Chapter 3
TORE HIM APART
Two days later, Rory made his way into the courthouse.
No one had returned his call or his emails. Talk about frustrating.
He’d been back in Lake George for three days. As much as he would have loved to stay at the cabin his family rented fifteen years ago, it was under new ownership and not for rent.
Probably for the best. He wasn’t sure his psyche could take that much of a memory shoved down his throat.
He got a place two blocks away, not on the water, but it didn’t matter to him. He wasn’t here on vacation.
He wasn’t looking to fish.
Something he hadn’t done since the day they found his sister’s body discarded like a piece of trash thrown out of a car window racing down the street.
He was here looking for clues and a fresh perspective but under the guise of writing his next series.
No reason to ruffle feathers in the area...unless he had to.
He’d emailed the courthouse asking for the records under his pen name. Rory Rene. Even explained the reason for accessing them, to learn more about the case for a novel based on it.
Maybe he thought that would have given him an edge rather than being an annoying family member requesting more information.
Like his mother had done for years.
The Sheriff’s Department was used to his name. They returned his messages eventually. With the same canned response. The case is still open but no new leads. He was positive no one was even trying.
He looked at the wall to see where to go, then made his way in that direction.
“Can I help you?”
“Hi, I emailed two weeks ago, then again last week, and called a few days ago. I’m looking to get copies of an old trial for a book. Rory Rene?”
The woman looked at him. “I’m sorry. I don’t monitor those emails. I’m not sure who does. I’m new here and there has been a lot of turnover.”
Just great. He knew most cases over fifteen years were sent to the national archives but had been told they weren’t there when he inquired, and to check the local courthouse.
Which he was trying to do.
“Is there someone I can talk to about that?” he asked. “I’m in town now and was hoping to get them.”
He didn’t volunteer he was here for a month with an option for a second. He’d stay as long as he needed to get his answers or put that dreaded red line through his clue.
But he wanted the court documents. He needed to go through it all. Something he should have done before now but couldn’t bring himself to do.
What he had were police records only. He’d thought that was enough. Cooper Stevens was never guilty in his eyes. How Rory knew that, he couldn’t say.
But they had come back for the trial. He and his parents.
The guy they were trying to pin the murder on cried daily. Not just over his plight, but every bit of evidence put in front of him about his sister.
Rory could tell it was empathy, and genuine sadness exhibited. Cooper even read his statement through sobs that he saw his daughter in Rene, and could barely get through the drafted letter without gagging over the crime.
Rory might have been the one to gag and puke if Cooper was found guilty.
His father was livid and shoved his way out of the courthouse after yelling and screaming when the verdict was read.
His mother had grabbed his hand and held it tight. He knew his mother had felt the same as him. He’d heard those fights his parents had.
Mike Connors wanted someone, even if it wasn’t the right person, to be held accountable. Katy Connors wanted the truth. She wanted the guilty party caught, not just a scapegoat.
“There is a form here somewhere,” the woman said, punching into the computer. “Give me a minute to find it.” The woman was clearly struggling. “I’m going to have to ask for help.”
“Barb can help you.”
“Excuse me?” he said, turning to look at the woman who stood next to him, not sure if it was his curious author’s eye or his immediate spark of attraction that made him notice things about her.
Brown hair with streaks of blonde mixed in, parted to the side with loose waves flowing over her shoulder and down the middle of her back.
Not a lot of makeup, but what she wore was precise and expertly applied for the maximum effect of feminine power. A woman who knew what she brought to the table and wasn’t used to taking no for an answer.
“Barb can help you with that request,” the woman said again. “She’s been here for years and knows where everything is. Get her. Tell her it’s a favor for Gale.”
He lifted an eyebrow and watched the new employee move away.
“I’m assuming you’re Gale?” he asked.
“I am. Gale Ridgeway, attorney at law. I spend a lot of time in here. Barb is a wonderful resource and a friend of the family.”
Ridgeway. Ridgeway. Where had he heard that name before?
Oh shit. The new sheriff’s last name was Ridgeway. There was some hard cider company with that name advertised around town too.
Did he offer his real name or his pen name?
“Rory,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
Her manicured hand came out to shake his. Soft but firm. No fake nails either, but clear polish.
She screamed lawyer now that he knew, in her navy pants and blazer, light yellow and white sweater peeking through. For the hell of it, he dropped his gaze to her shoes. Yep, some killer navy power pumps on her feet.
“You look familiar to me,” she said. “But you’re only visiting in town?”
“I’m here doing research for a book,” he said. “I’d like to base some of it on an old case file.”
It was the truth. Kind of. Enough that he wasn’t outright lying, just mixing up his reasons.
He would be writing his book while he was here. He’d have to do something with his time if he ran into roadblocks. They were at least better than dead ends, which he was tired of finding.
