Chapter 9 Taking The First Step
TAKING THE FIRST STEP
“Hi, Gale’s friend, right?” Barb asked when he walked into the courthouse for the records of his sister’s trial.
“That’s me,” he said. Might as well play along since Gale did him a favor to get these records. Or get them faster.
He’d been bracing himself for this all night. He thought for sure Rene would come to him in his dreams and had been disappointed when it didn’t happen.
She kept telling him he was close, or at least letting him feel as if he was.
If this was just one more dead end, he didn’t know what else he could do.
But the minute the two boxes were put on the counter, he felt it.
Excitement mixed with grief.
He’d see all the information that he’d told himself he didn’t need to know and would have to separate it from being personal to now being a job.
That was exactly how he had to go into this, or he was going to break.
That’s where the excitement was coming from. New knowledge would hopefully provide new leads.
“I’ll keep an eye on that box while you bring the other to your car,” Barb said.
“Thanks,” he said, grabbing the first. It’d take him days to sort through this. Might be better than digital so he could write on it, or not. It’d feel like old school detective work, but might give him a break from staring at a computer nonstop again.
When he returned for the second box, Barb was still standing there smiling. “Do you plan on talking to anyone in the area about this?”
“It’s my plan,” he said.
She looked around as she had last time he was here. “Just be careful. You seem like a nice guy and all.”
The second warning from her. “Why be careful?”
“It’s like I said,” Barb whispered. “Some people don’t like the past dug up. It hit our community hard and most have moved on.”
“Got it,” he said.
Well, he hadn’t moved on and he could guarantee it hit him a lot harder than anyone else in the community.
After the second box was in his SUV, he drove back to his rented ranch, unloaded the boxes onto the kitchen table and stared at them.
Why was it so hard to open the first box and start?
Not long ago he was excited.
But the grief. It was there too.
He knew this was going to happen. He knew he’d struggle.
Taking that first step was going to be the hardest.
He’d start small. He’d just said how happy he was it was paper, but he was going to scan it all into his computer anyway. It was how his mind worked.
Three hours later, his butt was numb and his fingers were chapped from feeding the papers in twenty at a time.
The fucker jammed on him more times than he could count too, but it was done, saved, and his computer shut down.
He needed air more than he needed a deep dive into his sister’s murder.
Odd, considering that was why he was here and what had been fueling his life for the past decade.
Rory grabbed his phone and the key to the house he was staying in, then took off toward the path they suspected his sister had taken the night she was murdered.
He started at the cabin his family had rented that summer, turned right and made his way toward the property she’d been snapping pictures of on her phone.
Where he landed was a cluster of condos.
One of them was Gale’s. She hadn’t said which one and he hadn’t asked, but she’d seen him taking pictures.
He was positive Rene had stopped here before attempting to return. He’d clocked it prior, ten minutes based on his sister’s stride. She walked fast to keep pace with him when they were side by side. This was ten minutes, when he got the text that she was coming back.
Five minutes back and he was right about where her body was found.
The bush was still here that her body was thrown behind broken and limp.
His heart raced, his palms were slick, head pounded, and that familiar bubbling twisted in his gut. A sick, queasy feeling he knew no amount of time would ever chase away.
He inhaled, his lungs filling, then pushed the air out as if he was blowing all his pain with it. Nope, hadn’t worked.
“Can I help you?”
Rory turned quickly and noticed an older man on the side of the road.
“Just looking,” he said.
“Come to gawk where that young girl was found?”
“It’s hardly gawking,” he mumbled. “Do you live around here?”
“That house over there,” the man said. “Been there almost fifty years.”
“So you lived through it all when it happened,” he said. “When Rene Connors was murdered and found here?”
“I did,” the man said. “What’s your interest in it?”
He was toying with being honest. What could it hurt? Maybe he’d get some sympathy from the guy who could have some answers. Hiding who he was might not be smart.
He put his hand out. “I’m Rory Connors. Rene was my sister.”
“Austin Robinson.” They shook hands. “You looked familiar.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah. I read everything I could on that case. Scared my wife and kids back then. My wife wanted to sell the house, but I said no one would buy it. It was a hard time for months, years, being here.”
“Tell me about it,” he said.
“Is this your first time back?”
“It is, since the end of the trial.”
“Are you looking for answers?”
“I am,” he said. “Maybe you wouldn’t mind talking sometime. What you remember or thought of at the time. Anything that could be different from what the police have.”
“I could,” Austin said. “The thing is, I’m not sure I can help much. I told the police everything I remembered and my mind was fresher back then. It should be on record. Bet you could get copies of that.”
“I’ve got them,” he said. But he didn’t remember Austin giving any statements. Was it possible his family hadn’t been given everything?
He wouldn’t write anything off at this point.
