Chapter 26 Get This Reaction
GET THIS REACTION
“Why did you make us wait all day?” Gale asked after work on Monday.
She felt as if she was missing out on everything.
First Rory went to talk with Detective Miller and filled her brothers in. Not her. No. Heaven forbid they include the little woman in all of this until now.
Then to find out that Clay had something to report.
“Because I wasn’t going to say it more than once,” Clay said, “and everyone was busy today.”
She plopped her ass down at the kitchen table in Clay’s ranch. Meredith had just left to go to the barn for something, leaving the four of them alone.
“What did you find out?” Rory asked.
“It could be nothing, but it could be something,” Clay said. “Those pictures on your sister’s phone. I’ve been looking them over. Nothing stood out, but then we got the pictures from your break-in. It was the footprints.”
“What about them?” Gale said.
“Rene was taking pictures of the old cabin. Not just the cabin itself, but the surroundings. Bushes, trees, rocks,” Clay said.
“She liked to capture as much as she could when she drew something,” he said.
“There were several footprints in those pictures.”
“So?” Gale said. “It could be anyone’s unless you tell me the tread is the same fifteen years later. People don’t wear the same shoes that long.”
“Women might not,” Ford said, “but men do. I’m not saying that is the case, but it is the spacing of the stride. Same size foot too.”
“No way,” she said. “You can tell that?”
“There is a lot technology can tell now,” Rory said. “But how were you able to, Clay?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Clay said.
Her brother had a lot of contacts that no one asked too many questions of. If it was enough to have it looked at in a more official capacity, then Ford would take that next step.
“We’d had some rain the day before you were broken into, so most prints, or other prints were gone. It’s hard to tell if this is the same person who left the letters. And it’s size eleven, the same stride. Like a fast walk. Not run, but not a calm stroll either.”
“More like moving quickly but not wanting to draw attention to themselves?” she asked.
“I think it’s more than a coincidence,” Ford said. “But that doesn’t mean this person is a killer. It could mean many things.”
“Like McGregors have someone on the payroll taking care of shit for them,” Rory said. “Logan said there is no way they’d get their hands dirty. I’m not sure I buy that.”
“I don’t think Daniel will,” Ford said. “I’ve done my digging over the years. More so now that I know they were trying to buy this land. The year before Daniel moved here, there had been a party at his house and a woman had been raped.”
“Was he a suspect?” he asked.
“No. But it was his house and his party. His wife talked him into giving a DNA sample so he could clear his name. Which he did. My point is, he left the area shortly after, fearful it would linger with him and his attempts to build a name and reputation there.”
“So he came here with all his money and could buy much more than he could downstate?” she asked.
“We are guessing. He hired attorneys back then to make sure his name was cleared of everything. There is almost no trace of what happened anywhere.”
“Did they ever find the man who raped that woman?” Gale asked.
“She later confessed that she wasn’t. She’d had too much to drink but remembers going into the room with the man. Things were different back then. Dropping her statement was all it took to end it.”
“Sounds as if she was bought off to keep quiet,” she said, crossing her arms.
“It’s not our concern about something that happened over three decades ago,” Ford said. “There were rumors Diana McGregor demanded the DNA because she thought her husband was cheating on her. That this was her way to get him in a divorce and that she was the one who wanted to leave the area.”
Gale laughed. “That wouldn’t surprise me. He’s a creepy old man.”
“We are getting off track,” Clay said. “What we know is the same stride was on this property before your sister’s murder. Was it a few days before, a few hours before, or at the same time? No one knows. But it matches who was at Rory’s place a few days ago.”
“And that doesn’t mean this person is a murderer, but it leads me to believe they’ve got some information,” Ford said.
“How do we find out who it is?” Gale asked. “We can’t go to the McGregors and ask them to walk in the dirt for us as if they are in a hurry.”
“And they wouldn’t,” he said.
“We can tail them and take pictures,” she said, smirking.
“And draw more attention to ourselves? I don’t think so,” Ford said.
“I should know by tomorrow if it’s the same person who wrote the last letters and the one left on your table on Saturday,” Clay said. “It was most likely done with your pen and I doubt there will be anything other than your prints on it.”
“We couldn’t get so lucky to have it be more.”
