Chapter 4
Gabe appreciated El’s concern, but if he let her in now, he might lose what little control he had left. His chest was already too tight, his thoughts too close to spiraling. On some level, he knew he needed her and he didn’t have the heart to send her away, but he couldn’t look at her.
Instead, he stared over the ocean raging below the bluff. The waves crashed against the rocks with relentless force, the roar swallowing everything else. When the water surged back toward shore, white froth glistened beneath a thin sliver of moon still fighting its way through the clouds.
It should have been beautiful.
He couldn’t appreciate it. Not when his mind was locked on a single thought, one twisted thing to be thankful for.
That Kenna and Lucy hadn’t gone to the ocean instead of the lake.
If they had, their bodies would never be recovered. No answers. No closure. Just endless water and unanswered questions. The relief curdled instantly into guilt, and a sudden chill worked its way through him. He shivered, though the night wasn’t that cold.
El noticed. Of course she did.
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
Her voice cut through the roar of the surf, steady and professional. Too steady.
“The best thing you can do,” he said, his throat tightening, “is work this investigation and work it fast. Find Lucy, and Kenna’s killer.” The words scraped his throat raw, and he gagged slightly as they left his mouth.
She pushed away from the low wall and turned to face him fully. “Then there’s something I need to get out of the way. I don’t want to upset you more, but I have questions. We can do this later at the office, but right now would be better.”
“Go ahead,” he said, even though the last thing he wanted was to talk.
She slipped a small notepad and pen from her pocket.
In an instant, the concern vanished from her face, replaced by sharp focus.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, unblinking, assessing, cataloging.
It was the version of El everyone talked about.
Methodical. By the book. Emotionally distant.
He didn’t know why she kept herself so locked down, only that she’d hinted at guilt from her past. Whatever it was, it had taught her how to shut feelings off like a switch.
She poised her pen over the pad. “Is there anyone we should notify of Kenna’s death?”
Gabe swallowed. He’d been so consumed by his own grief he hadn’t even thought that far ahead. “She’s estranged from her parents, but they still need to know. If you can locate them. She grew up near Portland, but she never mentioned where they’re living now.”
“I can look for an address when I search her home. What about Lucy’s father?”
“He’s not in the picture. Never has been.” He clenched his jaw. “Kenna said he was a one-night stand. She never even brought up his name.”
“You have any theories on who it might be?”
He shook his head. “If I did, you better believe I would’ve tracked him down and pushed him to help support them. She struggled as a single mother, but she was proud. Too proud. She refused any financial help I offered.”
El’s pen scratched across the paper. Then she lifted her gaze. “Speaking of you. Where were you between seven and nine tonight?”
“What?” He stared at her, disbelief flashing hot and sharp. He dragged a hand over the back of his neck. “You think I did this? That I hurt Kenna? That’s ridiculous. I was with the team at the inn until eight, then spent every second after I left until I arrived on the scene looking for her.”
Her expression didn’t change. Not a flicker of reassurance. Not a hint that she believed him. “Other than the team confirming your presence at the inn, anyone who can corroborate the rest of the time?”
The question landed like a slap. How could she even ask it?
“Not physically in my truck with me,” he snapped. “But I was in constant contact with my team by phone.”
“You know that doesn’t physically place you anywhere,” she said calmly. “So it doesn’t confirm an alibi.”
“You can track my cell phone.”
“Can do. And we might be able to pull GPS from your truck. But that still doesn’t prove you were with your phone or in your vehicle.”
“Kenna texted from a gas station about a half hour after she left home.” He pulled out his phone and displayed the text showing she needed air in a tire.
“I went back to that gas station to confirm she’d been there and nothing had happened to her.
Watched the video feed. The attendant can confirm I was there and I’d be on their video feed too.
Was right around eight. It would’ve taken me at least half an hour to get to the lake. ”
“We’ll check on that, but it still doesn’t tell us where you were for the last half hour.”
She had a point. One he refused to respond to or argue with. Either she believed him or she didn’t.
“This isn’t personal, Gabe,” she said quietly. “You know I’m just doing my job, right?”
He didn’t know that. To him, it felt painfully personal. He bit his tongue, unwilling to say something he couldn’t take back.
