*****
The police arrived within fifteen minutes, and not much had changed in that time. A paramedic was the first on the scene, and it took nearly another twenty minutes to convince Geoffrey to let go of his daughter’s body. He kept shaking his head and muttering “no” over and over again, holding her tighter. Karen and one of the nicer officers had to nearly pry him away from her so she could be placed into a black body bag. He held onto her hand with his until the last possible second before letting it slide from his grasp for the last time.
As the police zipped the body bag, Sandra became hysterical, screaming at the police and Geoffrey and anyone she could get her hands on. A police officer had to restrain her while Ginny’s body was loaded onto a stretcher and carried away from the creek, and when she was finally gone from their sight, Sandra collapsed to the ground, pounding the earth with her hands while she screamed over and over again. Gwen had finally gotten to her feet with the help of Gabe and her mother, and she looked at her aunt screaming at nothing, her heart breaking at the scene.
“Come on,” Karen said, ushering her children from the creek. “Your Aunt and Uncle need a moment to be alone right now.” She led them back to the house at a snail’s pace, knowing their hearts were heavy and their limbs nearly paralyzed with grief. When they finally reached the house, it was already past lunch, but nobody felt like eating. Karen went dutifully around the kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee for the adults and making two steaming mugs of hot chocolate for Gwen and Gabe.
Gwen stared at hers, counting the marshmallows as they bobbed around the dark liquid. It smelled heavenly, but her stomach clenched at the thought of forcing any food down. It was like a lead weight had settled in the pit of her stomach, and she was positive she’d be sick again if she let herself eat anything. So she placed one hand on the mug, letting the warmth that seeped into her skin bring her some small measure of comfort, and with the other, she picked up a spoon and played with the marshmallows, pushing them around but not really taking any interest in them.
Karen sat across from them, her eyes intensely focused on their faces. When Gwen glanced up and caught the worry on her mother’s face, she swallowed past the lump in her throat and forced herself to take a few sips of the rapidly cooling drink. Gabe had nearly finished his, but Gwen wasn’t sure if he was even aware of what he was doing. His eyes had found a tile on the kitchen’s backsplash and they hadn’t left it since. Every so often he raised the mug to his lips and sipped, but his eyes never once left the wall. By now, she was sure he had to have every crack and stain committed to memory.
His other hand was resting on his leg, and Gwen set her spoon down and reached over, grabbing it. She was desperate for any small comfort she could get, and she was sure Gabe felt the same way. Even though he didn’t take his eyes off the wall, his hand tightened reflexively around hers, giving her a strong squeeze. Gwen watched as Karen sipped at her coffee, but she could tell her mother was only drinking so that she had something to do with her hands, just like her children. None of them spoke because none of them had anything to say that would make things better. None of them had magic words that make this nightmare go away. It was better to just stay silent and grieve than to offer false encouragement.
After what felt like an eternity of silence, the front door opened and Grant shuffled into the kitchen, dragging his feet and looking like a living zombie. His eyes were wide and red-rimmed, with a faraway gaze that told Gwen he was still seeing Ginny’s body even though she’d been long gone. He dropped into the chair beside Karen, and she poured him a mug of coffee. He gulped it and slammed the mug on the table, his grip on it tightening until Gwen was sure the mug would crack.
A knock at the door startled all of them. Gwen knew the only people who would be knocking at this time would be the police. When nobody made an attempt to get up from their seats, Gwen forced herself to stand. When she answered the door, she found that an officer was just about to knock again. He dropped his hand, managing to look contrite and sheepish at the same time. He cleared his throat, and Gwen noticed the notepad and pen in his other hand. She sighed and stepped to the side, motioning for him and the other officer to come in.
She was thankful to see it wasn’t the older officer from before, because she didn’t think she could handle dealing with him at a time like this. She wasn’t sure if she had a temper quite like her father’s, but if she did, that man would have brought it out of her for sure. And she knew that now wasn’t the time for displays of anger. It was a time to mourn and get the answers they deserved.
Gwen led the police into the kitchen and took her seat beside Gabe. Grant narrowed his eyes, but Karen put a hand on his, silencing him before he could speak. Finally, he seemed to look at his children and actually see them for the first time since arriving at the creek. When he saw them, sitting together with tears in their eyes, his shoulders slumped and the anger ebbed from him, leaving him as broken as the rest of them.
The first officer cleared his throat again. “I’m very sorry to have to do this now,” he said, his voice soft and quiet, barely above a whisper. “but the sooner we ask our questions, the sooner the investigation can continue, and the sooner you’ll get closure.”
Karen sighed “We understand,” she said, twisting the mug nervously in her hands. “You’re just trying to do your job. It’s okay. Ask away.”
“I understand that Gwen and Gabe were the last ones to see Ginny alive,” he said, looking at the two of them. “We need to know as much about that as we can. Don’t leave anything out, even if you think it’s insignificant. Now is not the time to be keeping secrets, even if you think it’s to protect her privacy.”
Gabe finally looked away from the wall, turning his blank stare on the young officer. “Honestly, I didn’t really see Ginny that night. Gwen did. I caught her trying to sneak out of the house, and she told me that Ginny had taken off. I only really got a fleeting glance. Gwen’s the only one that can tell you about her state of mind or whatever.” He turned his gaze back to the wall, but Gwen knew he would be listening to whatever she had to say.
“Gwen, can you tell us what happened that day?” the officer asked gently. “I understand it might be a little difficult to talk about, but it’s very important. We need to know about Ginny’s state of mind before she went missing that night. Where you guys went, what you did, who you were with, what her attitude was like. Tell us anything that might have seemed a little out of the ordinary when you think back about it now.”
