COLD CASE AT CAMDEN CROSSING

by Rita Herron

  Because Cindy ushered her out the door and practically slammed it in her face.

  Irritated, Tawny-Lynn drove down the long drive, then parked off to the side in a vacant lot and watched as seconds later, Cindy flew past.

  What in the world was she in such a hurry for? The boys’ lesson, or had her questions upset Cindy? Did she know whom Peyton had been seeing?

  And if so, why hadn’t she told her or the police?

  * * *

  CHAZ WAS STILL stewing with anger as he left his father’s. Maybe he’d jumped the gun in his accusations.

  His father was a businessman, a well-respected member of the town, a man who used his money and connections to run the show.

  But he’d never been violent or used physical force to get what he wanted. He’d never had to.

  And smearing blood on a wall was not his style.

  He drove to Barry Dothan’s house, contemplating his approach. He’d found pictures of teenagers in the sheriff’s file from the original investigation.

  But Barry’s mother had given him an alibi.

  Still, he didn’t like the fact that he’d been watching Tawny-Lynn.

  He pulled over at the trailer park, noting the weed-choked yards dividing the mobile homes. Children’s toys were scattered around, a mutt was tied to the porch that had been added on to the second trailer, then he spotted Barry’s bike.

  Chaz walked up to the trailer and knocked, remembering the stories he’d heard about the family. When she was younger, Mrs. Dothan had been a stripper and that’s where she’d met Barry’s father. He was now serving time in prison for selling cocaine.

  Complications during childbirth had caused Barry’s brain damage.

  He knocked again and heard shuffling inside. The door screeched open and Mrs. Dothan stood looking at him with blurry eyes as if she’d been drinking. She wore a ratty housecoat that she tugged around her, then lit a cigarette, inhaled and blew out smoke.

  “What do you want, Sheriff?”

  “To talk to you and Barry.” Chaz didn’t wait on an invitation. He shouldered his way past her into the tiny den, which was riddled with dirty laundry and reeked of smoke and alcohol.

  She dropped into a recliner that had seen better days, focusing on her cigarette.

  “Is Barry here?”

  “What you want him for? He do something?”

  “I don’t know,” Chaz said. “Did he?”

  She shrugged. “He’s a good boy. Not bright, but he ain’t bad.”

  Chaz walked toward the bedrooms. “Barry?”

  “He ain’t here,” she said in a smoker’s voice. “Now tell me what you want with him.”

  “I heard he was out at the site of the bus crash.” He didn’t have to elaborate. Everyone in town knew the place, the date, the time. It had been embedded in their memories forever. Some even used it as a reference point—before the bus crash, after the bus crash.

  She shrugged. “He likes to ride his bike all over.”

  “He likes to take pictures, too. I saw the ones the sheriff confiscated seven years ago.”

  Her right eye twitched. “They were pictures of the girls at school, after softball practice, at the swim meet,” she said. “Not like they were naked pictures.”

  Chaz arched a brow. “Does he have pictures of naked girls?”

  She took another drag of her cigarette. “He may not be bright, but he’s a guy,” she said.

  “Are they of real girls or are you talking magazines?”

  “Those magazines. I don’t know where he gets ’em but he keeps them under his bed. He doesn’t know I found ’em.”

  Chaz shifted, curious. “Do you mind if I take a look in your son’s room?”

  She flicked ashes into a misshapen ashtray that Barry had obviously made out of clay. “Not if you’re trying to pin something on him. I told the sheriff years ago Barry was with me the day of that crash. He didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

  “I didn’t say he did, but earlier he was taking photographs of Tawny-Lynn Boulder. It spooked her.”

  “Barry’s not dangerous. Why’s she acting like that?”

  “Because someone left bloody threats on her doorstep and in her house.”

  Her eye twitched again, and she reached for a half-empty vodka bottle on the table. “He didn’t leave any threats.”

  Chaz gestured to the bedroom with the posters of the high school swim and soccer teams. “If he’s innocent, then it won’t hurt for me to take a look.” This time he didn’t wait for her response.