She exhaled. “Can you think of anyone who might’ve wanted to hurt Kenna?”
“I don’t know the people in her day-to-day life,” he said. “Only the ones she mentioned.”
“Like who?”
“Mostly her coworkers at Little Pines Daycare. Especially the director who didn’t get along well with the classroom staff. Kenna had a bunch of stories about how she always put profit before the children.”
“Doesn’t sound like the kind of person who should be working with children.”
“I’ve picked Lucy up from daycare several times, and the woman has always been quite charming to me. Kenna told me that was a front.”
“Why did she continue to work there, then?”
“It wasn’t for the pay, that was for sure.
She believed she needed to be there to try to protect these children and families.
To help them whenever possible. She also believed in Safe Harbor.
They’re an emergency home for kids ages eight to seventeen.
They’re mostly funded by the New Tide Foundation, but I know the daycare center supported them too. ”
“I’ve read about group homes like that but never had cause to visit one.”
“They help neglect or abuse cases, behavioral issues, and also serve as temporary placements. She said they successfully found permanent homes for most of the kids, and she loved volunteering there.”
“You think this could be about the daycare or Safe Harbor?”
“I honestly don’t think so. I mean, the director wasn’t very nice to her staff, but I can’t see any reason she would be involved in killing Kenna.”
“I’ll still need to interview the director, but we should move on until we have any indication that Safe Harbor or the daycare center have a connection to her murder.” El made a note. “You’re sure there weren’t any boyfriends? Current or past. Someone she broke up with and it ended badly?”
“She said she didn’t date. Claimed as a working single mom, and with her volunteer work, that was the last thing she had time for.”
“Did you believe her?” El asked. “Or did you think she just didn’t want to talk about it?”
He thought back over their conversations. “I believed her. She was pretty candid. Even more than I am. So, I think she would’ve said something.”
“What about you? The two of you ever date?”
“What?” His denial came too fast. Too sharp. She probably wouldn’t believe him. “Date? Us? Never.”
“Why not?”
He hesitated this time. They were drifting dangerously close to territory he never shared. Even his teammates only knew the surface-level version of his past. And yet, something about El made it hard to hold the line.
“Gabe?” she asked. “Why not date?”
“Because we’d known each other since I was six and she was eight,” he said, finally able to share a little of his past. “We grew up together. Became friends. Dating wasn’t even on the radar, and it never occurred to me.”
“What about her? Did it occur to her?”
“If it did, she never said anything, which like I said, isn’t—wasn’t—in her character.”
“How did you meet?”
Despite the ache in his chest, a smile tugged at his mouth.
“I wanted to walk to school alone. My mom wouldn’t let me.
I’d seen Kenna heading out every morning by herself.
She was older and cool when I was kind of a nerdy little boy, but one day I worked up the nerve to ask if I could walk with her every day.
Oh, man, she teased me for being a big baby.
” The memory made him chuckle, and he paused to enjoy it.
“But surprise, surprise, she actually agreed. And then my mom did too. Honestly, I think my mom was relieved. I was the youngest child, and Kenna was her ticket to a little freedom.”
“Kenna must’ve moved on to middle school before you, but you stayed friends?”
He nodded, offering nothing more than he was ready to tell her.
“Was the rest of your family close to Kenna?”
Of course she had to mention his family. Stopped him from being able to look at her. He slid his gaze over her shoulder. “My mom genuinely liked Kenna, but our family wasn’t well thought of in the neighborhood. Didn’t mingle much with anyone. I’m still surprised Kenna’s mom let her walk with me.”
“Why wasn’t your family well thought of?”
He should’ve known she wouldn’t miss his comment and should’ve kept his mouth shut. He’d once given her that basic detail about his family, but she hadn’t pressed him to find out why. Now she had a right to know, but he still didn’t want to see her reaction when he told her.
“I doubt that’s relevant to the investigation,” he said, sounding more irritated than she deserved.
“The more I understand Kenna,” El said without even a hint of emotion, “the better chance I have of finding who killed her. Faster too.”
He didn’t want to reveal anything else, but she might be right. After all, his family’s history was a shadow that seemed to touch everything in his life. Who knows, maybe he even mentioned them because he really did want to talk about them.