“Ginny and I went to the Rockford mall, and we met up with our friend, Tiffany. At first, it seemed like Ginny was on her way to becoming her old self. I couldn’t believe the change in her. When we found her, she was half crazed, but on the drive over, she was smiling and laughing and we were joking and having a good time. She was just like she used to be, and it stayed that way for most of the day. But every once in awhile, someone would say something and her entire attitude would change, like someone flipped a switch. She became a little moody and distant, and it began to worry me.”
“Why?” he asked, writing down what she was saying. “What made you even notice something was off?”
“She was being really generous,” Gwen said. “The night before, she kind of gave this speech about how much she loved everyone, and it left me feeling…odd…almost like Ginny was saying goodbye to us. Then throughout the day, she insisted on paying for everything. She told Tiffany and I to go pick whatever we wanted off the shelves and she would buy it for us. We couldn’t let her spend that kind of money on us, and it seemed to upset her, so we relented.”
“And that was odd?”
“Ginny’s always been a generous person,” Gwen said, hesitating. She didn’t want to say what was on her mind, but she knew she had to get it off her chest. “I know that sometimes when a person decides to kill themselves, they give away their most prized possessions and tell everyone how much they love them. That’s kind of what it felt like, to me. That Ginny was planni
ng on not being around anymore, so she wanted us to have good memories of her and things to remember her by.”
“You think Ginny went into the woods that night to kill herself?” the officer asked, his pen no longer moving. The atmosphere around the table was tense as her family waited for Gwen’s answer. The officers were hanging on her every word as well, eagerly waiting to hear what she had to say next.
“No,” Gwen said, shaking her head. “I don’t think so, not anymore. Looking back, it wasn’t like she was counting down the time until she was going to die. It was like she was hopeless, like she knew something was coming, something she couldn’t stop. I think whoever hurt Ginny the first time was coming for her again, and she knew it. I don’t know why she didn’t rely on her family to help and protect her, but I do know that Ginny would never have willingly inflicted this kind of pain on us.”
Her voice caught in the back of her throat and she sobbed again, biting her lip to keep from crying. She needed to stay strong, at least long enough to answer all of their questions. She owed it to Ginny to find out what happened to her, and she couldn’t do that if she turned into a giant blubbering mess. The officers waited for her to get a grip on her emotions, and she continued.
“Like I told the last officer, Ginny and I share a room when we’re in Brighton. I heard a creak and woke up to find Ginny climbing out the window. By the time Gabe and I got outside, she was already to the woods. We tried to keep up with her, but we lost her, and got lost ourselves. We were attacked by a wolf, but it got distracted by another wolf and we ran home to tell everyone what happened.” She glanced over at her father, narrowing her eyes a fraction. “Maybe if we had all been out there looking for her a little longer, we might have found her. Alive.”
Her words were meant to sting, and she could tell that they did. Her father flinched and looked down at his hands, refusing to meet her eyes. She was surprised since her father was never the kind of man to back down when anyone challenged him or spoke badly about him, yet right now he was acting like a coward. He knows he’s in the wrong, she thought, surprised. He’ll probably never admit it, but he knows now that he was wrong for not doing more than he did.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. There wasn’t much room left in her heart for anything other than grief and misery, and that included remorse for the anger she’d held towards her father throughout their entire stay. Even though she loved him and a part of her wanted to comfort him, she just didn’t have the energy. She had to focus on her own grief, not his. Even though he was suffering as well, he was her father—the adult—and he should have been the one worrying about her and putting aside his pain. That’s what a parent did.
At least, that’s what the good ones do.
The officers had a few more questions, and Gwen did her best to answer them honestly. The only thing she left out was the fact that Ginny had started to strip her clothes off after jumping out the window, and the fact that she had jumped out the window itself. She did her best to make it seem like Ginny had climbed down the side of the house, which though hard to do, wasn’t impossible. Gwen knew that for a fact, as she and Ginny had snuck out more than once to go sit down by the creek and watch the moon rise.
By the time she had answered all of their questions, Geoffrey and Sandra had finally returned to the house. The officers offered their condolences and excused themselves from the house, leaving the Grady family alone once more. The atmosphere around the table was fragile, like it might shatter at any moment. Gwen looked from her father to her uncle, wondering which of them would be the one to act first. The tension between them was palpable as they traded glances at one another. She hated to see that even a tragedy like this still had her family at each other’s throats.
Is there anything that can fix their problems? If even the death of someone they both loved a great deal wasn’t enough to fix things between them, obviously there was nothing that ever would. Her father and her uncle were doomed to hate one another until the day they died. Not for the first time, Gwen was left wondering what could have possibly been so terrible that it would leave two brothers at war like this. It has to be even worse than Gabe and I ever thought.
The tension was finally broken when Grant got to his feet suddenly, shoving his chair back. Without looking at anyone still seated at the table, he turned his back and headed for the doorway. “I’m going for some fresh air,” he said, his voice shaky.
As he passed, Gwen reached out to him, not caring that he was being a jerk. Even though she was nearly an adult, right now, she just wanted her daddy. Her hand just barely touched his and he jerked away from her as if her hand were on fire. “Dad,” she pleaded, her voice as shaky as his, tears in her eyes once more. He didn’t stop, and the front door slammed shut behind him as he left. Gwen felt her lip start to quiver and knew she was close to breaking down right there at the table.
Like always, it was Gabe that was there to comfort her. He scooted his chair closer, finally taking his eyes off of the wall. When his arms went around her, she sobbed into his chest, never more grateful that he was there than she was in that moment. She loved Gabe more than anyone—probably more than their own parents—and she only hoped that he knew it. She was sure he felt the same way, like she was the only person he could ever truly rely on. It was just the two of them alone in the world, like it had always been.
Revelations (Brighton Wolves #1) Page 22
