Crash & Burn

by Lisa Gardner

  “He works a lot,” Wyatt states.

  I nod, because what can I say? According to Thomas this project is important. Except I have no idea what the project is.

  The detectives escort me out of the house. They’re driving one of the county’s white-painted SUVs, the NORTH COUNTRY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT emblazoned on the side. I’ve seen the vehicles parked enough times along the back roads. Sometimes, the uniformed officers engage in traffic stops, but Thomas once told me deputies spent most of their time transferring prisoners around the state. The vehicles I see parked here and there are actually waiting to receive or hand off inmates.

  Maybe that’s why I feel so uncomfortable when the detectives open the rear passenger door and gesture for me to climb in. My wrists should be cuffed, I think. This is it: the beginning of the end.

  I’m surprised when Kevin goes around, gets in the other side next to me. To watch my responses, play more of the memory game? Or do they not trust me alone?

  I place the quilt on my lap. The feel of it against my clasped hands helps ground me and I’m glad I brought it.

  Wyatt puts the large vehicle into gear, backs out of our drive.

  I have one last glimpse of my home. Thomas’s dark frame silhouetted in the upstairs window.

  Then my husband disappears from me.

  * * *

  WE DRIVE FOR a while in silence. There is a barrier between the backseat and the front, formed from Plexiglas maybe, something scratchy but clear. The rear seat isn’t the hard plastic used in so many squad cars for easy cleaning after transporting vomiting drunks. Instead, Kevin and I share the SUV’s original gray upholstered bench seat. It’s comfortable enough, makes it easier to pretend we’re all just friends going out for a drive.

  If I look ahead, though, into the front section of the sheriff’s transport, I can see the bulked-up dash, with radio, mounted laptop and all kinds of bells and whistles even my cutting-edge Audi never had. Wyatt is murmuring something into the radio, though with the divider closed it’s hard to hear. Making further arrangements? Maybe I’ll end the night arrested yet.

  I try to look out my window, but the impression of rushing darkness makes me nauseous. I wish I were back in the upstairs bedroom, lying beneath my quilt with an ice pack on my forehead. The cool black. The icy oasis to ease the throbbing in my head.

  The SUV slows, comes to a stop. Blinker is on. We make a right turn. Off my back road onto a more major thoroughfare. Five minutes pass, maybe ten; then civilization begins to appear. A small strip mall here, a gas station, grocery store, there. A New Hampshire state liquor store.

  I feel my body tense. Ready to turn in. Where I buy my supply, I think without thinking. But the sheriff’s vehicle keeps on driving.

  “Familiar?” Kevin asks me, clearly cuing off my body language.

  “I run my errands here.”

  “Makes sense. Shops closest to your house.”

  “The bottle of scotch I had that night. Do you know where I bought it from?”

  “Yeah, we do.”

  “Was it there, that state liquor store?” Because in New Hampshire, you can buy beer and wine in a grocery store, but not hard liquor. That’s controlled by the state.

  “Not that store,” the detective says, surprising me.

  The vehicle is still moving. This road is nicely paved, which is always a perk in the North Country. I find myself closing my eyes, allowing the movement to lull me. I’m tired. Very tired. That underwater feeling has returned. As if none of this is real, or even happening.

  I’m floating along, weightless, senseless. If I could just stay this way, maybe I would never be hurt again.

  “Mommy, mommy, look at me. I can fly.”

  But it’s not the flying that’s the hard part. It’s the landing, always the landing, that gets us in the end.

  I hear myself sigh. A long and mournful sound.

  Then the vehicle stops.

  Kevin says, “We’re here.”

  * * *

  WHEN I FIRST climb out of the sheriff’s SUV, I’m confused. We’re not on some darkened back road, but at another small shopping plaza. Local store/deli/gas station, what appears to be a real estate office and, yes, another New Hampshire state liquor store. I don’t know this place, is my first thought. Yet I do.

