Chapter 33 After
After
Two hours later, Dev and I are enjoying the hospitality of the Franklin Police Department from the wrong side of its holding cell bars. At least we have the place to ourselves. No Sunday-night drunks to enliven our stay, though they’ve left some smells behind as a parting gift.
Dev sits on the floor, which might be slightly more comfortable than the metal bench I’ve chosen.
He hasn’t moved in a while, staring at nothing with his eyes unfocused.
I saw between guilt and relief. They can’t ignore this now.
Surely they can’t. They’ll have to investigate, identify the body, actually look at the bunker. They’ll have to question the Hills.
“That wasn’t Meghan,” Dev says suddenly. He looks over at me. “Right? It couldn’t have been her.”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “She’s been gone a couple of months. Under the right conditions, a body can skeletonize that fast, but buried, in cool temperatures—-I don’t think so.”
“One of the names, then,” he says. “I keep thinking—-someone’s going to find out their daughter is dead. That’s the ending of the story. Just someone’s life imploding.”
“It might be a relief,” I say. “It’s an answer, at least.”
“Would it be for you? If it’s Janie in that hole?” he asks. “Knowing everything that girl must have gone through, would you be relieved?”
“No.” I swallow. He’s right. It could be her. And if it is, all my fantasies of a life well lived out of sight are shattered—-but they were false to begin with. I’ve never truly believed she could be alive.
She wasn’t built to go unnoticed. Janie wanted to be known.
The door opens. Dev pushes himself to his feet, futilely smoothing the front of his shirt, which only succeeds in moving some of the dirt around. We look, and smell, exactly like we’ve spent the night digging up a grave.
To my surprise—-and relief—-it’s Len who enters. He’s not exactly happy with me. Last I saw him, he was loading Barry into the back of his squad car.
“Is Barry okay?” I ask.
Len gives me an are you serious look. “He’s fine. Kenny’s looking after him,” he says. He rests his hands on his belt. “I can’t believe you, Audrey.”
“I just—-”
“Don’t,” Dev says. I give him a questioning look. “Look, Len, you’re a nice guy, I get that you’re friends, but we’re not saying anything without a lawyer.”
“It’s fine,” I say.
Len rolls his eyes. “It’s not fine, Audrey. Dev’s right. Anything you tell me, I’m going to have to tell Wagner, and then it’s going to be my fault you’re in more trouble than you already are.”
Echoing voices sound in the hallways behind him, and he glances over his shoulder. “Say. Nothing,” he says in a low hiss, and then Wagner appears—-Melinda Hill trailing him.
It’s close to three in the morning, but Melinda looks as immaculate as ever, with her dark hair pulled back, her makeup understated and professional. She’s gone for an upscale--casual look, a blazer over jeans. She’s in full politician mode.
“Chief Wagner,” Len says.
“Deputy Howard,” he replies. “You know Ms. Hill.”
“I don’t think we’ve actually met,” Len says, sticking out his hand. She takes it, smiling tightly.
“And these are the two who found it?” she says. We’re avoiding specific nouns, I see. “You can release them.”
“They’re being charged with trespassing,” Chief Wagner says.
She fixes him with a cold look. “They’d better not be.”
Dev and I look at each other in surprise.
“Ma’am,” Wagner begins.
She sighs. “Chief Wagner, Andrew and I have gone to a lot of trouble to buy that land. Now there’s a body on it? We need to find out who it is and what happened to them, and we need to do it in the open. Which means not locking up the people who uncovered it.”
“It’s not your land yet,” Wagner says.
“No. But Bill Butler is the executor of his brother’s estate, and he’ll tell you the same thing,” she says with the kind of confidence that makes it clear she’s made sure it’s true.
Melinda and Wagner lock eyes. Wagner’s jaw clenches.
He doesn’t want to be ordered around. And Melinda isn’t an elected official, not anymore.
It’s not like she has real sway. But she’s also got a reputation—-one that says she’s no one to be messed with.
There’s a reason she was reelected with a healthy margin in our barely blue district.
She gets things done. With ruthless efficiency.
Wagner grumbles, but he pulls out his keys. Dev and I emerge, trying our best not to shamble. Looking respectable is a pipe dream, but we can at least stand up straight. Melinda eyes us, hand on her hip.
“Well. That’s that,” she says. “Chief Wagner, Deputy, could you give us a moment?”
Wagner clearly wants to object, but again, he decides it’s not worth the fight. The guys slouch out, leaving us, dirt--spackled and bedraggled, squaring off against the former congressional shark.
“I want to make something clear,” she says. “You won’t have any more problems because of what you did tonight. But if you come near my family again, you are going to have a whole new set of problems. Do you understand?”
Dev mutters an affirmative, shoulders hunched. I meet her gaze. “You’ve always been good at cleaning up messes, haven’t you?” I ask.
She doesn’t dignify it with a response.
Take her home, I said that night she brought Janie to me. And Melinda looked at me, and I knew then that she’d figured out, like I had years ago, that home was far from a safe place for Janie.
You’re her friend, aren’t you? Melinda had asked. I hadn’t been. Not for a long time. But I opened the door. Melinda knew how to get rid of a problem, all right.