“Then you know what I said,” Austin said. Austin was looking around now as if he was worried someone might see them talking.
No reason to argue with the guy. “I’ll go back through it. Don’t suppose you could give me any theories you’ve had? Everyone has them.”
Austin’s eyes shifted, he moved out and looked up and down the street. Jesus, they were the only two people out right now. Did he think there were cameras in the bushes or something recording him?
“Just watch who you ask what to.”
“I’ve heard that. That the town is still skittish. I don’t understand that. My impression is they figured it was another tourist at this point.”
It was one of many theories. No one knew for sure.
“Could be,” Austin said. “Or a local who carries some power and doesn’t want this brought up again. Doesn’t want ears, eyes or mouths flapping about something they got away with.”
“Do you think that happened?” he asked.
Austin shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I think, just that many people on this street gave statements and then minded their own business. Some quieter than others when they saw the McGregor trucks coming and going. Just like they did a lot the week before your sister’s death.”
There was nothing in any of the reports about that. Why would something like that be left out if more than one person saw it?
It was the way Austin narrowed his eyes with that statement that made Rory ask, “Why? You said people in the area with power. Were locals getting threatened to not speak?”
“Isn’t that always what happens in a small town?” Austin said. “That Abdell guy, he knew to keep his mouth shut, or maybe he didn’t. Doesn’t mean it had to do with your sister’s death. Could be about anything.”
But he didn’t believe that. It felt as if Austin wished he hadn’t started this conversation and had kept to his property and his own business.
“True,” he said. “You said your wife and kids. Do you have a daughter?”
Maybe he could appeal to the guy that way. “I do. She was eighteen when it happened and going away to college a few days later. We were all happy to get her away but still on edge.”
“Do you think Cooper Stevens did it and got away with it?” he asked.
“Nah,” Austin said, waving his hand. “Too nice of a guy. He was a handyman in the area. Used to work for the McGregors but left to go on his own. I think he got the shaft just because he was working in the area.”
“Do you remember what house he was working on?” he asked.
Austin scratched his chin. “I think it was the old Hayes house. A little way down there on the left.”
Across the street then. “Don’t suppose you could show me which one it was?”
“Sure,” Austin said, glancing around some more. “I’ve got time on my hands. Retirement is boring.”
“Do you live alone?” he asked, walking next to Austin.
“I do. My daughter moved out of the area. Can’t say I blame her.
There isn’t much around here. My wife and me, we divorced shortly after my daughter went to college.
Guess she was the only thing holding us together and once it was the two of us in the house, all we did was get on each other’s nerves. ”
“It happens,” he said. What was he supposed to say?
That it was better to divorce over that than the grief of losing a child and what his parents went through.
“That house right there,” Austin said. “The green one. Cooper was replacing the windows or something. Don’t really remember those details. The homeowners said he was there the whole time. Not sure how he was even brought up on charges.”
“He had an alibi for the time?” he asked.
“Yes,” Austin said. “I think that was how he got off. The homeowners were out of town, but the neighbor had been watching the house. Not sure why no one questioned Liza Brown, but she’d brought Cooper a drink.
It was hot out. She remembered the timing of it because it was a commercial during her soap opera.
He was still working on the windows after the time of death. ”
“You’d have to be pretty cold to go do that and then return to finish a job,” he said.
Things Rory was going to read in the court case. He and his parents hadn’t sat through the whole trial. It was long and emotional, them coming into town the last day for closing arguments and to wait out the verdict.
“Exactly. The police back then, they were pushing for anyone to take the fall. Maybe there were some pushing it just as quickly for their own agenda.”
“Who?” he asked.
Austin threw his hands up and backed up to return. “Ignore me. My wife said I always gossip too much.”
Rory didn’t think he was going to get too much more out of the guy now. Best to change the subject, so he turned to walk back.
“I noticed a lot of changes since I was here last. New condos are popping up everywhere.”
“I’ve been asked more times than I care to count to sell my property for more and I’m holding strong. Lots of us are.”
“It’s one company putting them up?”
“McGregors,” Austin said. “And don’t go talking to them. You won’t get anything but their lawyer in your face or Kane trying to sell you something.”
“Kane? Is that the owner?”
“Son. He’ll be taking it over at some point. Lots of money from downstate that moved here over three decades ago. If they had their way, they’d develop this entire area.”
“And lose the charm,” he said.
“That’s what I say,” Austin said. They ended up back by Austin’s house, him walking past the bush his sister’s body was at and not looking this time. No reason to stand there and feel ill or shake. He didn’t know why he thought he’d be able to look at it and not react.
“Thanks for the conversation and company,” Rory said.
“Hope you find what you’re looking for, but you might be better taking off and putting it behind you.”
No fucking way.
Not now.
Not after that conversation.
Someone was covering something up in this town and it had more behind it than his sister’s death.