35. Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Elise
“ D id you hear the news?” I whispered to Dylan as we jogged to the next spot on our tour of the racing course.
He winced. “I was hoping you’d missed that. It doesn’t get us any closer to knowing who’s behind all of this.”
I moved nearer to him to keep the kids surrounding us from overhearing our conversation. “I don’t know about that. The report said that Tara’s husband had been dead for a few days when they found him last night, so it had to have happened around the same time Tara was attacked, but the difference is that he was shot. That’s nothing like what happened to her."
“Tara’s death was planned out carefully,” I said. “Her husband’s wasn’t. I don’t think they were done by the same person.”
“I don’t know if that’s better or worse,” Dylan groaned. “Do we know how Tara is doing?”
Now I was the one to wince. “I may have used her contact information that I’m not supposed to have from my dad’s files and called her mom… She’s unresponsive.”
Dylan stopped running. Slowing my pace, I waited for him to catch up.
“How did that happen?” he asked when he reached me.
“They’re not sure. They hope to get the lab tests back as soon as tonight, and then maybe we’ll have some answers. Have you heard anything from Detective Jerkface?”
“Nope, which is funny since he treated me like he was going to put me on a most wanted criminals list or something.”
We caught up to where the rest of the team was awaiting our instructions, which happened to be at the mouth of the very loop where Sophie had tripped me and ended my high school Cross-Country career.
Thankfully, Dylan took over giving the instructions, including a warning about how to protect your space if someone should try to cut you off or trip you up. I’d heard Dad give the same advice many times. Why hadn’t I used it when it really mattered? If I had, that race might have ended very differently.
We jogged toward the next stopping point at the base of the dreaded switchbacks, and I settled into a pace that was comfortable for the slowest of our runners and trotted alongside them.
Rose grinned at my approach. “Everyone’s so glad and surprised that you’re feeling better and able to run again,” she said between puffs of labored breathing.
That was an understatement. Some of our kids had looked at me like I’d sprouted a set of horns when I laced up my shoes and jogged alongside them onto the course this morning. Of course, Rose would have heard about my return to running from Avery, so it wasn’t such a shock to her.
“Thanks. It's nice to be able to run with everyone again,” I said as I gave her a gentle nudge.
“How’s Avery; I haven’t seen her in a few days?”
Rose shrugged. “I think she’s good. I haven’t seen her much lately either.”
Hadn’t Avery said her parents were having trouble in their marriage? Rose probably wouldn’t want to talk about that, but was it affecting her too?
“I bet you miss having her around.” From the corner of my peripheral vision, I watched the girl with the tightly curled ponytail and freckles—so much like her sister— chug along beside me. Her lips pulled into a frown at my statement.
“Yeah, Avery always knows how to make things better. We all miss her now that she’s moved out.”
“I don’t blame you. Is everything going okay; is there anything you want to talk about?”
“Yeah, everything's great,” Rose answered in a flat tone.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to question her further. Ahead, the rest of our group had stopped and was waiting for me to give them instructions.
I hurried to the head of the crowd. Pointing up the series of switchbacks, I said, “These are your friends. All of our hill practice has prepared you to kick butt on this section. Thanks to your training, you should pass a lot of people going up this incline. Remember to lean into the burn and don’t back off. Life’s about letting hard things, even awful things, make you stronger.”
Looking to where Dylan was standing, I let out a long breath. This was one of the hardest, most awful times in my life. Was I any better for it? Tara sure wasn’t.
“You guys are so ready for this race,” Dylan added. “You’re tough enough to handle anything that gets thrown at you. You’ve got this, and I’ll be right here, cheering you on the whole time.” He winked at me.
I stood there, blinking, letting his words trickle over me. We were going to get through this mess together.