“You knew what was out there,” I say.
Her expression is unreadable, a practiced blank. “I don’t make a habit of wandering around Butler’s land. I certainly had no idea he had a skeleton out there,” she says.
Terry’s land. Terry’s skeleton. And he’s conveniently dead. The story has already written itself. “And Meghan Vale? She was there. She saw the bunker. What happened to her?” I ask, searching her face.
“I have no idea who that is,” Melinda says. She crosses her arms. “Do yourself a favor. Back off. Let the police do their jobs.”
“We’ll do that,” Dev says. He takes my arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Before they change their minds goes unsaid.
I let him move me along. Melinda steps aside and watches us go. I can feel her gaze on me the whole way. Anger burns in my gut—-senseless, without direction. I have no reason to be angry at Melinda Hill, not really. I can’t be sure that she knew anything at all.
Yet she had to. They all did. They knew something was out there.
And the last person to stumble across it disappeared.
It’s still dark outside when we finally leave the station. It seems like more time has passed, between the questioning and then the interminable waiting. On the sidewalk, we halt. My car is still sitting by the trail, as far as I know.
I rake my hair back, adjusting my ponytail. I desperately need a shower and a few hours of sleep, but for now, adrenaline is keeping me going. “Okay,” I say. “I need to think.”
“You need to slow down,” Dev says. “It’s over.”
“It’s not over,” I say. “It’s not even close to over.”
“Your part is,” he says. His face is creased with concern. “What more can you do, Audrey? Melinda’s right. It’s time to leave this to the professionals.”
“I can’t,” I say.
Dev sighs. “We did something good tonight. Massively illegal but good, and we’re lucky we might get away with not going to jail over it. It’s time to take the win and let the police handle the rest.”
“She’s still out there,” I say. My voice cracks.
Len is coming down the steps. “Hey. I’m off for the night, I can get you two home,” he says.
“Thanks,” Dev replies immediately.
“I’ll walk,” I say, voice tight. They give me identical looks of worry—-Len’s tinged with more than a bit of annoyance. “It’s not far. I’ll be fine.”
“I am not letting you walk alone at three in the morning,” Len says.
“It’s Franklin,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“And I just watched a body getting dug up, so let’s not pretend nothing bad happens here,” Len snaps. “Get in the damn car, Audrey.”
He’s not going to back down. And he’s right. I’m being ridiculous. I nod, and we follow him like a couple of dogs that have been caught rolling in something unspeakable.
Dev takes the back seat. We don’t talk on the drive to his apartment building, and when he gets out of the car, he only nods a farewell. When the door closes behind him, I rest my head on my hands.
“So. That thing about not screwing things up with the new relationship, how’s that working out?” Len asks. The only humor in his voice is bitter all the way through.
“I shouldn’t have dragged him into this.”
“No shit,” Len says. “I know you get obsessed, but this is absurd. You are damn lucky Melinda Hill is insisting that you don’t face consequences.”
“She’s only doing that because it would make her look bad.”
“And? A record would make you look pretty fucking bad, too,” Len says. “You could lose your job. Dev could lose his job. Still might, actually, so if you could just not try to justify your shitty life choices for at least the rest of the night, I’d appreciate it.”
He pulls away from the curb with too much gas, making the wheels squeal. I lean back against the seat, shutting my eyes.
“I know it was reckless.”
His words grind out past clenched teeth. “I was doing what I could. You didn’t even wait for me.”
“It would have gotten back to the Hills. They would have gotten out ahead of it.”
“You’re acting like they’re some shady crime family. As far as we know, they’re completely innocent in all of this,” he points out.
“Do you actually believe that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe.” His phone rings. He gives one--word answers to whoever’s on the other end of the line, and when he hangs up, his face is tense.
“What is it?” I ask.
He pulls off onto my street. “They got cadaver dogs out there right after you left. They found another body.”
“Old?” I ask.
He looks over at me. “It’s not Meghan Vale. Just bones. They’re both just bones.”
“Len. You saw that list of names,” I say. “It’s not going to just be two of them.”
“Yeah,” he says quietly. He slows in front of my house.
“I know you’re not going to listen to me.
But the state police are here, and at least one of those girls we found was from out of state, which means the FBI could get involved.
This is going to be handled properly and it is going to be investigated thoroughly. You can stop. You really can stop.”
I can hear the plea behind his words. He’s right, of course. It’s ridiculous to suppose that there’s anything I could do that trained investigators can’t.
I’m done. I need to let go.
Answers will come. But I won’t be the one to find them.
“I’ll stop,” I say. This time, I mean it. Len can tell. Tension drains out of him. He reaches over, grabs my hand. He holds it tight, and I return the squeeze. “If it’s her—-Janie—-”
“I’ll tell you,” he promises. “As soon as I know.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. If I say anything more, I’m going to burst into tears. I fumble with the door handle. Len leans over me to pop it open, and he doesn’t move until I’m all the way inside the house with the dead bolt locked. I hold my hand up in a wave, and finally he pulls away.
I found one girl. The police will find the rest.
It will have to be enough.