River Road

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “If you’re talking about Brinker,” Whitaker said, “he didn’t have much in the way of family. No one has even come forward to claim the body. That case is closed as far as I’m concerned. For reasons we will never know for certain, but most likely because he attacked her, your aunt crushed his skull with a poker. If I was a betting man, I’d say the original theory of the crime was correct. It probably was a drug deal gone bad.”

  “Now, just one damn minute.” Lucy stormed back toward the desk. “Are you saying my aunt was involved in drugs? That’s an outrageous lie.”

  “Whether or not it’s true doesn’t matter to me. I just told you, that case is closed. Kelly’s death is what interests me now, and I don’t think you’re going to find any answers in his family dynamics, either. His father died a few years ago. His mother remarried and moved to Florida. As far as I can tell, there is no one else.”

  Mason looked at him. “What’s your theory of the case?”

  Whitaker exhaled slowly. “When I come up with one, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

  33

  What’s this about, Jillian?”

  Jillian took a deep breath. “I want to know how much Warner offered you for those shares. Whatever it is, Quinn and I will match it. If we don’t have the cash up front, we’ll get it when the merger goes through.”

  “I’ve got other things on my mind right now,” Lucy said. “In case you haven’t heard, Nolan Kelly died in the fire that burned down my aunt’s house.”

  They were at Harper Ranch Park, standing at the edge of the river. Lucy wasn’t sure yet why she had suggested the park as a meeting place. But for some reason, it was the first location that had come to mind when Jillian had called her, pleading for another meeting. Jillian had sounded as if she had been crying.

  The park where Brinker had held court on those summer nights thirteen years ago was a different place these days. The infusion of money into the local economy combined with a city council that was big on community space had wrought wonders. No longer neglected and overgrown, the land had been transformed. The grass was lush and green. There were paths for walking, running and bicycling. Families ate picnics at the wooden tables set out under the trees. There were two off-leash areas—one for large dogs and one for small dogs. Everyone knew that the owners of each size were, themselves, very different breeds and needed to be separated.

  “I know about Nolan,” Jillian said. She slanted Lucy a quick, searching look. “I was horrified to hear about his death. We were in high school together, you know. People are saying that he went to your aunt’s house with the intention of setting it on fire and that he got caught in the blaze.”

  “That’s the current theory.”

  “I also heard that the police chief questioned you and Mason Fletcher today,” Jillian said.

  “Yes, he did. Do the people who are spreading the rumors have any idea why Nolan would have wanted to burn down my aunt’s house?”

  Jillian hesitated. “No. Well, some are saying that you were stalling on giving him the listing. You made a point of letting people know that you wanted to do some upgrades. Everyone knows it’s the property that’s valuable, not the house.”

  “I don’t think he burned it down in an attempt to push me into giving him the listing.” Lucy watched the river. “I think his reasons must have had something to do with the discovery of Brinker’s body. It’s hard to keep the past buried.”

  Jillian was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, she sounded exhausted and resigned.

  “No matter how hard you try, it comes back to haunt you,” she said.

  “Did you ever wonder what happened to Brinker when he disappeared?”

  “Every minute, every hour, every day of my life for weeks, months and years I wondered what had happened to him,” Jillian said.

  Lucy looked at her, startled. “Did you?”

  “Yes. Because I could never really bring myself to believe that he was dead.”

  “You . . . missed him?” Lucy asked, treading cautiously now.

  Jillian clenched one hand into a fist around the strap of her shoulder bag. “No one was happier than me when they officially pronounced him dead, but I was afraid to believe it. Deep down, I was sure that someday he would come back to torment me. That was his favorite sport, you know, tormenting people.”

  Lucy went still. “I thought you liked him.”

  “Sure, at first. Until I became one of his victims. By the time I realized that he was a complete sociopath, it was too late.”

  “Will you tell me what happened, Jillian?”

  Jillian’s mouth tightened. “Why?”

  “Because it might help me understand why Nolan Kelly died setting fire to my aunt’s house.”

  Jillian thought about that for a long time. Then she started walking along the shady riverfront path.

  “I suppose it doesn’t matter now,” she said. “My whole life is falling apart. There’s not much left to protect.”

  Lucy fell into step beside her.

  “Was Kelly dealing drugs thirteen years ago when Brinker was doing his Pied Piper thing here in Summer River?” Lucy asked.

  “Pied Piper.” Jillian shook her head. “Yes, that does describe the bastard, doesn’t it? He had us all under his spell. Well, everyone except for Mason Fletcher, of course.”

  “Tell me about Kelly.”

  “All I can tell you is that at the time everyone knew that he was the one supplying Brinker with those designer drugs that always seemed to be available in his vicinity. Nolan had the connections. He always had connections, remember?”

  “No. I was only here during the summers and sometimes on weekends. I didn’t go to school here in Summer River, so I wasn’t aware of much of the local teen gossip. Besides, Kelly was two years older than me.”