  I set down the folded quilt on the backseat, reaching for something instead. Hat, I realize belatedly. I’m still looking for my hat to hide my face from the store cameras. Just as I always do.

  Then I feel the first pinprick of unease. Because I’m honestly not sure: Am I trying to keep from being recognized in area liquor stores, or am I trying to keep from being recognized on local security cameras?

  Both detectives are now waiting for me.

  “Why are we here?” I ask.

  “Let’s go inside,” Wyatt says, “have a look around.”

  I’m in trouble. I’m not sure where or how, but this isn’t what I wanted, what I expected. The police are supposed to take me to the scene of my car accident. I will walk around. I will know exactly what I was doing, thinking, that night. I will fly through the air. I will finally find Vero. She will forgive me.

  Instead we are . . . here.

  “I don’t want to,” I stall.

  “Just for a moment,” Wyatt says.

  “I have a headache.”

  “Bet the store sells aspirin.”

  I can’t move. I just stare at him. Am I begging, am I pleading, can he see it in my eyes? “I bought the bottle of scotch from this store, didn’t I? That’s why you brought me here. So I’ll recognize exactly where I screwed up that night.”

  “Let’s go inside,” Wyatt repeats. “Have a look around.”

  Then he and the other detective are already walking. I feel like I don’t have a choice anymore. This is it. Time to confront my fate.

  The squat gray building has made some attempt at New England architecture. A covered front entrance, cupola on top, a few false dormers to make it appear more like a house, less like a giant booze-filled supercenter. The automatic doors slide open at our approach. I’m relieved Wyatt and Kevin are in street clothes, because being escorted in by two uniformed officers would’ve been too much. Still, there’s no way to disguise the way they move, assess the scene. They are more than ordinary shoppers, and everyone who looks up seems to realize it. One woman, with a shopping cart piled high with vodka, instinctively looks away. I share her shame.

  No one wants a cop in a liquor store, any more than they’d want a priest in a brothel.

  I can’t look up. I wander the aisles, find myself almost immediately in front of the collection of scotch. But of course. The Glenlivet is shelved at eye level to entice buyers. The store carries an impressive collection of vintages, including the higher-end eighteen-year-old vice of my choice. I can’t help it. I want them all. My hands start to tremble; then my whole body shakes.

  My head pounds, but I also want to vomit. They shouldn’t have brought me here, I think resentfully. Taking a woman with a head injury on an unnecessary side trip. Taking a recovering drinker to a liquor store.

  I shoot them both hard stares and have the satisfaction of seeing that at least they’re worrying the same.

  “You okay?” Wyatt asks.

  “I don’t want to be here.”

  “But you recognize this store,” Kevin says. “You walked straight to this aisle.”

  “You already knew that!” I’m still angry. I focus my attention on the dirty gray linoleum floor. Anyplace but at the booze.

  “Did you come here Wednesday night?” Wyatt asks.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. I guess.”

  “Why here?” Kevin picks.

  “To buy scotch. Why the hell do you think?”

  “You said earlier you were in a hurry that night,” Wyatt presses. “Yo
u had to leave fast.”

  “Yes.”

  “So why come here? Forty minutes from your house, when there’s another state liquor store much closer.”

  I blink my eyes, press my hand against my stomach to ease the churn. I don’t know. I can’t answer his question. He’s right. Kevin pointed out the closer store and I knew it, recognized it instantly. So why would I have driven all the way out here?

  I shake my head. My nausea won’t abate. My headache is worse and the lights in the store are now hurting me. Dozens of sharp daggers, driving into my temples.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” I mutter.

  The detectives exchange another look. I decide I hate them. I wish Thomas were here. I want to curl up against his chest. I want to feel his fingers working their magic on my hairline. He would make me feel better. He would take care of me.

  Because he is my everything. Except I’m about to lose him, because I never deserved him in the first place. Vero tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen.

  Run, she has told me. So many times over the years. Run, run, run. But I don’t do it. I can’t.

