by Kate Kessler
She seemed to want Audrey to agree with her, so she nodded. “What did you do?”
“We got her into therapy, of course. The best we could find in the area. We even had videoconferences with doctors from New York. We got her on some medication, got her to eat normally. She stopped pulling her hair and cutting herself.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes, but all of this attention on Kendra meant there was very little for Kyle. The next thing I know, we’re at our summer home and the police pull into the drive. Kyle had wrecked his car. Luckily, the police know our family and didn’t report it.”
That was convenient. Jesus, it must be nice to have that kind of influence. “What happened then?”
“We put him in rehab, of course.” She shook her head. “I thought he was fine. I thought they both were fine.”
Something in her tone—a note of defeat—made Audrey frown. “But they weren’t?”
Elle shook her head. “I’ve given them everything I could. I love my kids, Audrey. I really do, but I think I’ve also damaged them. There’s mental illness in my family—my mother is bipolar, and I’ve been treated for depression several times over the years. I’m afraid I’ve passed it on to my kids.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that, Elle. Genetics are out of your control.”
“I shouldn’t have had kids, but Kendall wanted the perfect family.” She said it with a degree of bitterness. “I’ve tried to protect them both because I feel so responsible for their problems, but I don’t think I can protect them anymore. I think maybe I’m doing them more harm than good.”
It was then that Audrey realized that Elle hadn’t come to see her for her kids, she’d come to unburden herself. She was looking for Audrey to absolve her, or tell her it was okay to stop trying to mask the problem.
“Why did you come here, Elle?” She kept her voice low, but strong. It was the voice she often used to let some of the more vulnerable kids she’d interviewed know that she could handle whatever they needed to share.
The woman dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a tissue from the box on the coffee table. “When Kendra attacked Alisha in the hospital I knew something was wrong. I checked her medication and realized that she hadn’t been taking it. It’s not the kind of stuff you should just stop taking. There are side effects.”
Audrey didn’t know a lot about drugs—psychologists couldn’t prescribe, and it had been a long time since she studied them. She was aware of some of the more popular and older drugs, but not like a psychiatrist would be, and for that reason, she didn’t ask what Kendra had been taking. “So, you think going off her meds led to the violence with Alisha?”
“I know it did. You see, this wasn’t the first time Kendra’s stopped taking her medication without supervision.”
It seemed like Elle needed her to ask in order to continue, so Audrey did. “She’s been violent before?”
Elle nodded, her face pale beneath her makeup—it made her look almost garish. “Yes.”
“What happened?”
A tear slid down her smooth cheek, carving a trail through the powder there. “She stabbed me with a hunting knife.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
When Audrey called and told Neve that Elle Granger wanted to talk to her, Neve thought it was some kind of joke, but then she went to the high school and found the two of them waiting for her.
Elle refused to make any kind of statement or say anything on record. Everything Neve learned came from Audrey. Elle just sat there, silent and pale. It wasn’t a good look for her, and Neve didn’t take any enjoyment in seeing the woman so upset.
“Do you have a lot of hunting knives in your house, Elle?” she asked.
“Kendall has several,” Audrey answered, her gaze locking with Neve’s. Neither of them had to say anything else. They both knew what the other was thinking—it wasn’t a big jump. Both Kendra and Kyle had access to hunting knives, and Kendra had been in Luke’s bedroom. Having dated the kid, she’d know all about his collection of daggers and where he kept them.
“Where’s your son? Where’s Kyle?”
But Elle just shook her head. She didn’t know.
When Neve left, she made sure she apologized loudly for interrupting Audrey and Elle’s conversation and thanked Audrey for her help—just in case anyone was paying attention. She really didn’t want people speculating as to why she was meeting with the two women, and gossip was a regional pastime, it sometimes seemed.
As soon as she got back into her car, she called Vickie. “Hey, Vick. You get anything on the knife we found at the Pelletier house?”
“Mm. It’s handmade, apparently. I found the craftsman online. That pattern in the blade? Apparently it’s Damascus steel or something. Can you believe it cost four hundred dollars?”
Having seen the inside of the Granger house, yes. “Find out who bought it.”
“Already on it. I sent the guy a photo of the knife and asked for a list of clients in this area. He was very cooperative.”
“Probably freaked out that one of his designs was used to kill a person. Turns out Kendall Granger collects hunting knives, and it seems Kendra likes to stab people with them—at least her mother.”
“Shit.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Are you going to arrest her?”
“We don’t have enough. I am going to cut Luke free, though. Prosecutor’s dropping charges. It’s looking more and more like he was framed—that whole knife thing and he’s got an alibi for that night.”
“You said yourself that we don’t know the exact time of death, though.”
“No, we don’t. But if I’m letting Kendra walk around free, I need to let Luke do the same. Right now she’s looking way more guilty than he is. Call me as soon as you find out about the knife.” She hung up and headed toward the hospital. She wanted to talk to Luke about Kendra, but first she wanted to talk to Kendra herself. It was the perfect opportunity with Elle not watching over her daughter like a hawk.
She walked into Kendra’s hospital room to find Lucy with her.
