13. The Truth You Buried
THE TRUTH YOU BURIED
CAIN
W hen Lo calls and asks me to get my ass to the county substation, I don’t question it. I have a feeling I won’t like the answer. I’m afraid she’ll tell me that Faith is guilty. But if that’s the case, I’ve already decided not to press charges.
We’re having a good December, and Christmas always brings people into Ripley’s.
We go all out—eggnog cocktails, maple bourbon bread pudding, cranberry-glazed pork sliders, and gingerbread pancakes.
Georgia insists on serving peppermint hot chocolate floats in mason jars, and the mulled wine’s got enough cloves to cure the plague.
We also had a really good November—not me, my month of thanks sucked, but Ripley’s made good money.
I feel guilty about what I did to Faith. I wish I’d talked to her before calling Kyle. I wish I had not pressed charges. I wish so many things. Seeing her at Nectar was a wakeup call for me. I believe her. No one who steals works as hard as Faith does.
The duty sergeant at the county station walks me to a conference room.
Inside I see Kyle, who’s slouched and looks like he’s aged five years, Paula and Melody. Neither of them meets my eyes.
My heart begins to beat faster. I think I know what Lo is going to tell me. I don’t like what I’m thinking.
Lo waves a hand at a chair on her right. She’s at the head of the table while the others are on her left side.
Them versus me?
“Everyone’s here,” she announces. “Let’s get this over with.”
I sit. My stomach knots. My instincts screaming.
She looks at me. “We found out who took your money. Faith?—”
“I don’t care,” I cut her off. “I’m not pressing charges.”
I can’t stand the idea of her suffering anymore. I just can’t.
I won’t do it.
“It wasn’t Faith,” Lo says softly, her eyes losing some of their hardness.
Relief loosens my stomach. I want to sink to my knees and thank the universe.
I also want to kick myself.
She didn’t do it and I had her arrested, fired her, made her a pariah to the point she’s cleaning dirty bathrooms in a strip club.
How will I ever make this right with her? How will I?—
“Paula and Melody accessed your office the night before the cash went missing,” Lo cuts into my thoughts. “They removed the money, planted the story, and pointed the finger.”
My world tilts.
I look at my sister. She’s staring at her lap. Melody has her head down as well.
“I didn’t know.” Kyle sits up. “They said they saw her and that…she was sleeping with you to rip you off, Cain.”
My mouth goes dry.
Kyle continues, in a panic, wanting to explain, tell his side of the story. “I called around in Seattle and?—”
“Don’t gloss it over, Kyle. You did a background check…an unauthorized background check on Faith Baker,” Lo interrupted, her jaw clenched.
Kyle nods. “Paula said that something about her was off and…”
“Kyle here finds out that Faith worked at a club in Seattle. The Rosebud. He calls the owner. Jamie Da Silva. A complete douchebag. Da Silva says, yeah, Faith stole from him.” Lo glares at her subordinate. “How much did she steal from him?”
Kyle clears his throat and mumbles something.
“Louder,” Lo commands.
He looks ashamed. “Three hundred dollars. But…Da Silva said?—”
“Three hundred dollars,” Lo repeats. “And how did I find that out?”
My heart has lost all rhythm. I can’t think straight. I don’t know how to process what’s happening in front of me. My sister? My own sister?
Kyle looks sheepish. “Sheriff Z talked to Seattle PD and they talked to Da Silva.”
“And do you really blame her for stealing , Kyle?”
He shook his head.
“Why is that?”
“He took her money, whatever she earned at the nightclub.”
Lo’s staring so hard at Kyle that I’m surprised she hasn’t bored a hole through him. “Guess what else I found out, Cain?”
“What?” I asked hoarsely.
“He sent her to the ER regularly.”
My entire body stiffens.
“The last time was ten months ago. She healed and then got the hell out of dodge, ended up here,” Lo tells me.
This was supposed to be her safe haven. I’d taken that away from Faith.
“How could you?” I whisper. “You’re my sister.”
Paula raises her head and look at me with defiance in her eyes. “She was using you. You were falling for her. Melody’s been here since the beginning. She belongs with you. Not some little grifter with a sob story.”
Melody has the good sense to not say anything or even look at me.
“Who took the money?” I ask.
Paula swallows and shrugs.
“She and Melody Brand both took the money,” Lo replies instead.
“You framed her.” I’m holding on to the conference table to not jump and hit something.
“She played you first,” Paula says. “We just made sure you saw it.”
I left Faith out in the cold. I let her be taken away. I am the one who called Bob to let him know she’d been arrested for theft and that someone would come to look through her things. I knew he kicked her out of her place. I cheered then.
“She was half frozen outside the library, Cain. No one deserves that.” Georgia was in pieces when she told me how she found Faith. That’s when she revealed how she helped Faith, got her a job with Ricky.
“How could you take her there?” I ask.
“No one else would give her a job, and the cops said she couldn’t leave town. Beyond all that, she wouldn’t take a cent from me,” Georgia flung back.