  My face itches. The stitches. And for just one moment, I am tempted to reach up, tug at the first ugly black thread. Maybe I can remove the seams, then detach my own face, like a section of quilt. I wonder who I would find, lurking beneath my own skin.

  Wyatt has a hold of my arm. He is urging me forward and I realize belatedly they are finally taking me seriously. I’ve freaked out enough that we’re leaving the store. Forget the accident site. I’m going home. I need to lie down. Close my eyes. Up in my little room, the cool black. Like a coffin. An early grave.

  Wyatt takes me to the cashier line, as if we’re making a purchase. My footsteps slow, grow more leaden. He needs to take me outside. Why isn’t he taking me outside? I need fresh air.

  The cashier is staring straight at us. She is an older woman with graying brown hair and the face of someone who’s already had a hard day, or maybe a hard life.

  She still makes an effort: “Honey, you okay?” she asks me gently.

  I can’t help myself.

  I take one look at her, then promptly vomit all over the floor.

  Chapter 17

  AS EXPERIMENTS WENT, this hadn’t been the slam dunk Wyatt had expected. Thank heavens for the cashier lady, Marlene, an older woman who’d clearly seen it all. She didn’t bat an eye at their puking witness, but bustled around the counter, instructing them to take the poor woman outside while she got the mop.

  Not that Wyatt and Kevin didn’t have experience cleaning up vomit—that was one of those skills learned quickly on the job—but it was still nice to have some help.

  Kevin had gotten Nicky into the backseat. She’d promptly laid down with the yellow blanket clutched in her arms like a teddy bear. Kevin had made the mistake of offering to unfold it, drape it around her shoulders. She’d nearly attacked him.

  Mood volatility. Another sign of serious brain trauma.

  Now Wyatt headed back into the liquor store. He’d called in on their way over, to confirm that Marlene Bilek had been working tonight, just as she had on Wednesday night. Even luckier, she’d been the one tending the register when they’d arrived. And now, survey said . . .

  Wyatt found the woman in the back, emptying out the contents of the mop bucket. Smelled vile. Given that the Franks had eaten tomato soup for dinner, looked it, too.

  “Sorry ’bout that,” he said.

  The woman shrugged. “Can’t work in a liquor store and not deal with barf.”

  “Same with policing.”

  She smiled, but it was a tired look. Job couldn’t be easy, especially given incidents like this.

  “You recognize her?” Wyatt asked.

  “I think so. Wednesday night, right? She was dressed differently. Dark clothes. And a hat. Black baseball hat pulled low. That’s what made me notice her—thought she was dressed for trouble, and in a liquor store, we gotta pay attention to these things. But she didn’t really do anything. Just roamed around for a while. Aisle by aisle. I was about to ask her if she needed help when she grabbed a bottle of whiskey, something like that. Paid for it and was gone.”

  “How long would you say she was in the store?” Wyatt asked.

  “Fifteen, twenty minutes.”

  Wyatt frowned. That was a long time for a woman who was supposedly in a hurry. Twenty minutes, combined with the long drive out here . . . A woman dressed for trouble and going out of her way to find it.

  “Did she talk to anyone?” he asked. “Another customer, store employee?”

  The sales clerk shrugged. “Can’t really say. It was a busy night. Lot going on. Not like I spent all my time watching her.”

  Wyatt nodded, wishing once again the state store’s security cameras hadn’t messed up the recordings for Wednesday night. And yet, these things happened. Unfortunately, more often than a good detective liked. He fished out a card, handed it over to Marlene, who was now tucking the mop bucket in a corner. “Thank you very much. Sorry again for the mess, and if there’s anything else you remember, please give me a buzz.”

  “Sure. She gonna be okay?” Marlene asked. “Poor girl looked pretty sick.”

  “She’s resting; that’ll help.”

  “What’d she do, anyway?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a detective. You and that other guy escorted her into the store; now you’re asking all these questions. So what did she do?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

  “She lose someone?”