There were only so many pictures he could take of the new condos that were erected where the rundown cabin had been that his sister was drawing that day.
He always felt that played a part in things, but no one believed him.
He’d told the police that his sister had been there. He even pulled out the sketch pad and guessed she’d gone back to get more pictures to draw from.
They’d brushed it off as the place she was going but not where she’d been killed.
He didn’t know why and it probably didn’t matter. All evidence pointed to her being killed less than fifty feet from where her body was dumped. As if someone was walking while they strangled her with her feet off the ground, then tossed her aside like a piece of chewed bubble gum out of the way.
The nightmares never let him forget. Rene watched her killer as the breath was crushed out of her body, powerless to stop it from happening.
His sister was scrappy and he knew she’d be fighting with everything she had, but there was no DNA left behind. Either she was forced into submission, which he didn’t believe, or she blacked out too quickly. Maybe the attacker’s arms kept her out of reach.
None of those possibilities ever brought him peace, only tore him apart more.
“What case file is that?” she asked.
He could lie, but it wouldn’t do any good knowing that Gale knew the woman who was going to help him. Most likely would stand here while he asked.
“The murder trial of Rene Connors.”
Gale’s features changed. Her eyes that were sharp softened, a sadness came over her face and her shoulders even dropped slightly.
“I was about her age when it happened. I’ll never forget. It rocked this town. My father wouldn’t let me out of the house without at least one of my brothers or a group of my friends with me.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. He should have been with Rene. Shouldn’t have let her go alone.
Or if he had gone in search of her when she texted she was on the way could he have stopped the murder?
None of it made any sense.
Her time of death was within minutes of her text that she was returning home.
It was as if someone was walking and saw a bug that scared them, stomped on it, and kept going.
His family knew no one in the area. Nothing.
A walk that took her away from the house for fifteen minutes resulted in a horrific unexplained death.
A stranger to people of this town.
People like Gale.
His life was destroyed that day.
Every part changed, and nothing would ever return to normal.
“Everything changes when something like that happens,” he mumbled.
The new employee and an older woman returned.
“Gale.” The woman he assumed was Barb walked forward with a massive grin on her face. “Always so lovely to see you. Did you bring me donuts?”
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t, but if you could help Rory with what he’s looking for, I’ll bring you a dozen tomorrow before court.”
“You’ve got a deal,” Barb said. “I can’t get enough of them.”
“Everyone says it,” she said. “Rory, you wanted some court records.”
“Yes,” he said. “Sorry. I’d like to get the court records for Rene Connors’s murder trial.”
“What a sad situation that was,” Barb said. “I can’t believe they never caught the person. I was just as stunned as everyone else when they thought it was Cooper. So glad he got off, but horrible what he went through. Your parents went through it just as much, Gale.”
He whipped his head to her, but held as much of his composure as he could. “How is that?”
“Cooper and my father were good friends. My parents were there for support more than anything,” she said.
She could be an excellent resource for him. Maybe. She lived here at that time. Rumors rarely led to facts, but sometimes they led to something else people missed.
The right questions had to be asked.
Stop focusing on the wrong things, Rene had said to him.
Right now, he just needed to focus on something. And the woman in front of him might be the key to getting him started.
“Since you had some inside knowledge, do you think I could pick your brain a little? I can pay you for your time.”
Her eyes searched his face, then did a quick perusal of his body, the sadness he’d seen earlier when he mentioned his sister’s case gone, something more like interest in her eyes now. He wasn’t sure what it might be directed at, but he’d use it to his advantage.
“No payment,” she said. She pulled a business card out of the side of the briefcase she had in her hand.
“But reach out to me with questions. I’d love to help any way I can.
What I’d love more is to find the bastard responsible who not only took Rene’s life and destroyed her family, but ruined the family of a good man. ”
He took the card and watched Gale walk out, her back straight, her head high, a strut to her step.
“She’s a good girl,” Barb said.
He looked at the card and then back at Barb who had just put a form on the counter with a pen.
“Who? Gale?”
“Yes. Their family is a staple in this area, but Gale, she’s a tough one.
The whole family is. If you’ve got questions, she’ll have answers, and if she doesn’t, I bet she can find them for you.
One word of warning though...people in this town, they don’t always like the past dredged up. Watch who you say what to.”
“Why?”
Barb looked around and lowered her voice as she leaned closer to him. “Some people around here think they know who did it and got away with it. Depends who you ask. Some will voice it, others will warn you off.”
He ground his teeth. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Not when he knew in his gut he was on the right path.
“Then know Gale is a wonderful resource.”
Which was exactly what he needed.
What Rene needed or maybe had been hinting toward.
As pissed off as he was that it’d taken him three weeks to get here, to find a place available, Rene had returned to his dreams once to tell him the time had to be right.
Could now be it?
Any other time, he might not have run into Gale, so he had no choice but to go with it.