“By stealing from your brother and blaming someone else for it? Dragging my deputy into this?” Lo’s voice is razor sharp now. “Thanks to you, Kyle’s facing an internal disciplinary review.”
Paula puts a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Kyle.” He shrugs it away.
“How could you, Paula? You almost cost me my job. I trusted you. I believed you.”
“I just…I was doing my friend a solid,” Paula explains, going teary-eyed. “And protecting my brother.”
Kyle shoots her a look of disgust. “You made me arrest an innocent woman. She spent two nights in jail, Paula, for doing nothing, for a crime you committed. Can’t you see how fucked up that is?”
“Let’s talk about this later,” Paula shoots him a be quiet look.
“This is the last time I talk to you, Paula,” Kyle says sadly. “You’re poison.”
“What?” Paula snaps.
“You threw me under the bus,” he says, not looking at her. “And for what? Some high school obsession your friend has with your brother?”
Lo releases a long sigh. Her tone is gentle when she says, “Kyle, you can leave.”
“Thanks, Sheriff.”
Without a backward glance at the woman, who has been his girlfriend since they were both fifteen years old, he walks away, slamming the door behind him.
“Now, Paula and Melody.” Lo turns her attention to them.
“Lo, she was never one of us,“ Melody chimes. Her parents know Lo and her husband well. They’re part of the same friend circle. I think they play monthly poker games together.
“Really?” Lo leans back in her chair, as if getting comfortable.
“And she did steal from her ex, didn’t she?” Melody adds triumphantly.
Lo pulls out her phone and swiped her finger around. Then she holds it up for Melody and Paula to see. “That’s what her ex did to her.”
Melody makes a face while Paula looks devastated. I’m not sure if it’s because of what she’s seeing on Lo’s screen or because Kyle just dumped her.
Lo slides her phone to me.
It takes courage for me to pick it up. I look at the pictures, there are four of them.
In the first, Faith’s face is turned slightly to the side, a deep bruise is blooming across her cheekbone like a cruel artist’s stroke.
In the second, her wrist is swollen, angry red where the skin split.
The third shows the curve of her ribs, purple and shadowed.
And in the last one, her eyes are swollen shut, her jaw is swollen.
My stomach turns. That asshole beat the crap out of her.
Oh, Faith .
I rise on shaky legs, bile is rising inside me.
I rush out, managing to get to the bathroom just in time to throw up my breakfast.
The photos of Faith brutalized float in my head, making me nauseous. Every time I think I’m fine, I begin to dry heave.
Fuck! What have I done? I should’ve taken care of Faith. I should’ve remembered who she is. She thinks the devil with a cat in Moscow is fun. She can quote Cicero.
It takes me a good fifteen minutes to get back to the conference room.
“You okay?” Lo asks.
I shake my head. I don’t think I’ll ever be okay.
“Paula,” I wait until my sister looks at me. “I’m done with you.”
“Cain, I’m your?—”
“ Done ,” I cut her off. “Melody, you and I are never going to happen. Your father is going to hear about what you did.”
Melody rolls her eyes.
I stare at them—two women I thought I knew, two women I trusted. My sister. My past.
“Where’s the money?”
Paula looks at Melody. “She has it. We’ll give it back, Cain. We were never going to keep it and….” She trails off as she sees Melody’s face go from bitchy to guilty.
“Melody? Where’s the money?” Paula asks, now afraid.
Her friend shrugs. “Look…I had credit card bills, okay?”
“You spent it!” Paula hisses, slamming the palm of a hand on the conference table. “How much?”
Melody looks only slightly chagrined when she says, “All of it.”
Paula is incredulous. “That was my brother’s money, Melody. You were only going to keep it safe.”
Then as if something snaps in her, Paula slaps Melody hard . “You bought those shoes with the money, didn’t you? Your dad didn’t give you a cash gift.”
Melody starts talking and so does Paula. Within seconds, we have a screaming match.
“Stop,” Lo thunders.
Both women shut the fuck up. Thank God!
“Christ, you both make me want to use my service weapon in illegal ways,” Lo mutters. “Cain?”
I know what she’s asking. I shake my head. “I can’t, Lo.”
She nods.
“Cain, I’m so sorry. We were protecting you! I didn’t think she’d go spend all the money.” Paula is crying now, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks. In the past that would make me melt, now, I feel manipulated.
“What did you think would happen? You handed stolen money to a woman whose moral compass is more broken than a bargain bin compass in a hurricane.”
Melody glares at me. “This is on you, Cain Ripley. You’re the one who made me feel we had something, and then you started sleeping with her .”
“I don’t know what alternate world you and my sister are living in, Melody, but regardless, there isn’t a universe in which you and I would ever end up together. Ask me why?”
She doesn’t.
“Because I don’t like you.” I turn to Lo. “I won’t press charges. Paula’s family.”
Both women sigh in relief. Melody smirks. Paula hides her satisfaction. She knew I’d never let her get arrested.
“He’s lettin’ you off the hook, but you breathe wrong again, and I’ll bury you both,” Lo warns. “One foot out of line, and I’ll dismantle your lives the way you dismantled Faith’s.”
Their smiles falter.
Good!