4. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
Cal Truitt
E ven when I want to cry I can’t. My brain does a hard reset. There hasn’t been a time in years when I felt this… raw? This exposed. I’ve invested my entire heart in Remington, but she’s separating herself from me.
Hell, I even reached out to Wilder for some answers. I regretted it immediately when he started teasing me. All I want is a chance to find out what I did or didn’t do. I never could’ve prepared myself for feeling this twisted up.
Taking a second walk through the mini putt course before James’ Flicks n’ Fun opens, my eyes catch on a picture flipped upside down and wedged under a windmill obstacle. Once I’ve pulled it out, flipping it over I realize it's one of the drowning photos that was missed in cleanup weeks ago. Absent-mindedly I shove it in my pocket.
I had hoped Remi was working today, but she’s been crossed off the master schedule. Was it because of me? I’m so distracted I don’t hear Skip walk in. “We’re a little shorthanded today, could you run the bumper boats on your own?”
“Where’s Remi?”
More employees continue to file in the door, while Skip looks at a text notification before answering me, “Oh, good. Looks like we’ll have someone coming in to replace her today after all.” Then he’s on his way to his office without answering my question. Typical.
My mind is on Remi and not on what I’m doing. When Kami and her over glossed lips make her way towards me after an hour, I’m ready to leave. “Fuck my life,” I say under my breath. “Here, can you take tickets. Over there.” I point to several feet away from me at the start of the dock. There’s little to no need to interact with me. I was feeling rotten enough without having to listen to her digs today.
“You take tickets. I’ll help people on the boats.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“Do you know what you’re supposed to do? You’ve never worked over here.” I’m sending every fuck you I can to Skip in my head. He’s not so oblivious he doesn’t get that Kami and I aren’t exactly friends.
“How hard could it be? I’m sure I can figure it out.” Without argument, since she was looking for one, I shrug and move to the ticket taking area of the dock. I ignore her anguish, when she isn’t able to figure out anything. Confronted by the cold hard reality that I’m not coming to her rescue ever again, she finally gets things halfway under control.
Time creeps along as the sun beats down on me, I try to act entertaining to the waiting line of people. But it falls flat. My heart just isn’t in it. My mind keeps circling back over and over to Charlie telling Carter about Remi going to art school. How does he get told that, but she keeps it from me? I want her to pursue her dreams, explore anything she desires, but I want to be in her life for it.
“You ask him. Shhh. No ask him.” My attention snags on the women right behind me.
I turn to face them, asking if I can help them with something, my tone flat. Startled they both look at me wide eyed, making me wish I had followed my instinct and left work earlier. My crabbiness is seeping over into everything. Trying to be more inviting, I add, “If you have any questions I can try to answer them.”
Both women appear middle aged, the one that chooses to speak on their behalf reminds me of my mom. “Are you Cal Truitt?” It’s not as if I’m famous like Grady, my family isn’t as well-known as Charlie’s. I also don’t have the infamy of a police investigation like Wilder. Why in the world would she know who I am?
“Uhh… yeah?” Tucking my hands in my pockets, I reassess them. They don’t look familiar. When I interned, I never met any of the parents, my baseball kids only have a handful of parents that are regulars. I’m at a loss.
Kami is watching the whole exchange which chafes at me. Repositioning between her and the ladies with my back turned to my ex, I ask, “Do I know you?”
She nervously moves her watch wristband, glancing at her friend before continuing, “I’m Mary Ross. My daughter Susanna… do you remember Susanna Ross?”
The name is an instant shot to my heart. Not because of the girl whose face I can barely remember, no details stand out, but because she died the same summer as my sister. They both drowned in Lake Hollow weeks apart. “I-I… yes, yes I remember her.” I don’t want to stand here and lie to her mother, but from experience I know how hurtful it is when your lost loved one isn’t remembered. Her daughter didn’t make an impression on me years ago, beyond what I was being told by my friends. Did I even meet her?
Moving us out of the way of the rest of the line, Mary says, “I’d heard you were working here. The gal that owns the secondhand store told me I might find you here.” Bold. But before I get irritated, I listen to her as she continues, “I wanted to ask you about something. If that’s okay?”
Under the hot July sun, my mind still reeling over Remi’s absence, a queasy feeling sets in. I encourage Mary to ask it. She takes a deep breath. “The last conversation I had with Susanna the night she… when the medical examiner placed her time of death… that night.” Her friend soothes her by rubbing her arm. “She was at Lakeside Park to meet you.”
What?! The fuck she was.
“Excuse me? Could you repeat that?” My eyes narrow as she says it again. Heart galloping at a breakneck speed. Why would she think that? “I don’t know why you were told that. I not only didn’t meet up with your daughter, I never made plans to.”
She expected me to say that. No surprise on her face, she clasps her friend’s hand. “I was going to say, she thought she was meeting you. I was on the phone with her and heard her say, ‘Why are you here, where’s Cal?’ Do you know… do you have any idea who would have lured my daughter to the park?”
Lured? Why would anyone do that?
If the police knew about this, why haven’t they asked me this question? Unless they aren’t buying it. “Ms. Ross, I have no idea. Truly none. This is the first time I’m hearing any of this. I never spent any time with your daughter.” I wince slightly at the blunt statement I’m making to her, but she doesn’t catch it. Wrapping her arms around herself, her eyes fill with tears while she whispers to her friend.
She turns slightly to look up at me. “Cal, do you know where I could find Grady Marlow, Wilder Lee, or Charlie and Mitchell Gibson?” Oh, fucking hell. She’s on a one-woman mission to solve her daughter’s death. I can appreciate her intentions, but I’m not giving their locations to her. Did Carlotta embark on this with her? There have been whispers here and there that Lala was asking about Susanna, Sara, and Katie.
All I can do is shake my head.
What the hell makes her think any of them, could tell her? Wilder was gone when Susanna was here that summer. Wait… he was gone. Something I’d forgotten about before. He started that summer out in California with his mom visiting family. Sara was livid that she was left behind. She was insufferably moody until he came back. He never met Susanna Ross.
If all the drownings weren’t coincidental… if… oh my fucking God. It never was Wilder. I’m still staring at my shaking hands when I realize Mary and her friend have walked away.
Suddenly, I want to talk to Wilder. I want to know more about these visions he’s been having. Unlike Charlie, I don’t think it’s a sign of guilt, he may have answers we all need. “Christ, Sara, I’ve really fucked this all up,” I say softly to myself. “Bet you’ve been watching this all go down angry as hell.”