Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
After a second night in Matthias’s tent, Emma longed for the futon in her seventeen-foot camper back in Erie.
While she loved snuggling with him and listening to the choir of night insects, the sleeping bag provided little cushioning from the uneven ground.
She bet she had a bruise on her right hip from a rock she continually rolled onto.
Still, she refused to complain, knowing the next logical move would be the barn.
Cot or no cot, she resisted the idea of sleeping where Nell and Zeke had resided prior to his overdose.
As planned, she and Matthias drove to Eric’s house in the morning. A sullen and silent Nell joined them for coffee but only picked at the breakfast Eric made for her. Then she retreated to the guest room and shut the door.
Eric gave Emma a hug, thanked Matthias in advance for trying to help clear him, and left for his office.
Matthias poured his third cup of coffee from the fancy machine, took a seat at the island, and withdrew his phone. He studied the screen, scrolling and tapping, until he found what he was looking for and placed his first call.
When a person on the other end picked up, he identified himself, including his affiliation with the Erie Bureau of Police.
“I’m calling to confirm that a Mr. Eric Baker and Ms. Nell Anderson stayed at your establishment on Saturday night.
” A pause. “Yes, this past Saturday night. They paid in cash.” A longer pause.
“No, I don’t have a warrant. I don’t need any of their personal information or what room they were in, only a confirmation that they were or were not on the premises.
” He met Emma’s gaze and rolled his eyes.
“Okay. Thank you.” He ended the call. “Apparently, they have a strict privacy policy.”
“Can’t you get a warrant?”
“I’m not officially on the case. Fergusson might have better luck.”
“If he really wants to verify Eric’s alibi.”
Matthias shrugged as he placed a second call.
“Yes, hi, Roberta. This is Detective Honeywell. We spoke on the phone yesterday… Yes, I remember what you said, but I have a detail that might help you remember the parties in question. They would have been at the rear of the church during the service. Possibly even in the doorway.”
Emma listened to the muffled words filtering through the phone and watched Matthias’s face for any sign of hope.
“No, no. I understand. If you do remember anything, please give me a call.” He thanked her and set the phone down. “Strike two.”
Emma swore under her breath.
The phone buzzed on the counter. She wondered if either Roberta or the desk clerk had changed their minds or suddenly remembered Eric.
Matthias tapped the screen. “Hey, Cassie. You’re on speaker, and Emma’s here.”
“Hey you two. Emma, how’s your arm and head?”
“The stitches in my shoulder itch, but I’m not seeing double anymore.”
Cassie chuckled. “Glad to hear it.”
“How about you and Shawn?” Matthias asked.
“We’re tough and on the mend.” Her tone grew businesslike. “I haven’t heard back from my contact in Cleveland. I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten.”
“That’s okay,” Matthias said. “Eric and Nell both showed up here yesterday.”
“Oh, good.”
“Not entirely.” Matthias briefed her on the dead developer and Fergusson’s suspicions where Eric was concerned.
“Joe Fergusson’s with the state police now?” Cassie sounded surprised. “Good cop, but I never did like him.”
Emma noticed a scowl cross Matthias’s face, but he recovered quickly. “Could you try your friend in Cleveland again and ask him to talk to the front desk at the Pine Gables Inn. That’s where Eric and Nell stayed, but the woman I spoke with won’t give me any information without a warrant.”
“What makes you think my guy will have any better luck?”
“Blind optimism?”
Cassie chuckled.
“If it’s any help,” Matthias said, “Eric paid cash.”
“I can text you a photo of him,” Emma added, “and Nell, too.”
“Sure. I’ll try, but like I said, he still hasn’t called me back from the first time. Then there’s another consideration, Matthias.”
“What’s that?”
“How far are you from Cleveland?”
Matthias looked to Emma.
She shrugged. “Maybe three hours.”
“That’s what I thought,” Cassie said. “Confirming where he stayed doesn’t necessarily give him an airtight alibi. He could’ve driven down there, killed this developer dude, and driven back.”
“He didn’t,” Emma said.
“I’m not saying he did. I’m simply telling you what Fergusson is gonna claim.”
“She’s right,” Matthias said. “We need someone who can confirm he checked into his room and didn’t leave again until morning.”
Someone other than Nell. They needed an alibi the police and the courts would trust.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Cassie said. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything useful.”
Matthias thanked her, told her to give Shawn their best, and ended the call. “I need to get going,” he told Emma. “Will you be okay here alone?”
“I’m not alone. Nell’s here.”
He gave her a look. “That’s what worries me.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“You won’t have a car.”
