanessa agreed.
“Something was going on with her,” Kate said.
“Well, she seemed fine to me,” Shea said, “but maybe I’m just in wedding la-la land.” A beat passed, and the furrow in Shea’s brow deepened. “She’d decided not to go back to school.” She went on, thoughtfully. “Did you guys know? She seemed relieved, too. Happy.” Shea looked around, but no one offered a response. “She had a plan.” Shea was insistent now. “She was going to take the summer, stay with her folks, and enroll at GCC in the fall.”
GCC was the community college in Greeley. Dru knew a lot of the local kids went there after graduating from Wyatt High before moving on to four-year universities.
“She thought she might like to teach elementary school, like her mom,” Shea said.
“Well, she never said anything about that to me,” Kate said. Her phone rang. “It’s Erik.” She looked stricken.
“Oh,” Shea said, “I’ve been trying to get hold of him. Answer it. Maybe he knows where AJ is.”
But it was clear, listening to Kate’s side of the conversation, that while Erik had heard about Becca’s death and the gruesome circumstances, he hadn’t heard from AJ and had no idea where he was.
Ending the call, Kate said, “He thinks maybe he’s here somewhere, hiding out at the ranch or something.”
“That’s what AJ’s mom thinks,” Shea said.
“Why would he hide?” Dru asked the most obvious question—at least to her, it was.
“He isn’t hiding, Mom.” Shea was impatient.
“Erik is coming by here later when he gets off work.” Kate didn’t sound especially happy about it.
“Are you guys ever going to pick out a ring?” Van asked.