“Yes, I’m fine,” she said with a frustrated tone.
I took her by the elbow, but she jerked her arm away. “I said I’m fine. You did scare the shit out of me though.”
“Sorry. What are you doing out here?”
“Looking for you, of course. Erin was worried. She woke me up.”
Sirens echoed in the distance.
“Erin must have called the cops. You should have called them before you came outside on your own.” She sat up, her arms on her knees.
“Ezzy, you of all people should know that I’m trained for this situation. Waiting wasn’t going to help. And by the way, you could have gotten really hurt by coming outside.”
“Erin was getting upset. She kept shouting that she thought you might have been attacked and were lying on the ground dying. So I came out looking for you.”
I’d broken out in a sweat. I swiped my arm across my forehead, then looked across the yard. “I’m sorry, Ezzy. Sorry to have worried you and caused Erin to be upset.”
She followed my gaze and looked toward the neighbor’s yard. “I think I saw the bastard,” she said.
“What?”
“Actually, I know I did. At first, though, I wondered if it was you.”
“Explain, please.”
“I came around the garage toward the gate, then I heard someone running across the yard, so I hustled back around. I didn’t see anything at first. Then, out of nowhere, a man jumps up from the neighbor’s driveway and takes off running. Then you hollered. It almost gave me a heart attack and I ran into the trash bin.”
I knew she was on heart medication. “Is your ticker okay?”
She gave me a straight-lipped smile. “I’m not a china doll. Of course I’m okay.”
I jumped to my feet and jogged over to the line of hedges. Usually manicured by Mr. Dunkleburger to perfection, I found a gaping hole at the top third of one bush.
Ezzy plodded over next to me. “You think he tripped while trying to leap over the bushes?”
“That’s the way it appears.”
Dogs barked a few yards down. A quick rush of adrenaline, my mind consumed with catching this asshole. But then I thought about Erin inside the house.
I turned to Ezzy. “Can you describe the man you saw?”
She twisted her lips while tapping a finger to her chin. “Just had a little bit of light, maybe from the moon, I guess. I could only tell that it was a man. Or at least the person had a boxy shape like a man.”
“Hair color or length?”
She shook her head. “Don’t think it was very long. So it must have been a man.”
“Did you see what he was wearing?”
“Pretty sure it was a long-sleeve shirt and pants. It was like I was looking at a silhouette.”
I could hear cars screech to a stop out front. I took Ezzy by the arm and guided her toward the back door.
“One more thing, Alex. I know he wore athletic shoes. I could hear the rubber soles shuffling on the pavement.”
“Good to know. Thanks.”
Once inside, Erin buried her head in my arms. She didn’t leave my side the entire time the police were there.
After telling Ezzy not to wake me in the morning, my head finally hit the pillow and I was out. It was just after four a.m.
It turned out to be nothing more than a long nap.
20
A man with a beard that touched his chest quickly lifted a tray of steaming coffees over a gaggle of shorter women. They were talking so much they didn’t notice. To avoid a collision, he bumped my shoulder, which spun me around, my cell phone at my ear. At the same time, a mother walked in with her son, who proceeded to break loose from her grip on his hand. He ran into me and kept my momentum going, allowing me to complete a full pirouette.
“You should try out for the Boston Ballet.” Terri had a smirk on her face as she tried to wait patiently for her name to be called so she could grab our lattes.
“I think that’s the first dance move I’ve ever completed in my life.” I put the phone back to my ear.
“You don’t know how to dance, do you, Alex?” Nick said on the other end of the line.
“I was always working on my tennis footwork.” I heard a man yell out Terri’s name. “If I don’t gulp down my coffee the moment Terri gives it to me, I might just collapse.”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
“Sorry if I didn’t say thank you for pulling this together.”
“As your partner, I used to bring your coffee to you. This time, I arranged for you to be brought to your coffee.”
Nick had come through in a huge way. He had not only located Susan Miller, the victim in Tripuka’s statutory rape crime, but he had also convinced her to talk to me and Terri during her first break this morning.
“Tell me, Nick, how did you persuade Susan to talk to us?”
“It wasn’t that difficult. I mainly just told her that the only way more women will get hurt is if people stay quiet. And then I asked her if she still let her daddy control her life.”
“You took the gamble that she wanted to be independent and make her own decisions. Nice.”
“Let me know what you find out. Gretchen just got in, and she whispered to me that she’s close to sharing some new data on Tripuka. Catch you later.”
I shoved my phone in my purse just as Terri handed over my lifeline. I blew into the cup to try to cool it off, then I took my first sip. I repeated that routine about ten times, until I had my first full hit of caffeine.
We found a small table in the corner, and a few minutes later, a woman walked in our direction. After brief introductions, she pulled her red apron over her head and draped it across her chair before she sat down. She wore no makeup, and her hair was in a simple ponytail, but it was her plump cheeks that stood out most.
She took in a heavy breath before saying a word. When she exhaled, it was difficult not to notice her breasts nearly pop a button on her blouse. “Agent Radowski told me I wouldn’t have to testify, but you needed to ask me a few questions about…back then.”