  He ducked inside and studied the room. There was a single bed covered with a navy comforter with baseballs on it, a dinosaur-shaped lamp and a collection of Hot Wheels cars that filled a shelf next to the bed.

  He glanced at a desk and saw a stack of yearbooks and realized Barry collected them, even though he’d never graduated himself.

  In the desk drawer, he found childlike drawings of a house with the sun shining above it, and stick figures portraying a family. Was Barry dreaming of finding a girl and marriage?

  Chaz studied the photographs on the wall. He’d added a plastic rose above the girls’ team from the crash, a tribute to the lost lives.

  Frowning, Chaz dropped to his knees, checked under the bed and found the stash of girly magazines Mrs. Dothan had mentioned. He also discovered another box and pulled it out, then lifted the lid.

  His gut clenched at what he found inside. Pictures of teenage girls outside the school. A photograph of Ruth and Peyton from years ago when they’d worn harem costumes for a halftime show. Pictures of them dunking water over each other after a softball win.

  A picture of the two of them at the swimming hole in their bikinis.

  Then one of Tawny-Lynn in her bathing suit standing by the dock ready to dive into the lake.

  Barry might not be dangerous, but the pictures were disturbing, and this spying had to stop.

  He carried the pictures out to show Mrs. Dothan. She barely reacted when he laid them on the table. She simply lit another cigarette.

  “Boys will be boys.”

  He opened his mouth to make a point, but the door bust open and Barry stumbled in.

  Chaz frowned at the blood on Barry’s shirt and hands.

  Chapter Ten

  When Barry saw Chaz, he turned and bolted. Chaz jumped up and caught him by the arm of his denim jacket. “Wait a minute, Barry.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Barry shouted. “I didn’t.”

  He gripped Barry by the arms. “How did you get that blood on your shirt and hands?”

  “My nose. I crashed my bike into a tree.”

  “So it’s your blood?”

  Barry nodded but he was shaking, his eyes darting around for an escape. “Yeah, I didn’t hurt nobody.”

  Mrs. Dothan stumbled over from her chair. “Barry, don’t say anything.”

  Chaz reached for the strap of the camera slung over Barry’s shoulder. “What were you doing in the woods? Were you taking pictures?”

  “There’s nothing wrong in taking pictures,” Mrs. Dothan cut in.

  Chaz flipped the camera over and hit the replay button to view the pictures Barry had shot. An uneasy feeling traveled up his spine.

  Various shots of Tawny-Lynn at the crash site. She looked so sad, so vulnerable, so tormented that his heart gave a painful tug.

  “You took pictures of Tawny-Lynn this afternoon,” he said. “I know how you obsess over girls,” Chaz said. “Did you get mad when she told you to leave her alone?”

  Barry started babbling about how he hit his nose on the tree again. “Didn’t do anything wrong. Tawny-Lynn...wouldn’t hurt her.”

  “You took pictures of my sister and Peyton Boulder years ago, Barry.
I found them in your secret box.”

  “Pretty girls,” Barry said. “I just like pretty girls.”

  “What do you like to do with them?” Chaz asked through gritted teeth.

  “My boy doesn’t do anything to the girls.” Mrs. Dothan pulled Barry toward her. “He just likes to look.”

  Chaz reminded himself to be calm. He had no evidence that Barry had committed a crime. He removed his phone from his belt and retrieved the photos from Tawny-Lynn’s porch. “See that threatening message, Barry. Are you sure you didn’t get blood on you from the deer when you killed it and wrote on Tawny-Lynn’s porch.”

  Barry’s eyes widened in panic and a second later, he crumbled to the floor, wrapped his hands over his head and broke into incoherent sobs. “Don’t kill deer, don’t like blood. Stop it, stop it....”

  “Sheriff, you need to leave,” Mrs. Dothan said.

  Chaz glared at Barry’s mother. “If he hurt someone in the past, Mrs. Dothan, you’re not helping him by protecting him.”