“We can have DNA run on it too. If there is more than one, you can submit to be eliminated.”
“My DNA is on file,” Rory said. “It was taken when I was suspected of Rene’s murder.”
Her shoulders dropped hearing that. She reached her hand over to lie on his on the table. Her brothers were watching and she didn’t care.
“That had to be horrible to be accused of that.”
“At the time it was. Looking back, I get it. None of us wanted to slow the investigation and did what was requested of us. As you know, there was no DNA on Rene anyway.”
“Don’t you find that odd?” she asked. “She didn’t hug your parents or anything? Nothing that day? Didn’t touch anyone?”
He frowned. “I nudged her that day. Her arm or shoulder. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Maybe I only touched her shirt though.”
“No DNA on her clothing either,” Ford said.
“That’s wrong. There had to be. I touched her.”
“Testing was different back then. Not to mention contamination on top of it,” Clay said.
“There would be nothing left to test now. And it wouldn’t make sense to do it for me. I guess I just hate that I never thought of that before.”
“I’m glad I gave you all something to look at. See, you don’t have to exclude me.”
“No one is excluding you,” Ford said. “If we were, you wouldn’t be here now.”
“So what is the next step?” she asked after she rolled her eyes.
“I’m going to talk to Detective Denning tomorrow,” Rory said. “He’s in a nursing home in Albany. Whether or not I’m able to get in, I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot. I got permission from his son.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “I didn’t know you were even trying to do that.”
“I told him who I was and what I’ve told everyone else. The guy doesn’t live around here and didn’t care all that much but warned that his father doesn’t have a memory of much.”
“Nothing hurts. When are you going? I’d like to rearrange my schedule and go with you.”
“I’m leaving at eight tomorrow. The nursing home said mornings were best.”
She snarled. “I can’t. I’ve got two early meetings scheduled I can’t put off.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Ford said. “You need to keep doing what you are. Let Rory work his end of things.”
“I want to say we are getting close, but are we really?” she asked.
“It’s more than I had three weeks ago,” he said.
“And you’ve only got a week left, or are you staying longer?”
Everyone turned their attention to Rory when she asked that question.
“I’m going to extend it another month, but I’m debating if I want to stay where I am or not. If I change locations, they’ve got to find me and would that give them away?” he asked.
“If you go to a hotel it could put other people at risk,” Ford said.
“I’ve thought of that. I won’t stay with Gale, don’t worry.”
He was staring at her when he said it. He might as well have just announced it to her brothers she’d slept with him.
Neither Ford nor Clay was looking too pleased, but she didn’t give a crap about it. It was her life and she was living it the way she wanted.
“I didn’t ask,” she said smartly. “But if I want you there, I know I’d be safe. My brothers need to get a grip on shit.”
“It’s not the time, Gale,” Ford said. “Just keep doing what we are. Clay will have more information tomorrow about the letter. The more you do, Rory, the messier this person might get.”
“That’s what I’m banking on. But it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Oh, yes it has,” she said. “Because for fifteen years no one else has got this reaction, but you come back to town and they are scared. Your presence alone is making someone nervous.”
“What the fuck?”
He stalked the living room with each turn sharper than the last on his heel, his carpet wearing under his restless pacing. His pulse hammered with his breath coming in short bursts, his fingers in his hair and yanking it harder than he’d done before.
When was Rory going to get that he meant business?
And then going to Detective Miller. Talking about things that should never have been said. What the hell had Rory told him? What secrets had he dug up?
Not that Logan Miller ever had much to go on. The guy had chased endless ridiculous clues for years and come up empty.
But still. It was the principle of it. The fact this guy just wouldn’t go away.
This was spiraling more than it had fifteen years ago. Thankfully he’d been kept away from most of it and only got updates.
Should he have done nothing when Rory came to town? Should he have just let Rory nose around for his book, scribble down his little notes, and then disappear? Maybe he’d overplayed it and showed his hand too soon.
But retreating wasn’t an option now. Not after everything he’d done.
He clenched his fists, forcing his brain to come up with the next move. Tonight, he’d try something different. Something Rory wouldn’t be able to ignore. He didn’t want it to come to this, but his options had long since been stripped away.
There was no turning back.