Chapter 3 #2
The news surprised her. “What did you argue about?”
He sighed. “Skye wanted us to move to Grand Rapids together. To find jobs and a place to live. When I told her I planned to join the army in September, she was not happy.”
Evie pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and drove around to the back the way they had earlier. Then she shifted into park and turned to look at him. “I didn’t realize you and Skye talked about moving in together.”
“That’s just it, we didn’t.” His voice rose in frustration. “I never asked her to marry me or move in with me. We had fun, I liked and cared for her, but I never planned on spending the rest of my life with her.” He turned in his seat to face her. “Did she tell you differently?”
“No, not at all.” She hastened to reassure him.
“Skye knew I planned to attend college for nursing. Being a lifeguard only made me realize how much I enjoyed helping people. Skye flat-out told me she had no interest in attending college, and she couldn’t wait to get out of small-town Grand Haven.
” She thought back to those early summer days.
She’d looked forward to graduating from high school and moving on with her life.
They all had. Even Cam had mentioned he was excited to see the world as an army soldier.
“She didn’t ask to share an apartment with you?” Cam asked.
“No. But that was because I told Skye that college freshmen were required to live in the dorms. Something she couldn’t do if she wasn’t planning to enroll in college.” She shrugged. “I just figured she would live with her mother until she found a job and made enough to move out on her own.”
“Yeah.” Cam jammed his fingers through his short hair. “I can’t believe she’s dead. That she never even left town the way we thought.”
“It’s not our fault, Cam. We’re not responsible for what happened to Skye.” She stared at the other cars in the parking lot. “Maybe we should be searching harder for her car. Whoever killed her must have taken and dumped it somewhere.”
He arched a brow. “You think we’re going to succeed in solving a fourteen-year-old murder before the police?”
She flushed, realizing how na?ve she sounded. “Someone shot at me tonight for a reason. And to be honest, I think we have far more motivation to uncover the truth than Rueger. As you said, he’d just as soon take the easy way of arresting you, rather than finding the real killer.”
Cam didn’t say anything for a long time. She didn’t move to get out of the car either.
Then he surprised her by reaching for her hand. A little jolt of awareness zinged up her arm, but she did her best to ignore it.
She and Cam might be working together, but there was no reason to unearth her old feelings for him.
They were friends. And once they knew who killed Skye, they’d go their separate ways.
Just like they had fourteen years ago.
Cam was secretly relived Evie believed in his innocence.
That he’d never hurt, much less kill, Skye.
Looking at Evie in the darkness of the car, he was struck by how pretty she was.
He hadn’t known Evie that well until he and Skye had started seeing each other.
And while he and Evie had worked as lifeguards together, he’d always known she was off-limits.
There was no way he could have broken up with Skye to start dating his former girlfriend’s best friend.
Besides, he’d known joining the army meant leaving his old life behind. He hadn’t wanted to get serious with anyone. Not Skye or Evie. Cam had never regretted making that decision. At least, not until their last day in Afghanistan when he’d lost more than half his teammates.
“Okay, where do we start?” Evie’s question interrupted his thoughts.
“Did Rueger hint as to how Skye died?” Cam asked.
“He wouldn’t tell me anything, just kept saying he was the one asking questions, and my job was to answer them truthfully.
As if I’ve been lying all this time.” The detective’s attitude had grated on him, the way he was sure the older cop had intended.
Rueger had poked at him on purpose to try igniting his anger.
The detective had even brought up the way he’d flattened Dan Johnson for being a jerk to his girlfriend, Tammy. As if that was the same as killing a girlfriend.
“No, I didn’t ask him about that.” Evie frowned. “Honestly, I’m not sure they’ll be able to tell how she died since all that’s left are her skeletal remains.”
“You didn’t see anything obvious? Like maybe a portion of her skull being smashed in or a bullet hole?”
“Nothing like that.” Evie didn’t hesitate.
“From what I saw, the skull was intact. At the time, I was more focused on the scrap of her clothing.” She paused, then added, “The moment Bruno brought me that bone, I had a bad feeling it belonged to Skye. Even back when she’d disappeared, I’d always wondered if something horrible had happened to her. ”
He nodded, because he’d had the same thought. They’d discussed it several times during their frequent visits to the Grand Haven police station. But their comments had fallen on Rueger’s deaf ears.
Neither one of them made any move to get out of the car. In a way, it was like old times, when they’d discussed Skye in the front seat of his old Chevy pickup truck. “I guess they’ll perform some sort of autopsy on whatever was left of her.”
“Yeah.” Evie stared down at their clasped hands. “For what that’s worth. If she was strangled or beaten badly . . . that evidence is long gone.”
“I can’t even imagine someone doing that to her. Why Skye?” He stared at Evie. “Do you think she was on her way out of town when someone stopped her? Maybe asked for a ride and then ended up killing her?”
“That’s possible, but then why not dump her body someplace else?” Evie released his hand to tuck a stray curl that had escaped from her ponytail behind her ear. “Why bury her in the nature preserve?”
“I have no idea.” He wished he’d paid more attention to what their classmates were doing back then. Summers were busy tourist seasons, and most kids worked hard during the daytime hours. Like he and Evie, working twelve-hour shifts at the lakefront.
And many had played hard at night too. Skye had been known to sneak a beer or two. Since Cam’s mother had drunk herself to an early grave, he’d always avoided alcohol. “Skye wasn’t at the bonfire that night before she was planning to leave town.”
“No, she wasn’t.” Evie tipped her head to the side. “Normally, she would have been. At the time, I assumed she stayed home to get an early start the following morning.”
“I think we should make a list of the kids who were not at the bonfire.” He was itching to do something constructive.
Better to make lists and investigate on their own than to sit back and wait for Rueger to slap cuffs around his wrists.
“It’s possible someone else skipped the party to spend time with Skye alone. ”
“You really think one of our fellow classmates did this?” Evie looked surprised.
“Why not?” He held her gaze. “Keep in mind, I did argue with Skye. I told her I wasn’t moving to Grand Rapids with her to look for work. That I was going to join the army and there was nothing she could say or do to stop me.”
“I see.” Evie’s brow furrowed. “You’re thinking Skye decided to spend time with someone else that night as a way to get back at you.”
“Yeah.” It was a better theory than the one that involved his being angry enough to have hurt her. “You remember how stubborn Skye could be. She liked getting her way.”
“That’s true. It was one of the reasons she played one divorced parent off the other.” Evie shrugged. “With summer being so busy with tourists, I assumed a newcomer to the area was likely involved. Not one of us.”
“I guess that depends on whether a tourist would think to bury her in the nature preserve.” Cam thought about how close the preserve was to Evie’s mother’s house. “Granted, you probably knew more about how many people hiked back there than I did.”
“There were lots of hikers back there, but most stayed on one of the numerous paths. The woods are thick, even the area behind my mom’s house.” Evie grimaced. “Skye’s body was far away from the regular hiking routes.”