  “My son isn’t dangerous,” she cried as she stabbed her cigarette into the ashtray and knelt by her son. “Now get out!”

  Chaz’s heart hammered as Barry continued to wail. Was he innocent, or was he more dangerous than his mother and everyone thought?

  * * *

  NOW THAT TAWNY-LYNN was back and asking questions, she didn’t want to stop. Seven years ago she’d been too traumatized and grief-stricken to think clearly. She barely remembered the sheriff talking to her or any of the leads he might have pursued in the investigation.

  But she was sure someone—a male—had dragged her from the wreckage. Only no man had ever come forward to claim his hero status.

  Which made everyone wonder if he had done something to Peyton and Ruth.

  Seeing Cindy triggered memories of the other girls on the softball team. Not just the three who’d died, but the other players on the team who hadn’t taken the bus that day. Two had been sick with a flu that had swept through the school, another girl had been out of town due to a death in the family, Judy Samsung had been benched due to a broken arm and Rudy Henway and Paula Pennington had gone home with their parents because they’d planned to take the SATs the next morning.

  Tawny-Lynn drove into town and stopped by the drugstore to pick up a refill of her migraine medication, then found a local phone book on the counter at the pharmacy. She grabbed it, slipped into a chair in the corner and thumbed through it, searching for each of the girls’ names to see if any of them still lived in town.

  Paula showed up under her maiden name, but not Rudy. But there was an ad for the Sports Barn, owned by Rudy Farnsworth. It had to be the same Rudy.

  She punched Paula’s number but the phone had been disconnected. She dialed the Sports Barn next and a woman answered.

  “Hello, this is Rudy at the Sports Barn. What can I do for you?”

  Tawny-Lynn panicked and hung up. She berated herself as she took a deep breath, then hurried out to the truck and drove to the shop on the edge of town. The ancient building had been renovated since she’d moved away, but as she entered, she realized the inside hadn’t changed. Jerseys, shirts, trophies, bumper stickers and every other sports paraphernalia related to the local teams, both elementary, middle, high school and club teams were represented.

  When she was small, she’d coveted the gleaming trophies in the glass cabinet.

  “Be right with you.” A young woman with striking red hair in a ponytail stood behind the counter writing up what she assumed was an order.

  Tawny-Lynn remembered the tough-girl attitude Rudy had always emanated. She’d always wondered about the girl’s home life.

  A second later, the woman looked up, her amber eyes flashing with surprise. “Tawny-Lynn, you really are back?”

  Tawny-Lynn shifted, her hands jittery although she didn’t know why. “Not for long. Just to settle my daddy’s ranch.”

  Rudy’s expression softened. “Well, good luck with that.”

  “Thanks.” Tawny-Lynn gestured at the jerseys and trophies. “So you own this place now?”

  Rudy grinned. “Yes. I guess the tomboy in me never died.” At the word died, she winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it—”

  “Don’t apologize,” Tawny-Lynn said. “I always loved this store. It’s nice to know it’s in the hands of someone else who appreciated it.”

  Rudy walked around the counter, and Tawny-Lynn noticed she was pregnant. “Oh, when’s the baby due?”

  “A couple of months,” Rudy said. “I married a guy I met at A&M, Jo Farnsworth. He played football for the Aggies.”

  “Congratulations.” A silence fell, and she fidgeted with one of the sweatbands on the shelf. At least Rudy had moved on and seemed happy.

  Something she’d been unable to do. Even miles away in Austin, it was as if she were permanently stuck here in the past.

  “I’m so sorry they never found Ruth or Peyton,” Rudy finally said.

  Tawny-Lynn gave a slight shrug. “I wish I could have helped more. Remembered...”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Rudy said. “Everyone was way too hard on you.”

  “Thanks.” Unexpected tears burned Tawny-Lynn’s eyes. “Can I ask you a question, Rudy?”

  Rudy rubbed a hand over her belly, but a wary look pulled at her face. “What?”

  “Did you ever hear my sister talking about a boyfriend after she broke up with J.J.?”

