Chapter 10 #2
“My dad never blamed you, Clint.” Jesse didn’t add that she’d wanted to throttle him at the time. “He understood the pressure Adam used to get you to say what you did, and that you were as much a victim as he was.”
Clint shook his head. “None of it would have happened if I hadn’t been stupid enough to get the DUI in the first place.”
Jesse hesitated. She didn’t want him to feel worse about what had happened, but she wasn’t above using his guilt for her own ends. As far as she knew, he was the only witness to the crash.
“If you don’t mind, could you walk me through what happened that night?”
His jaw clenched. “The night Victoria crashed?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have a good answer.” She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “I suppose I’m trying to wrap my head around what happened before I walk away and put it all behind me.”
There was a strained silence before Clint heaved a resigned sigh. “Yeah. Okay. There’s not that much to tell. I heard a crash—”
“What time?” she interrupted.
He took a moment to search through his memories. “I’m not sure of an exact time, but it was starting to get light.”
“What were you doing out so early?”
“Starting my chores.” He shook his head. “And it wasn’t early. I remember that I’d overslept and was in a hurry to get them done.”
“Right.” She sent him a wry smile. “I forget most farmers start before the crack of dawn, just about the time I’m headed to bed.”
Clint shuddered. Jesse assumed he was a morning person. “You work the night shift?”
“Something like that. I’m a bartender.”
“Just like your dad.”
It was Jesse’s turn to shudder. Her dad would hate the fancy nightclub where she was working.
In his mind, a bar was a comfortable place for the community to gather, where old and new friends could enjoy a few hours together.
It wasn’t a trendy spot where the music was too loud, the drinks obscenely expensive, and people spent more time staring at their phones than talking to one another.
“So you heard a crash?” She directed the conversation back to the night Victoria disappeared.
“I didn’t know what it was at first. The sound came from over the hill and far enough away to muffle it.
” He waved a hand toward the steep slope that rose toward the massive red barn and, beyond that, a brick, two-storied farmhouse with an attached garage.
“I didn’t want to drive down to see what happened, so I climbed into the hayloft.
That’s when I saw a car had run off the road and hit a tree. ”
“Did you recognize it?”
Clint snorted. “Hard not to. As far as I know, your stepmother was the only one in town to drive a fancy sports car.”
Jesse glanced toward the tree. “This is the spot it crashed?”
“Yes. I don’t know if she took the corner too fast, or if the gravel was slick with dew.”
It was a question that Jesse hadn’t considered until that morning. Now it felt excruciatingly important to know if Victoria was forced off the road because she was running from someone. Or had it been a random accident? And what did it have to do with her disappearance?
“My dad warned her that the car was a death trap on the roads around here.”
“Not very practical, that’s for sure.”
Understatement of the decade.
“Was there anyone else around?”
He glanced toward the road, his jaw clenched as if the memories bothered him more than he wanted her to realize.
“I didn’t see anyone at first, but before I could climb out of the loft to go see if anyone was hurt, a pickup came around the curve.”
It was the same story he’d told the judge. Almost word for word.
“The one you said was my dad’s truck.”
His gaze jerked back toward her, as if she’d physically slapped him.
“Not in the beginning,” he protested. “When I talked to Adam the first time I told him that it was still too dark for me to make out the actual color of the truck. I said it was light. Maybe white, or it could have been silver or a light gray.”
“There are dozens of people in Canton that drive a light-colored pickup.”
He blinked at the sharp rebuke, and Jesse silently cursed her raw nerves. Dammit. She wasn’t there to harass the poor man. Not when he still felt guilty for what had happened to her dad.
“I said that too. It was only because it appeared just minutes after Victoria’s crash that I assumed it was Mac.” His expression was defensive. “It made sense they were headed somewhere together but decided to take separate vehicles.”
Jesse forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. “Did you see him get out of the truck?”
Clint shook his head. “The crash didn’t look that serious. Besides, I really and truly thought it was your dad who’d stopped to help Victoria. I jumped out of the loft and got on with my business.”
“Before you jumped down, did you notice if the person in the truck was alone?”
“I couldn’t see.” Clint pointed toward the opposite field. “The truck had pulled over to side of the road and left its headlights on. They were pointed directly at me. Even from the loft, I couldn’t see much more than a glare of light.”
