AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Surveillance photos. Dozens of them. Some in color, others black and white. The subject was the same in every single one of them. Younger than he looked now. Thinner. More hair. None recent.
Leigh stepped back to get a full view of Michelle Cross’s work and felt the pressure of at least eighteen sets of those cold eyes on her. “She was trying to prove Chris Ellingson killed my brother.”
EIGHT
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Sunday, March 30, 2004
5:00 p.m.
He was supposed to be home by now.
Troy never missed the chance to watch X-Men. It was the one night a week they got to watch their favorite show while their parents caught up with the next-door neighbors out front. Didn’t matter they only owned two episodes. This was their time together. All they had to do was pop the tape into the VCR, and she was instantly assuming her superhero alter-ego right along with her brother.
Okay, yeah. There were probably less embarrassing things she could be doing than pretending she had the power to control the weather with a twelve-year-old, but she’d already finished her homework for the next week and none of her friends were allowed to hang out on Sundays. Sundays were devoted to God, neighborhood gossip, and rewatching X-Men. Sometimes Xena: Warrior Princess.
Leigh’s fingers ached under the pressure of her hands clenched around the tape. Her parents were still deep in whispered conversation with the next-door neighbors, even as the sun went down. It wasn’t like Troy not to come straight home from cleaning the church after services, and that should’ve ended an hour ago. He could’ve at least called to tell her he was blowing her off.
Fine, if he didn’t want to watch with her, she wasn’t going to wait anymore.
She peeled herself away from the front window looking out over their still street and shoved the tape into the VCR with a bit too much force. A piece of plastic broke off at one corner and disappeared inside the machine. “Shit.”
A sinking feeling knotted tight in her chest. Her attention immediately went to her parents outside. They hadn’t heard her swear. Thank goodness. That would’ve grounded her all the way until next month. Tugging the tape free, she forced her fingers into the VCR slot to retrieve the broken piece. Nobody had to know she’d broken Troy’s favorite tape. Or possibly the VCR. She’d blame it on her brother. He was always getting that stupid army man he’d gotten from Mr. Ellingson stuck in there. The slot door bit into the backs of her fingers. Almost there. She could feel it.
The plastic shard fell deeper into the machine.
Her gaze went back to the front window. She was dead.
Low voices grew louder as the porch screen swung open. “Good night! I’ll be sure to drop that book I recommended off tomorrow.”
Leigh ripped her hand out of the machine and hid the X-Men tape behind her back. Her brain worked to figure out a plan to sneak back down tonight while everyone was in bed. She could fix this. She just needed time.
Her parents shucked off their coats and scarves before stepping fully into the house. It was still cold enough outside to convince her summer would never come, that high school would never end. Broad smiles lit up her parents’ faces in the afterglow of getting the neighborhood lowdown as her mom and dad strode into the living room.
“Hey, honey.” Her father checked his watch. He scanned the television. Their only television. Those oversized graying eyebrows of his dipped over the bridge of his nose. They matched the beard she’d loved to twist any chance she got as a kid. “Isn’t it time for X-Men?”
“What? No.” She inwardly kicked herself. She had to stay cool. They couldn’t know about the tape just by looking at her. Right? “I was waiting for Troy.”
“Where is your brother?” Her mother moved into the kitchen and pulled open the oven door. The smell of roasted chicken and potatoes with rosemary filled the living room. Leigh’s favorite. “I told him to be home an hour ago.”
“I haven’t seen him.” Leigh slid toward the couch. She could hide the broken tape in the cushion. “Last I heard he was staying after services to help Mr. Ellingson clean the chapel.”
“Oh. I’ll just call the church then.” Lifting the handheld from the wall, her mother dialed with one shoulder against the wall and twined her perfect pink manicure in the too long coiled cord. After a minute, she pried the phone from her ear, hung up, then dialed again. And waited. She hung up as she turned to her husband. “That’s weird. There’s no answer.”
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Friday, March 12
10:00 a.m.
“Mrs. Carson, do you have any idea what your sister might’ve been up to in the days leading to her death?” Boucher pried open a manila file folder containing everything they had in their investigation so far. Which didn’t include much other than a body and a whole lot of questions. No prints to run through AFIS, no foreign DNA to send to the lab. Even the make and model of the vehicle used to transport Michelle Cross to the bridge was up for debate based off degraded tire impressions left at the scene.
Tanja Carson swiped at her eyes for the dozenth time before intertwining her fingers together. A small shake of her head was all she’d been able to manage the past few minutes, and Leigh couldn’t ease the familiar cut of dread. Dark circles beneath the woman’s eyes said the trip from Concord to Lebanon’s police station hadn’t been pleasant. “No. Her boss said Michelle had gotten time off work to come visit me, but I haven’t talked to my sister in weeks. We… We were fighting. Have been for a few months.”
Leigh had been on that side of the table. She’d given her statement in this exact room to investigators after she and her parents had realized Troy wasn’t just late coming home from cleaning the church. He wasn’t coming home at all. As his big sister, she’d blamed herself. How could she not? She’d sat there in their living room so angry at him for missing their regularly scheduled programing instead of going back to church to find him. She’d broken his VHS tape and the family VCR in a teenage-sized temper tantrum when her brother had been going through what had to be the most painful agony of his short life. She should’ve known something had been wrong then.
Now here she was all over again. In this room with its cinderblock walls painted white, the same stain at the corner of the carpet, and the conference table too large for the room. The blinds had been drawn this time. To give Tanja Carson privacy as she mourned her loss. Leigh hadn’t been given that courtesy. Detective Maynor hadn’t come right out and said it, but she knew he thought she’d had something to do with Troy’s disappearance. Why else would he have brought up how angry she’d been at her brother that night over and over?
