by Amie Denman
“I always wanted to solve crimes. Bring people to justice.”
“And now?”
“Now I wonder if it’s more complicated than I thought.”
“Everything is more complicated than you think it is when you’re a kid,” Scott said. “Should I start handing out big brother career advice? I think water-skiing instructor is still a viable option.”
Caroline sighed and cracked her knuckles until Scott reached over and squeezed both her hands in one of his. “You’re really serious,” he said. “What happened?”
“Remember that case I was planning to investigate involving the Loose Cannon?”
He nodded. “Did you hit a dead end?”
“Worse. I think I know what actually happened.”
“You should be celebrating then.”
She shook her head.
“Unless you don’t like what you found out,” he added.
“I don’t like what I found out. At least, what I think I found out.”
“Does this have anything to do with Matt Dunbar?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. Caroline nearly let tears loose. She could be tough with everyone except her brother. No one understood her or cared for her more.
“He likes you a lot.”
Caroline glanced over at her brother. “What makes you say that?”
“He told me so. I met with him today to go over some of the fire code issues we have to address.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“We talked about the fire lane around the structure and the placement of hydrants.”
Caroline jabbed her brother in the ribs. “About me,” she said. “What did he say about me?”
“Oh, that. He said he liked you more than any girl he’d ever met and asked me if I minded if he dated my little sister.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No.”
“Well, I wish you were. Because it’s from medieval times, asking a man’s permission to date someone. It’s ridiculous. I can make my own decisions.”
“So you like him?”
Caroline let out a long breath. “We’re going to be late to dinner.”
“They’ll get wine while they wait for us. You have to tell me what your big dilemma is so I don’t accidentally say something stupid in front of Mom and Dad which will force you to kill me later. I have a lot to live for these days.”
Caroline turned to face her brother and rubbed her hands together.
“You know I’ve suspected all along that the accident had an actual cause, even though it was officially labeled undetermined. Nothing is undetermined. Someone had to know something.”
“And that someone is...”
“The construction company that built it.”
“So how did the construction company cause the accident?” he asked.
“Faulty bolts. I think they used grade five bolts to cut corners. It caused part of the structure to shift. And they came in late that night and changed the bolts in that part of the ride to grade eights.”
“Do you have any evidence?”
“Not exactly. The pictures from the state ride inspection agency show new grade eight bolts, but they didn’t note anything odd about it because the whole ride was only two months old. The bolts may have all looked new.”
“So what led you to this conclusion?”
“The maintenance man who died of a supposed electrocution had a broken grade five bolt in his pocket.”
Scott leaned back into his seat and let out a low whistle.
Caroline rested her elbow on the doorframe and looked out the window. “I keep thinking about the Knights down the street from Mom and Dad’s house.”
“And you feel that you owe them an explanation. Some closure.”
Caroline nodded. “Yes.”
“And you think that will help them cope with their daughter’s death?”
“Obviously. Everyone needs closure. Everyone wants justice.”
Scott reached over and touched Caroline’s shoulder. “I’m not so sure about that. It was a long time ago. Don’t you think they’ve found a way to deal with it by now? Even if they never know exactly why the ride failed...isn’t the result the same?”
“I thought about that,” Caroline admitted. “I even considered dropping the whole thing. John Corbin is dead. Bruce Corbin has serious health problems. The sins of that generation, maybe they should just be buried, too.”
“Is that your reason for wanting to drop it?”
Caroline sighed. “Did you know Matt’s real dad is serving prison time for embezzlement? And Matt hopes to inherit Bayside Construction from the man he thinks of as his father, his role model.”
“So it would kill him to find out Bruce Corbin’s role in the cover-up. Assuming there was a role.”
“Either way, it’s damaging to the company,” she said, “especially since they’re building the new ride. Imagine what that would look like in the newspaper.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Earlier this summer,” Scott said slowly, “when we talked about this, I tried to make you see that finding justice for someone else is admirable, but it won’t heal old wounds. At least not always. Our sister, Catherine...”
“I know,” Caroline said. She swiped at a tear. “Do you think I’m taking this too far?”
“I can’t tell you what to do, Caroline, although I wish I knew. We should get going or our parents will wonder where we are. And we have a twenty-first birthday to celebrate.”
Caroline put her seat belt back on and watched the scenery pass on their way downtown. She tried to lighten her mood, but all she could think about was the fact that the sweet older couple down the street had never gotten to see their daughter turn twenty-one.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CAROLINE HAD PREPARED her lines. She’d rehearsed what to say to Bruce Corbin all the way to the Bayside Construction office. Her palms were sweaty on the steering wheel when she parked in the side lot at the downtown construction office. Her steps were heavy.