“Shouldn’t you be in school?” she asked.
The redhead shot her a belligerent stare. “My mother knows where I am.”
Neve really didn’t care. “I need to talk to Kendra alone, please.”
The girl straightened. “You can’t.”
The look Neve gave her was one she normally reserved for criminals who really pissed her off. “Yeah, I can. You need to leave the room.”
Lucy turned to her friend. Kendra was still pale and bruised, but she looked like she was recovering well. Neve wondered what the psych evaluation had revealed and if the girl was going to be kept for any length of time. If there was no record of some of her previous behavior, the doctors wouldn’t really have cause to keep her.
Kendra nodded. “It’s okay, Luce.”
Lucy didn’t look happy about being dismissed. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
Just what did the girl think Neve was going to do?
When they were alone, Kendra surprised her by speaking first. “Guess you want to talk to me about the OD, huh?”
“We can start there,” Neve allowed. “Did you get the drug from your brother? We found his stash.”
Blue eyes opened wide, then went back to normal. “Yeah. He doesn’t know that I know where he keeps it.”
“Does he use GHB a lot?”
Kendra shrugged. “He used to when he was into sports.”
It was used as an athletic enhancer. “What about recreationally?”
She blushed. “I heard him and Josh talking about how it made sex better.”
Josh probably didn’t know that Kyle was using it to have sex with Tala. “Did you ever give any to Tala?”
“Me?” She shook her head. “No.”
Neve couldn’t tell if she was lying. Of course, it was just as possible that Tala had gotten the drug from Kyle, or even from her own brother if he used it as well.
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br /> “Did you mean to take too much at school on Monday?”
The girl flushed even darker. “No.”
Now that felt more like a lie. “Why did you take it?”
“I was upset over Luke.”
“Over him being arrested, or that he’d hooked up with Alisha?”
All the pink in her face drained away. “What?”
She didn’t know? Audrey had tweeted it the day before. It was all over town. Lucy had somehow managed to keep it from her.
“Alisha and Luke were together the night Tala disappeared.”
Kendra shook her head. “No. That’s not true.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“No!” Kendra cried. “It’s not true! She’s lying!”
“Kendra . . .”
“I did not go through all of this just so he can end up with some white trash slut.” The girl’s eyes glittered like stones. “After all I’ve done for him, he cannot just fucking walk away from me.”
Okay, this was getting a little too teen Fatal Attraction for Neve’s liking, but still…“What did you do for him?”
“Lucy!” Kendra yelled.
Her friend rushed into the room. “Are you okay?”
“Why didn’t you tell me Luke fucked Alisha?”
Lucy shot Neve a look that seemed to ask, What have you done? “It’s just a rumor, Ken. Gossip.”
Then, without warning, Kendra punched herself in the face. Just balled up her fist and smashed her already broken nose like her hand was the head of a hammer. She started screaming. And bleeding.
Neve and Lucy rushed her at the same time. Neve grabbed the hand that she was using to hurt herself and pinned it to the mattress while Lucy seized the other. Neve pressed the call button for the nurses, who came running a few seconds later. Kendra thrashed on the bed, her nose streaming blood, face red and puffy where she’d hit herself. She strained against them. She wasn’t a very big girl, but rage gave her strength. Neve had to put her weight into it to keep her on the mattress.
“Get off me!” Kendra screamed as she pounded her heels into the bed. “Get the fuck off me!”
One of the nurses inserted a needle into Kendra’s IV tube. Within seconds the girl quieted.
“I think maybe you should leave, Detective,” she said.
Neve agreed. She looked at Lucy, who was wide-eyed and pallid. “Has she ever done anything like this before?”
The girl kept her gaze on her friend, who was whimpering now. She nodded. “It’s this thing with Luke. It makes her crazy.”
That was a fucking understatement. Neve would never admit it, but her knees were a little shaky as she left the hospital room. She’d never seen anyone lose it like that, not even when she worked in New York—and that was saying something.
In the elevator, she leaned against the cool wall and took a deep breath. By the time she reached Luke’s room she felt more like herself. He looked good. His bruises were healing and it was obvious that they had lessened his pain meds. Both he and his mother looked surprised to see her.
“What is it?” Luke asked. “Did something happen to Alisha?”
His phone was on the table beside his bed. He’d probably seen the talk on Twitter. Had Alisha not told him what she was going to do?
“Alisha’s fine,” she told him. “We’re dropping the charges against you.”
Linda made a noise that was half laugh, half sob, while Luke looked like he might cry.
“I’ll leave the two of you to celebrate in a moment,” she told them. “But first, I need to ask if Kendra Granger has ever gotten violent with you.”
Luke’s good mood vanished. He glanced at his mother, then back to Neve. He nodded. “Once.”
“What?” Linda rose to her feet. “Luke, what did that girl do?”
He rolled up the sleeve of his hospital gown to reveal a small scar high on his right shoulder. When he spoke, he looked right at Neve. “She stabbed me with a pair of nail scissors.”
His mother gasped. Neve studied the mark. A little farther up the neck and she could have gotten his jugular. She took out her phone. “Do you mind if I take a photo?”