Jesse glanced from the road to the barn on top of the hill, her brows pulling together at the distance. She hadn’t realized it was so far.
“I’m not sure it would have mattered if the headlights were off. It would have been hard to make out any details in the early morning shadows.”
Clint nodded. “That’s true. The only reason I recognized Victoria’s car was because of the shape. I couldn’t have told you the exact color or who was inside the vehicle.”
Frustration sliced through Jesse. Why hadn’t the sheriff come out here to see for himself if the surprise witness was credible? It was an obscene injustice that her father ever had been charged with a crime. With an effort, she kept her dark thoughts to herself.
“You didn’t hear anything?” she asked. “No screams or gunshot?”
“Nothing.”
So, did that mean Victoria had known the person in the truck and wasn’t afraid? Or had she been unconscious? There was blood found in the car.
“Did you look back down there when you finished your chores?”
Clint nodded. “The car was still there, but the truck was gone.”
“I don’t suppose you know which way it went?”
“It had to have turned around and headed back toward town.”
She arched her brows at his confident response. “Why do you say that?”
“The dogs would have gone bonkers if it went past the house. We had a dozen beagles back then. Noisy bastards.”
She glanced toward the empty pens built behind the farmhouse. Obviously, Clint didn’t use dogs to hunt, although there were a couple of large mutts who were patiently waiting for his return at the top of the hill.
“You didn’t notice anything else?” she asked, returning her attention to the man standing in front of her.
“Not really. A wrecker came a day or so later and hauled away the car.” He hunched his shoulders. “I was a selfish jerk back then. I didn’t really care what had happened or who cleaned up the mess. I was too busy with my own stuff.”
“We were all selfish. Me especially.”
Clint looked pained. “Not Mac Hudson. He was always good to me. He even offered me a job and a place to sleep when my dad kicked me out of the house when I was sixteen.”
She blinked. “Your dad seriously kicked you out of the house?”
“He told me to pack my bags after I left a gate open and our cattle disappeared. It took two weeks to locate them all.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets.
“I walked into town, pissed and hoping I never had to see my parents again, but I was only at the bar a couple of hours when my mom came after me.”
Jesse hadn’t heard her dad talk about the incident, but it wouldn’t have been the first time he offered the bar as a place of refuge. Until he’d married Victoria, he’d had an open-door policy.
“If you cared so much, how did Adam convince you to say that you’d seen my dad at the crash?” She was careful to keep any hint of accusation out of her voice.
“He came by after the wreck to ask questions. I told him exactly what I just said.”
“Including the fact that you never saw who was driving the truck?”
“Yes, although I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that I’d thought it was Mac.
” His features tightened into an expression of disgust. “The moment I mentioned your dad, the deputy was convinced he had something to do with Victoria’s disappearance.
It was like he was obsessed. He tried to bully me into saying I’d seen him, but I refused. ”
Obsessed? Yes, that was the perfect word for Adam’s desire to frame her father.
“You didn’t change your mind until you were stopped for drinking and driving?”
A dark flush stained his cheeks. “When he pulled me over I knew I was screwed. I’d been partying all night and there was no way I should have gotten behind the wheel. I hoped if I took the back roads I wouldn’t get caught.”
“But you did.”
“I sometimes wonder if Adam was following me around, waiting for a chance to get me in trouble. It was no secret I enjoyed the beer back in those days. I know it sounds psycho, but …” His words trailed away with a shrug.
Jesse had zero trouble imagining Adam Tillman lurking in the shadows, waiting for a chance to pounce. Like a bloated spider eager to trap his victim.
“It’s not psycho. One of my friends swore Adam was peeking through her bedroom window when we were in high school. No one ever caught him, but she swore she saw him more than once.” Jesse ground her teeth. “I assume he threatened you?”
“Not exactly a physical threat, but he pointed out how much I had to lose if he arrested me. Not only my license, but having to tell my parents.” A dark expression tightened Clint’s features. “At the time, I’d rather have faced a firing squad.”
“Were you afraid of your father?” Jesse hadn’t known Norris Frazer very well, but she’d seen him in the Tap Room. He’d been an aggressive drunk who was always trying to start a fight.