Terri spoke up. “We realize that the last thing you probably wanted to do was relive those memories. But it is important.”
“It’s Vince. He’s in trouble again, huh?” Her hands were clasped on the table, but her thumbs were in constant movement.
“This much we can tell you. He’s currently not in custody. He’s actually out on probation right now, after being charged with a parole violation and attempted assault of a peace officer.”
Susan’s eyes went from Terri to me. “But if that was everything, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me. Am I right?”
She might work at a coffee shop, but this girl was sharp.
“More than anything, we just need to know the real story about what happened eight years ago.” I slurped another mouthful of coffee. Waited. She was thinking. I added, “I’m sure your experience was quite difficult, especially as a teenager.”
“You have—” She brought a hand to her face and swallowed back some emotion. “You have no idea.”
She pulled a napkin from its holder and dotted the corners of her eyes.
Not one for any type of warm-up, Terri placed a hand on the table and got right to it. “Did you have a relationship with Tripuka, or was he truly a predator?”
She sighed. “It’s complicated. And with Vince, it was even more complicated.”
“How so?” As Terri clasped her hands, I noticed her flawless manicure. Wearing another tailored suit that accentuated all the right curves, everything in the appearance department seemed easy for her. She was aggressive as hell, but she could somehow roll out of bed and still look like a million bucks. I, on the other hand, was sure I saw another “fine line” creeping out from the corner of my eye this morning. I needed a day at the spa….no, more like a month.
“I’m twenty-four now, so I see things a little bit differently than I did back then.”
Terri nodded and finally
let Susan think a bit more without throwing another fastball at her.
It paid off. Susan said, “Vince was charming. He knew what a sixteen-year-old girl wanted out of life. At least this sixteen-year-old.” She pointed to herself.
I jumped in. “Did you actually have a relationship, or was it all about him?”
“We actually had a real relationship. Well, as real as you can get at sixteen. We both had that fascination with Star Wars. And he was actually pretty worldly. Well read, knew a lot about things outside of my little high school world. I found him very interesting. Sometimes we would stay up and talk on the phone until one or two in the morning.”
Her eyes found a generic picture on the wall of a couple holding hands “Honestly, I think I would have called him my best friend. But I…”
She paused and scrunched up the napkin in her hand.
A few seconds passed, and I could see Terri open her mouth. I subtly touched her hand and closed my eyes for a brief second.
“I know what I did was wrong,” Susan said, her eyes swelling with tears.
“What do you think you did wrong?’ I asked.
“I turned my back on Vince just because my dad found out.”
“I’m confused,” Terri said, with one eye on me. “Earlier, you acted like this thing with Vince wasn’t a normal relationship.”
Susan took in a sniffled breath. “I’m not very good at communicating all the things in my head back then. And my heart. So many emotions, and then my parents came down on me so hard, especially my dad. He’s a bit old school.”
That wasn’t entirely surprising to hear, but then again, I couldn’t imagine the range of emotions I’d have if Erin got involved with a guy in his twenties. And then add sex on top of that. The mere thought made the coffee churn in my stomach.
“Are you saying your dad did influenced your story?”
“Yes.”
Terri turned and looked at me with an expression of now what?
Shifting my eyes over to Susan, I made another attempt to better understand the events so many years earlier. “Can you help us with a few gaps?”
“Sure. That’s why I’m here, right?”
I nodded just once. “You felt like Vince was a good friend, and you connected with him.”
“Right.”
“But then you had sex. And your dad caught you or maybe just heard about it.”
“Caught Vince going out the window. It wasn’t a pretty scene. Dad was trying to pull him back in, and Vince was trying to get away. He ended up jumping into a rose bush. He looked like he’d been in a cat fight when he finally crawled out of there.” A brief smile washed over Susan, accentuating her cheeks, now a cherry red.
“And then your dad threatened to remove you from the family will, and that’s when you altered your story to say that it was not consensual sex.”
She hissed out a breath between her teeth. “Dad was such an ass. I was a bit of a rebel, but he made me think he wasn’t just threatening to remove me from the will, but to excommunicate me from the family. I wouldn’t be able to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, no one. And when he said Vince would go to prison regardless, I began to really feel alone. I kind of felt like I didn’t have much of a choice. Accept his conditions or be exiled forever. And when you’re sixteen, a week can seem like forever.”
“Where does the complicated part come into play?” Terri asked, strumming her fingers along the side of her cup of latte.
“I did a lot of soul searching after that. Wondering about who I was, why a guy that much older than me would want to hang out with me, find me interesting. And—”
“Is it true that you also dated a twenty-seven-year-old before Vince?”
Terri was having a difficult time letting the game come to her. Much more, and I was going to have to ask her to chill.
Susan turned her head, then held up a finger. “You talked to Vince, didn’t you?”
Terri didn’t respond.
“Okay. Yeah, Ray and I ‘dated,’ if that’s what you want to call it.”
“I’m just saying, I’m not sure I understand the dynamics of your relationship with Vince, you know, with being swept off your feet, if you had already gone down that road with another older guy.”