Was she doing the right thing? Betraying Matt by going behind his back to question his ailing stepfather about a decades-old accident and a very recent hypothesis... It was nuclear. And it would mean the end of her relationship with Matt.
Was she willing to sacrifice that? She hesitated before she walked into the building. She didn’t have to go in there. Didn’t have to go through with it. The only person forcing her to go on was herself. Her belief that people deserved answers. George Dupont had no family, none that were still living. But even in the grave, didn’t he deserve the truth to be known? And Jenny...she did have family.
Caroline knew firsthand how important it was to put a family tragedy to rest. Was this what her investigation was about? Facing her own family demons? Maybe her brother was right.
She almost got back in her car and put the whole thing on ice. But a car pulled in next to hers and Bruce Corbin got out.
“Good morning,” he said congenially. Despite his gray features and stooped shoulders, Caroline could see that he was once a strong and robust man. Strong enough to kill someone? It was hard to keep that thought in her head when he was smiling at her and squinting against the bright morning sunshine.
“I believe I know you,” he said. “My son pointed you out on the day of the media cruise about the new ride. And, maybe I’m not supposed to say this, but he’s mentioned you more than once since then. Got a picture of you on his desk inside.”
Great.
“I’m Caroline Bennett,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m on the police department at Starlight Point, and that’s where I met Matt.” She didn’t know if she should use the expression your son even though
Bruce had called him that.
The questions she had prepared in her mind now seemed cruel in the face of Bruce’s kindness. But maybe he was intentionally deflecting, trying to throw her off.
“I wonder if you might have a moment to talk,” Caroline said. “I’m doing a research project about a former ride at Starlight Point, and I think you may have some insight about it.”
Bruce’s color paled even more and Caroline knew she’d hit a nerve. She should feel triumphant, but that wasn’t the emotion rattling her nerves.
“You can come inside,” he said. He walked over and held the office door for her.
Even if I left now, the damage is done. Matt would know I stopped by, and he’d know why. I might as well get the information I came for since I risked it all already.
“Thank you,” Caroline said. She followed him into the air-conditioned office. Waited while he greeted a woman at the front desk, and followed him down a short hall. They passed an open office. Matt’s office, perhaps? She knew what picture he had to have on his desk. It must be the caricature from their date in the park. She was tempted to peek into his office, just out of curiosity, but Bruce was holding open a brown-paneled door.
He shut the door behind her and motioned to a chair across from his desk.
“You want to ask me about the Loose Cannon,” he said. He folded his hands over his belly and kept a neutral expression on his face. “Go ahead.”
“Your brother’s company built it. JC Construction.”
“Correct.”
“And there was an accident its first season in 1985.”
“Very unfortunate one. A young girl was killed,” Bruce affirmed.
“Do you know what caused the accident?”
His calm expression fluttered a little and he took a deep, rattling breath before he answered. “If you’re investigating it, I assume you’ve read the reports.”
“I have.”
“And the reports and investigation at the time did not determine a cause,” Bruce said.
Caroline was about to ask if Bruce’s brother had shared anything with him, but she heard a familiar voice in the hallway greeting the secretary and footsteps stopping right outside the door of Bruce Corbin’s office.
* * *
MATT HATED LEAVING the construction site in the middle of the morning, but he needed blueprints from his office. As he drove his truck into the parking lot at Bayside Construction, there was an unexpected vehicle in the lot. A retired police car. Caroline’s car. His first thought was that she’d come to see him at work and warmth started to spread through his chest.
For a moment. And then cold reality settled in his stomach. Caroline had to know he wouldn’t be at his office. He was at the construction site every single morning.
She wasn’t here to see him.
Matt slammed the door of his truck, dreading what he’d find inside. Bruce’s car was also in the lot. What if he’d called and asked his stepfather to bring those documents over? It would have prevented Caroline from questioning him today, but it wouldn’t stop her tomorrow. Or the next day.
He felt betrayal like a lump blocking his throat. He had specifically asked Caroline not to bother Bruce with her investigation. When he swung through the front door and said hello to his secretary, he almost expected to hear raised voices. The door to Bruce’s office was closed. Matt hesitated a moment, and then he squared his shoulders and knocked.
His stepfather called to him to come in and Matt turned the doorknob, knowing what he’d find but still hoping he might be wrong.
He wasn’t.
Caroline sat across from Bruce. The older man looked ashen and flustered. Caroline’s lips were parted and her cheeks pink.
“Caroline,” Matt said. He tried to keep his voice level. Perhaps there was some explanation other than the obvious. “What brings you here?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“She came to see me,” Bruce said, his voice shakier than usual. Matt gave him an assessing glance. Should he call the doctor? “Had some questions about a project my brother’s company built years ago. The Loose Cannon,” he added, even though there was no doubt in Matt’s mind.