  Rudy started refolding a stack of jerseys that were perfectly folded. “It was a long time ago, Tawny-Lynn, and you know Peyton and I weren’t close friends. She was the pretty popular girl and I was...a dork.”

  Tawny-Lynn laughed for the first time in a long time as if she might have found a friend. “I always felt that way around her, too.”

  Rudy gave her a sympathetic look. “I always liked you. And I’ll never forget that last game. You were awesome.”

  Tawny-Lynn blinked back more tears. For so long, she’d associated everything about Camden Crossing with that horrible day. But there had been some good memories and people here.

  “Thanks, I thought you were cool, too.”

  They both laughed.

  “Good luck with the baby.” A seed of envy sprouted inside Tawny-Lynn. She’d closed herself off from relationships for so long that she hadn’t bothered to fantasize about marriage and a family of her own. She’d been too busy grieving the one she’d lost.

  She turned to go, but Rudy rushed up behind her. “Tawny-Lynn, I...didn’t want to say anything because...I don’t want to speak bad about Peyton, but...”

  “But what?” Tawny-Lynn clenched Rudy’s hand. “Tell me. J.J. said he thought Peyton might have been involved with a married man.”

  Rudy’s eyes flickered with regret. “I think she was, too.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “A couple of days before the accident, I left my bag in the locker room and went back to get it. I heard Peyton and Ruth talking.”

  “What were they saying?”

  Rudy rubbed her swollen belly again. “Peyton was crying and said that she thought he’d leave his wife for her, but he wasn’t going to. She sounded really upset.”

  “Did she say who the man was?”

  Rudy shook her head. “No. Apparently he told her she’d better not tell anyone about the two of them, that he’d ruin her life if she did.”

  Tawny-Lynn’s heart hammered. She had to find out who Peyton had been sleeping with. The man who’d made that threat could have killed her.

  And if Ruth had known about him, he might have killed her to keep her quiet.

  * * *

  “MRS. DOTHAN,” CHAZ said as he paused at the doorway. “If I find out you’re lying to protect Barry, I’ll come back and arrest you.”

  “I
said get out!” Mrs. Dothan shouted over Barry’s wails.

  “I’m leaving, but watch your son. Taking pictures may seem innocent to you, but it also can be construed as stalking.” He hesitated. “And, Barry, stay away from Tawny-Lynn Boulder.”

  He closed the door behind him, hoping they would heed his warning.

  Tawny-Lynn’s face flashed in his mind, and he itched to go see her. An itch he knew he should avoid scratching.

  Because holding her felt too damn good. So good he wanted to hold her again.

  Not going to happen.

  His phone buzzed as he climbed into his car and drove back toward town. “Sheriff Camden.”

  “Sheriff, this is Sergeant Justin Thorpe with the Texas Rangers.”

  “What can I do for you, Sergeant Thorpe?”

  “In the past month, two young women have gone missing in the counties next to Camden Crossing. Due to the cold cases in your town and Sunset Mesa, a special task force has been created to investigate the connection, if there is one.”

  “Tell me about the disappearances,” Chaz said.

  “A month ago, Carly Edgewater disappeared from a pep rally at the school where she teaches. So far, no one saw or heard anything.”

  “How about her family?”

  “Prominent parents. They were at a charity fund-raiser the night she went missing, so we’ve cleared them.”

  “Boyfriend or girlfriend trouble?”

  “Not that we’ve uncovered, but I’m just starting the investigation.”

  “What about the second woman?”

  “Name’s Tina Grimes. Disappeared last week. Supposedly had a dentist appointment one morning, but never made it. When we checked, there was never a dentist appointment.”

  “So she lied? Why?”

  “We don’t know that yet. She supposedly had a boyfriend, but they broke up six months ago. Mom died last year of cancer, single father adores his daughter. He appears to be pretty distraught. Said the last few months had been difficult with his daughter. She was moody and depressed but refused therapy.”

  “So it’s possible she ran off or hurt herself?”

  “It’s possible. But the sheriff never found a body and there was no suicide note.”