  “Funny how time changes some things, isn’t it?” Jillian said, bitterness dripping from every word. “Thirteen years ago Mason Fletcher considered you a kid. Now the two of you seem to be very close.”

  “Word gets around.”

  “Everyone knows you went out of town together yesterday and didn’t come back until this morning.” Jillian glanced at her. “I heard you went to the coast.”

  “It wasn’t a secret,” Lucy said. “Can you tell me anything else about Nolan Kelly?”

  “I don’t know what else to tell you. Thirteen years ago he was the dealer who scored those drugs for Brinker’s parties. I assume Brinker paid him very well, because Nolan always had the hottest clothes and the coolest tech gadgets.”

  “Kelly’s parents didn’t wonder how their son could afford all the latest stuff?”

  “His parents were divorced. Neither one of them paid a lot of attention to Nolan.”

  Lucy came to a halt on the path. “What did Brinker do to you to make you fear him, Jillian?”

  Jillian stopped. She slipped her sunglasses out of her shoulder bag and put them on. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  “You said you were one of his victims. Did he drug you and rape you and record it all on video?”

  Jillian went slack-jawed for a few seconds. Rage and panic flashed across her face.

  “How did you know that?” she got out in a voice that sounded as if she was being strangled.

  “It’s what he planned to do to me the night of the party here in the park, isn’t it? How many other local girls did he hurt and humiliate that way?”

  “I don’t know.” Jillian had a death grip on the strap of her shoulder bag. “I can’t be sure, because Brinker was good at keeping his own secrets. But I can tell you one thing, I don’t have any trouble believing that he was the Scorecard Rapist.”

  “Did he ever post a video of your rape?”

  “No.” Jillian’s mouth twisted. “Don’t you get it? He used the video
to blackmail me.”

  “He was rich. What did he want from you?”

  “Not money,” Jillian said. “He wanted me to pimp for him.”

  Lucy went cold. “Yes, of course. That explains why you invited me to the party here at the park that night.”

  “You were my first assignment, so to speak. I know this is going to sound freaky, but I think he had his eye on you because he hated your aunt.”

  “He wanted to punish Sara? Why? What did she ever do to him?”

  “I’m not sure of any of this. It wasn’t like Brinker confided in me. But looking back now, I think that he was . . . afraid of her.”

  “Why? She couldn’t possibly have hurt him. He was Brinker, the son of Jeffrey Brinker. How could she have been a threat?”

  Jillian sighed. “Maybe because she saw him for what he was—a monster. He told me once that Sara Sheridan was a witch. He said it sarcastically—tried to make a joke out of it—but I remember thinking at the time that it didn’t ring true. If he wasn’t actually afraid of her, I think he was worried about her for some reason. He wanted some hold over her. That’s why he told me to bring you to the party that night.”

  “He believed that a video of me being raped would give him leverage over Sara?”

  “It would allow him to hurt her,” Jillian said. “Brinker was into that kind of torture. Speaking personally, I will be forever grateful to your aunt for getting rid of the bastard. I just wish I had known for certain that he was actually dead all these years. I would have slept better.”

  “If Brinker was the Scorecard Rapist, do you think Nolan Kelly might have been the one who filmed the rapes for him?”

  “What?” Jillian looked floored. “Nolan? Wait a minute, are you saying there was someone else involved with the rapes?”

  “It’s a possibility. One of the investigators at the time theorized that there may have been two people who committed the crimes, Brinker and the photographer.”

  “I never heard that. I’m sure Nolan wasn’t in the room the night Brinker raped me. I was half awake. Brinker wanted me to know what was happening. But even if he had an accomplice for the other rapes, I can’t see it being Nolan. For one thing, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his mouth shut.”

  “Good point.”

  “Any way you look at it, Sara Sheridan did the world a favor,” Jillian said. “There’s no telling how many women she saved.”

  “I’m sorry she wasn’t able to save you, Jillian.”

  “In a way, she did,” Jillian said. “She made Brinker stop before he could force me to find him another victim. You were my first and last target.”

  Understanding whispered through Lucy. “And you chose to try to save me by going to Mason, didn’t you? You knew he wouldn’t stand by and allow a kid like me to get raped.”

  Jillian looked at the opposite shore of the river. “I didn’t know if telling Mason what Brinker planned would work or not, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I was frantic that day, knowing what was going to happen. I was terrified of Brinker, but I didn’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt.”

  “So you told the one person you knew who could be trusted to come up with a rescue plan. Mason Fletcher.”

  “Brinker wanted to control Mason the same way he controlled the other teens who circled around him. But Mason was the one guy Brinker couldn’t manipulate. You should have seen his face that night when Mason walked through that crowd here at the ranch to get you and take you home. Brinker was laughing like the devil himself at first. He thought another victim had just stumbled into his little circle of hell.”

  “Brinker made the mistake of going up against a guardian angel.”