“Is that right?” Matt said, replying to his stepfather but looking straight at Caroline.
“I was just about to tell her I don’t know anything about it, except for what’s in the official reports. Which she’s already read.”
Matt stood just inside the door. Had it been another time and place, he might have approached Caroline. Kissed her, even. But she was doing the unforgivable. Questioning a man he’d told her was ill. Doing it behind his back. Possibly even using information he’d shared with her.
Why had he shared so much? Had she only used their relationship to get information?
The thought left a trail of ice throughout Matt’s chest, pain mixing with betrayal.
“Then I guess she should go,” Matt said. “We have work to do.”
Caroline stood. “Matt, I—”
“Goodbye,” he said.
“Why don’t you walk our visitor to her car?” Bruce suggested. “And then we’ll get back to work.”
If Matt hadn’t respected his stepfather so much, he would have refused. Instead, he held the office door for Caroline. On the way past his office, he ducked in and grabbed the caricature from his desk. “You can take this,” he said, handing it to Caroline. “I had no idea how true it was until now.”
He hated to admit that Caroline had him by the throat. How she seemed to hold all the power. The secretary raised both eyebrows at Matt’s caustic tone. Matt knew he’d have to explain later, but he needed to pull himself together first.
When they were in the parking lot, the bright sun reflecting off the concrete and blinding them, Matt followed Caroline to her car. He had no idea what to say.
Caroline leaned on her car door and crossed her arms over her chest. She still held the caricature in one hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Matt laughed. “Sorry? I don’t even know what you’re apologizing for. Maybe for letting me make a fool of myself?”
“No.” She drew her eyebrows together and her lips quivered. “You didn’t make a fool of yourself.”
“Right now it sure seems like I did. Like you were using me for information.”
His voice shook with emotion and he knew he was in danger of saying things out of anger. But when his family was threatened, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect them.
“I was never using you,” she said. “Everything I said to you was real.”
“And now you’ve got what you want and your little summer project will be a success.”
“How dare you belittle my investigation?” she said. “People died because of that accident. They deserve justice. I told you all along that was my goal.”
“Did you think I was hiding evidence? Did you think so little of me—of us—that you chose to go behind my back and confront a dying man?”
Caroline’s lips parted and her eyes glistened with tears. Instead of answering him, she opened her car door and tossed the caricature onto the passenger seat.
“You know that girl who died on the ride your uncle built?” she asked. Hands on hips, she didn’t even swipe away the tear that rolled down her cheek. “She was the daughter of my neighbors. A sweet older couple I grew up knowing. But they never got to see their daughter grow up.”
Matt stepped back and his face felt numb. He and Caroline had never talked about the girl who died, at least not directly. His family seldom spoke of it, either. It was a sad footnote to the topic whenever it came up and was quickly squelched.
“Her name was Jenny,” Caroline said. “She was only twelve. She would have been in the seventh grade when that summer e
nded.”
Matt drew a deep breath.
“Only twelve,” Caroline repeated. “The same age my sister was when she died.”
“I’m sorry,” Matt said. His shoulders sank. What could he say? “It was a horrible accident. The fire that took Catherine’s life.”
Caroline glanced up sharply when he used her sister’s name. Maybe she was surprised he remembered it, but he remembered everything about the time he’d spent with Caroline that summer.
“And the accident that killed Jenny,” he continued, careful to use her name and personalize his words. “I’m sorry about them both.”
Caroline stared at the ground for a moment and then up at the sky. Matt was afraid to ask what she was thinking. Her face was hard, the soft lines and tears gone and replaced by fury and resignation.
“Ask yourself how sorry you really are,” she said. “Because if you are, you should go in there and ask your stepfather what he knows about that accident. Ask him about the broken number five bolt in the pocket of the maintenance man who was murdered that night.”
She fished car keys from her pocket, opened her car door and got in. She rolled down her window. “Go inside and ask him,” she said. “Maybe you’d rather hear it from him than from me.”
“Caroline,” Matt said. He laid a hand on the frame of her open window. He didn’t want to let her go. Not only because she clearly knew something devastating—or at least suspected it strongly enough to betray him—but also because he desperately wanted to go back to the way things were just a few nights ago. Their date had ended with a kiss and a promise of many more summer nights under the stars.
Or so he had thought. He remembered her silence at the end of their date, her reluctance to commit to dating him. Had something changed that night or had she been reluctant all along? If he was a fool, it was his own doing, not hers. But the result was the same.
He couldn’t find any words, even though Caroline waited for a long moment before starting her car.
“Go ask him,” she said. “You know where to find me if you want to talk about this.”
Matt watched her drive away, feeling as if someone had taken the hammer out of his toolbox and used it to smash his heart.