  Wyatt paused. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because she looks so sad. And I know sad. That girl, she’s got one helluva case of the blues.”

  * * *

  WYATT WAS STILL churning things over in his head when he exited the store to find Kevin waiting for him.

  “Got word from the cell company on the call Nicole received Wednesday night.”

  “And?”

  He followed Kevin to their white SUV, where Nicky remained curled up in the fetal position in the back. She didn’t look up when Wyatt approached. To judge by how tightly her eyes were squeezed shut, Wyatt didn’t think the woman was asleep, as much as she was purposefully shutting them out.

  “Caller ID doesn’t belong to a person,” Kevin provided, “but to a company.”

  “Which is?”

  “An investigative firm out of Boston.” Kevin paused, regarded him intently. “Northledge Investigations,” he stated.

  Wyatt closed his eyes. “Ah, shit.”

  * * *

  WYATT LEFT KEVIN to babysit their charge while he walked across the parking lot, zipping up his coat against the evening chill. Weather service had already recorded a couple of nights in single digits. And it was still only November, meaning at this rate, it was going to be a tough winter. People cooped up by the snow, half-crazed from the cold. Yeah, another excellent season to be a cop.

  He dialed Tessa with his back to Kevin. Pick up, pick up, he thought, preconditioned to liking the sound of her voice, even if he worried about what she might say to him next.

  Third ring, he got his wish:

  “Hey.” She sounded breathless. As if he caught her in the middle of something. For a moment, he let himself smile. God, he loved this woman. Which was good, because she was probably gonna ream him a new one.

  “Hey yourself,” he said. “Busy with something?”

  “Just leaving a restaurant. None of us felt like cooking. Headed to Shalimar instead.”

  Indian restaurant. One of Sophie’s favorites. It always surprised him, because when Wyatt had been nine, he’d been strictly a burger or dog man. Kids these days.

  “How’d your lunch with Detective Warren go?” he asked. They’d never ended up catching up last night. Nor this morning,
for that matter. Which, now that he thought about it, his bad. Usually they touched based at least once, if not twice a day. But given this case, he’d been preoccupied . . .

  Tessa was a grown-up, he reminded himself. Had been on the job, too. She understood these things.

  Except when she answered his question, her voice sounded remote, not at all like her. “Oh, fine. I explained investigative services to D.D. She explained why she preferred being a cop. Now we’ll both wait for the state of her injury to render the verdict.”

  “Sophie okay?” Wyatt asked, still trying to get a bead on Tessa’s mood. “Have a good week at school?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And your day?”

  “Fine.”

  The sound of car doors slamming shut. Then Tessa’s voice, more muffled as she addressed Sophie, probably Mrs. Ennis as well. “It’s Wyatt. I need a moment; then we’ll be on our way.”

  They must still be in the parking lot of the restaurant, Wyatt deduced, just now returning to the car. A former state trooper, Tessa hated people who drove while talking on their phones. Ergo, she’d make her family wait for her to finish the call before hitting the road. Which would explain her distraction. She was talking to him but still dealing with her family. Of course.

  He decided there was no good way of doing it. In for a penny, in for a pound.

  “I got a question for you,” he announced.

  “Okay.”

  “Remember my single-car accident? Possible aggravated DWI?”

  “Yes.”

  “Turns out, driver got a call on her cell shortly before she took off that night. Her name is Nicole Frank.”

  Pause, while he waited to see if Tessa would respond to that name. Of course, she was a seasoned professional, so when she didn’t, he continued, evenly enough:

  “Number was registered to a company: Northledge Investigations.”

  More silence now. But Wyatt knew Tessa well enough to imagine the small but significant changes in her body language. Sitting up straighter in the driver’s seat. Grip tightening on the phone. Expression smoothing out.

  He also understood that right about now, Sophie, sitting in the backseat, would be noticing these changes as well, and also going on high alert.