  “Trust me, Brinker wasn’t laughing after Mason took you away. I saw the look in his eyes. Scared me to death, to tell you the truth.”

  34

  Give me a break,” Mason said. “You actually believe Jillian’s version of events?”

  “Yes,” Lucy said. “I do. She was barely eighteen, and she was dealing with the equivalent of a sociopathic cult leader, a guy who had drugged her and raped her and was threatening blackmail. She felt helpless to defend herself against Brinker. She was afraid to go to her parents or the cops. She was scared to death. The bastard was holding the threat of a video over her head to force her to do what he wanted, which was to lure me to him. So she turned to the only person she thought might be able to save me. That would be you.”

  “A plan which also had the advantage of keeping Brinker from finding out that she had double-crossed him,” Mason said.

  He reached into the shipping box that he was unpacking and took out a handful of screwdriver kits. Each kit contained an assortment of precision screwdrivers in various sizes. The grips of the screwdrivers were neon pink. The vinyl storage cases were done in a matching shade. Deke had discovered that women were wild about attractively packaged screwdrivers. He had ordered fifty kits, all in shocking pink.

  “Well, it was certainly better than no plan at all,” Lucy snapped.

  They were in the back room of the hardware store. Mason had retreated to the crowded space to think. There was something about organizing plumbing supplies, hinges and screwdrivers that was conducive to the thinking process. Lucy had come through the door a short time earlier. He had heard Deke and Joe greet her, and then Deke had sent her into the stockroom.

  Mason had taken one look at her serious expression and had known that there had been a new development. As soon as she had told him about the meeting with Jillian, he had said the first words that came to mind: What the hell did you think you were doing meeting with her alone?

  That had not gone over well. He had seen the irritation and stubbornness in Lucy’s eyes and had to acknowledge that he had screwed up. He had growled a weak apology, which only made things worse because she had proceeded to inform him that the meeting had taken place at Harper Ranch Park and that there had been a number of people around at all times. He had to admit she had been careful, but he couldn’t shake the bad vibe that had hit him when he found out what she had done.

  “Damn it, you should have called me before you agreed to see her,” he said.

  “Give me one good reason why I needed your permission,” Lucy said.

  He thought about it. “I haven’t got a good reason.”

  “That’s right, you don’t. Going to you thirteen years ago to tell you about Brinker’s plan was the only way Jillian could protect both me and herself.”

  Mason put the pink screwdriver kits on a workbench. “You really bought that story, didn’t you?”

  Lucy cleared her throat. “For your information, she didn’t try to convince me that was what had happened. It just sort of came out after we started talking.”

  “Wait, don’t tell me, let me guess. You’re the one who told her that contacting me was probably what saved you that night, right? You gave her the story that made her look like a heroine, not an accomplice.”

  Lucy winced. “Okay, maybe I did put the words into her mouth. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen just as I said, even if she wasn’t entirely aware of her own reasoning at the time. But she agreed with me.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet she did. All right, what’s done is done. Just remember that the only reason Jillian wants to be your new best friend is because she’s desperate to get those shares.”

  Lucy crossed her arms, leaned one nicely curved hip against the side of the workbench and looked stubborn. “Maybe. Maybe not. By the way, it has been brought home to me yet again that this is one very small town.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Turns out that Chief Whitaker is not the only concerned citizen who knows that we spent the night over on the coast. Evidently, it’s all over town.”

  “You know as well as I do that there was bound to be talk.�
�

  “Well, yes, but geez, you’d think people would have something better to gossip about.”

  Mason smiled. “Now, see, as far as I’m concerned there isn’t anything better than what happened between us over on the coast.”

  Lucy turned the same shade of pink as the screwdriver cases. “That’s not the point—”

  “Hold that thought.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m leaving.”

  She unfolded her arms and looked suspicious. “Why?”

  “I came in here to do some thinking.” He started toward the door. “I have now had a genuine thought. Your meeting with Jillian has inspired me.”

  “Where are you going?” she called after him.

  “To talk to Quinn Colfax. I’ve got a few questions for him.”

  Deke looked up from some paperwork at the counter. “You two finished arguing?”

  “For now,” Mason said.

  “Too bad,” Deke said. “It was just getting interesting.”

  “Keep an eye on her. I’m going out to the Colfax Winery.”

  Lucy emerged from the stockroom. She had one of the bright pink screwdriver cases in her hand. “Maybe I should come with you, Mason.”

  “Nope,” Mason said. He kept moving. “The conversation I plan to have with Quinn is going to be one of those man-to-man conversations. You don’t want to be there.”

  “I thought you didn’t communicate well,” Lucy called after him.

  “I know how to do this kind of talking.”

  He had his hand on the doorknob when Lucy spoke again. But she wasn’t talking to him.

  “Deke, how much are these screwdriver sets?” she said. “I’d like three of them. One for myself and two more for my friends back at Brookhouse Research.”

  35