“I’m not cleared to drive yet, anyway.”
He drained what was left of his coffee. “I don’t imagine you’d be able to get an Uber.”
She choked. “Not likely. And being stranded here with my sister might be exactly what we need. I hope she’ll talk to me.”
“About?”
Emma exhaled. “Anything. Everything.”
Matthias stood, and she followed him to the front door. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Call me if you need me.”
She watched him stroll down the sidewalk to his Jeep. After he drove away, she closed the door, flipped the deadbolt, and turned to look up at the guest room. Drawing a breath of determination, she climbed the stairs and knocked.
“Go away,” came Nell’s voice from inside.
Emma rested her forehead on the door. How many times had they done this as kids? Nell throwing a temper tantrum. Locking herself in.
Locking Emma and their parents out.
Back then, it had infuriated them. Now, it opened another crevasse in Emma’s shattered heart. “Nell, it’s me. Let me in. Please.”
Emma expected Nell to repeat her demand. Maybe add “leave me alone” to it. Instead, the knob turned, and the door swung open. “What do you want?” Nell asked, her voice husky. The redness in her eyes stood in stark contrast to the bruise-colored circles under them.
“Can I come in?”
After a few moments of consideration, Nell stepped aside.
Emma entered the room she’d stayed in not long ago. At the time, she’d thought Nell was dead. Emma had come back home to make burial arrangements, which thankfully hadn’t been needed. The sheets were in disarray. Nell clearly hadn’t slept any better than Emma had.
“How are you?” Emma sat on the edge of the bed.
“How do you think?” Nell snipped. “I miss Mom and Dad. I miss Zeke. I miss my baby.” The child she’d miscarried and never had a chance to know. Her voice cracked. “I need an oxy and a drink to wash it down.”
Emma leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “The last four years have been hell.” For both of them, but Nell didn’t care about what’d happened to Emma. Not now, at least.
Nell sunk onto a padded bench sitting against the wall. “I think about it a lot, you know?”
“About what?”
“That trip. The one Mom and Dad took alone. It’s our fault. We should’ve gone with them. If we had, if we’d have insisted on sharing the driving with Dad, he wouldn’t have fallen asleep behind the wheel. They’d still be alive. Everything would be so different.”
Emma closed her eyes. How well she knew.
She’d had the same thoughts over and over.
Except… “It wasn’t our fault,” she said.
“It was mine. I was the one who refused to go. I wasn’t a kid anymore.
I was twenty-six. Too old for a vacation with the folks.
The only reason you didn’t go is because of me.
You thought if I didn’t go, you shouldn’t have to go either. ”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
“Okay. How do you remember it?”
“I didn’t want to go, so you said you’d stay home too and take care of me.” Nell swore. “I was twenty. I didn’t need you to babysit me, but the only way Mom would agree to leave me behind was if you were here, too.”
Emma thought about it and shook her head. “No. Staying home was my idea. Not yours.”
Nell opened her mouth to argue but closed it again. “I guess we both want to take the blame.”
“I’m serious, Nell. That accident… it’s on me, not you.”
Nell hung her head. “It doesn’t matter. Either way, Mom and Dad died that night, trying to get home to us.”
They fell silent. Emma struggled with what she could say to snap Nell out of this funk. “You’re right. We can argue the point forever, and it won’t change a thing. And you know what? Mom and Dad would hate this. Hate what we’ve come to.”
“You mean what I’ve come to. They’d hate that their baby girl’s a drunk and an addict.”
“They’d hate that I wasn’t there to keep it from happening. That I let…” Emma couldn’t say his name. “That I let a man drive a wedge between us.”
“You can’t take credit for my poor choices.”
Emma met Nell’s damp eyes. “At least you admit they’re poor choices.”
She lowered her gaze. “And I’m too weak to make better ones.”
“You are not weak. You’re in pain. The booze, the pills—they took the pain away for a while, and now they’ve changed your brain chemistry. You can’t simply decide, ‘Oh, I’m giving it all up right this minute.’ Your brain won’t let you.”
“You sound like a doctor.”
“I’m right, though.”
Nell’s gaze shifted in thought. “I guess.”
Emma moved from the bed to kneel in front of her sister. “Let Eric and me help you. Let us get you back in rehab. Then the future will be wide open. You and I, we can face it together. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, I’ll go with you.”
“Matthias won’t like that.”
Emma hesitated. Swallowed hard. “I’ll never again let a man come between us. Including Matthias.” The words cut into Emma’s soul, but she meant them. As much as she loved Matthias, Nell needed her. And Emma had failed her too many times in the past.