“I get your question. To tell you succinctly, it was purely physical. I was at a college party, and this guy gave me the eye. Then I overheard two other guys talking about using this powder to put in this girl’s drink. I stole it from them and used it on the dreamy guy, Ray.”
“So you drugged him so you could have sex with him?”
“I was a virgin, and I wanted my cherry popped in the worst way. He was the hottest guy I’d ever laid eyes on. But it was a one-night thing. Nothing more.”
There was a moment of awkward silence at the table. “I’m assuming your dad never knew.”
“He would have killed that guy and then disowned me,” she said without hesitation. The mom-son combination from before walked by. The kid bumped my shoulder and then Susan’s arm. We didn’t say anything as he took off again and the mother chased him down.
Susan’s eyes shifted between Terri and me. “You both think I was a teenage slut, don’t you? And once a slut, always a slut. Isn’t that what everyone thinks?”
Terri jumped in before I could respond. “It’s not that, Susan. We’re women. Both Alex and I understand there is a double standard that exists in society. If a boy had done what you did, he’d be a legend with his friends.”
“Absolutely,” I said. “But—”
“Thanks for understanding. I’m not ashamed of any part of my life. I didn’t always make the best decisions, but it helped make me who I am today. Flawed, yes, but a little more mature and maybe a little wiser too.”
I smiled, and then continued. “But as we look at all the evidence, including this new information, we’re trying to draw some conclusions about Tripuka. It’s not black and white, I get it.”
She chewed at the inside of her cheek. “I remember talking to Vince about how magical I thought Christmas was, but that at our house, Dad was such an old-fashioned curmudgeon it was usually such a downer. Dad would make us sit around, hold hands, and chant some kind of religious crap over and over again. He basically made me feel guilty for getting excited about receiving gifts for Christmas.”
A quick image of my mom flashed through my mind. A half-decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room and Mom sitting on the hearth while she held a cross and chanted Bible verses. I was watching her from the edge of the room until Dad came up and touched my back. Mom saw us and then she called us over. I had to sit there and try to recount her sayings, but they all seemed so negative, and I got this feeling that I was such a bad person.
Terri nudged my arm. “Alex, are you lost in Christmas memories?”
“Uh, just thinking everything through,” I said, trying to refocus my thoughts back to Susan’s comment. “What made you think about Christmas and your dad?”
“It was Vince.”
“What about him?”
“He got me this Christmas figurine. Two happy snowmen dressed up in red and white, ice- skating across an outdoor rink.” A smile came over her face. “I thought it was the sweetest thing.”
“You guys were really pretty close, then. I guess it made it that much harder to not defend him when you talked to the police.”
She nodded, but her cheek sucked inward. “There’s something I haven’t told anyone before.”
Terri inched up in her seat. “Yes, Susan?”
Her eyes drifted away from the table.
“Susan, we’re not here to judge you. We told you that earlier,” Terri said with urgency in her voice.
A quick shake of her head. “I don’t know why I’ve allowed myself to carry this burden around for so long. I guess I thought it was all meant to be. I justified it.”
“Justified what?”
“My decision to rat out Vince. It really had nothing to do with Dad’s threats. Not th
e promise of money or him separating me from the family. I was young, naïve, and idealistic. I didn’t really care about any of that crap.”
“Then what was your reasoning?” I asked, the cobwebs in my brain suddenly clearing.
Her big, round eyes looked straight into mine. “My best friend…my only real girlfriend, Penny. Vince slept with her.”
Terri narrowed her eyes. “You’re saying that all these years you never told anyone?”
“No one that mattered. Penny and I had a discussion about her…behavior. I felt so betrayed. It was the last time I ever talked to her.”
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
My thoughts suddenly shifted in another direction. “And what about Tripuka? Was he aware that you knew?”
“Hell yes. We had it out at the park. He gave me this bullshit that he thought we were over and that Penny was there to be a friend and comfort him.”
It sounded like a typical response from someone who was digging his way out of a bold-faced lie. But I was more interested in getting a read on Tripuka’s underlying pattern of behavior.
“Vince never told anyone about Penny?” I asked.
“Of course not. He knew he already had one statutory rape count to deal with. And while it was consensual, a second one wouldn’t look good.”
“How old was Penny?” Terri asked.
“Fifteen.”
Both of Terri’s palms smacked the table. “Fifteen? Did Tripuka know how young she was?”
“Of course he did. So while I definitely wanted him to pay for cheating on me, I’ve had a lot of time to think since then, and grow up. And a few years ago, I came to a final conclusion.”
“What’s that, Susan?” I asked.
“Despite how he treated me, talked to me, gave me gifts…he was, plain and simple, one thing—a child predator.”
Terri’s phone rang, but she didn’t immediately reach for her purse. I broke the three-way stare-down and saw her eyes almost in a catatonic daze. I nudged her arm.
“It’s Jackson,” she said as she looked at the phone screen. She quickly lifted from her chair and walked toward a corner with fewer people, leaving Susan and me alone.
“How have you kept this inside all these years?”
The Alex Troutt Thrillers: Books 4-6 (Redemption Thriller Series Box Set Book 2) Page 42