“Go for it.”
“When did she do this to you?”
Luke looked up. “It was how she broke up with me.”
It was the text from Luke that got Alisha through the rest of her day. When he told her that he was going to be getting out of the hospital the next day and that the charges against him had been dropped, it was the happiest moment she’d had in months. Even the stares and giggles—and people making digs about her relationship with Luke—couldn’t dim it.
But then, eventually, came a wash of guilt. She’d slept with a friend’s boyfriend, and then that same friend had been killed. Murdered. She didn’t really feel like she had a right to be so happy.
She needed to make it right with Tala. She wasn’t sure why she felt she had to do it, but she did. She was pretty sure Audrey would understand, probably even Uncle Jake. So, when she left school that afternoon, she drove back to the Falls. There was another car there when she arrived, but she really didn’t pay much attention to it. She simply parked, locked up, and made her way down the shorter path that led to the bridge above the falls. It was the spot they would come to on occasion just to hang out. Tala had liked it back there, and Alisha did too. She hadn’t been there since the park closed in October, though she knew it was a popular party spot.
She didn’t get invited to a lot of parties, mostly because people were afraid of her uncle Jake. Once, a couple of boys from another town tried getting her drunk. Jake had found them and made them dig a couple of holes in the woods. The holes, he told them, were where he was going to put them if they ever came back.
They left that day and Alisha never saw them again. She had no doubt her uncle would keep his word. She had no evidence, but she didn’t think it was a coincidence that Matt Jones, who had beaten not only Audrey but her mother as well, ended up being killed in prison. She was just surprised Jake hadn’t wanted to kill the asshole himself.
As she picked her way along the sloping path, she felt a growing sense of unease. It was foolish, she told herself. Tala’s body wasn’t there anymore, and there was nothing to be afraid of. Still, her heart hammered as she stepped out onto the rocky cliff platform near the bridge. She had to stop and take a deep breath, and swipe the back of her hand across her forehead to wipe away the sweat that beaded there. It seemed so still. So close and quiet, despite the breeze in the trees, the birds singing, and the water bubbling below. There was a smell on the air—something wrong.
She didn’t want to turn her head. She would see something horrible if she did. She made herself do it anyway.
Nothing. The bridge was perfectly clear. Shaking her head at herself, Alisha stepped onto the wooden planks. There was hardly any give as she walked across the chasm. Below, the falls crashed over the rocks to the bed below. The spray was cool on her forearms and overheated face. She stopped for a second in the middle to savor it. Had Tala stood in that same spot before she was killed? Had she run across this bridge trying to get away? Or had she crossed it with her killer, with no idea what was about to happen?
Alisha moved forward, trying not to think about her friend’s last moments. Trying not to feel guilty about the fact that she might have very well been having sex with Luke at the exact moment Tala had been stabbed to death. There was no point in thinking about it. She would change it if she could, but she couldn’t. And regardless of what she’d done with Luke, she hadn’t been responsible for what someone else did to Tala. She knew that without anyone else having to tell her. But there was still that icky feeling of having taken advantage of Luke’s broken heart. No, she hadn’t forced him to be with her, and he said that he’d been starting to have feelings for her already by then, but they could have handled it better, and she knew it. Whatever happened between them now, she was going to be a lot more mindful of it.
The police tape was gone
, but a lone piece of it fluttered from a tree branch not far from where the bridge ended. She saw the large boulders that lined the edge and knew that Tala’s body had been found behind one of them, partially covered with rocks and sticks. That meant whoever had killed her had tried to protect her from the elements—or just wanted to hide her. If they’d really wanted to be rid of her, they should have just left her alone and let nature take care of it.
The thought rolled her stomach a bit. As she approached the area, her footsteps slowed. She didn’t want to look. There was something there she didn’t want to see—some trace of Tala. She just knew it.
And then she saw it—someone sitting on the ground near the spot where Tala had been found. It was Kyle Granger. He was leaning back against the rock, passed out. That had been his car in the parking lot.
“Kyle?” she said as she approached. She felt better now, knowing someone else was there. He didn’t answer. He had to be out hard. “Kyle?”
Alisha froze just feet away from him. She could see him clearly now, and what she saw had her reaching for her phone in her bag. His skin was a strange color and his eyes stared straight ahead, unseeing.
Kyle Granger wasn’t passed out. He was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
For the second time in two weeks, Neve stood over a body at the Falls. This one was at least in better condition, though dead was dead.
“Looks like an overdose,” Charlotte commented.
“That wouldn’t be surprising,” Neve replied, hands on her hips. Although, given where he’d been found, he might have been murdered. Drugs made it hard to tell, which was why she still had her doubts about the guy who had beaten up Jake last fall. He turned up dead in his truck, which seemed entirely too convenient, but he’d been arrested for narcotics prior to that, so who knew for sure?
She turned to look at the girl standing on the bridge. She’d called Audrey, who stood beside Alisha, her arm around her shoulders. Neve assumed they’d told Yancy and Jake what was going on, but fortunately, neither of them had decided to show up. She didn’t need more people messing up the scene.
