The Wreck (34 page)

“You’re absolutely right.”

“You have to find him, Michael. You have
to stop him.”

He kissed her forehead. “I’m going to get
him, babe, or die trying. I promise you that.”

“Don’t you dare die trying, because when
you get him, you’re going to retire.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Startled, she looked up at him. “That was
far too easy.”

“If you want me to retire, I’ll retire.
Whatever you want.”

Her laughter touched his heart. “You’re so
full of it. You’d already decided.”

“I haven’t given it a thought.”

“Yeah, right. This case is kicking your
butt, and you’ve had enough.”

He could fool a lot of people but not his
wife of thirty-five years. “If you say so.”

“I don’t care how it happens, as long as
you mean it.”

“I do. You might’ve heard my son is
moving back to Rhode Island and marrying a girl we both love. He’s promised me
some grandkids before much longer, so it seems like a good time to hang up my
hat.”

“It’s the perfect time. Besides, Matt’s
ready for his shot at being chief.”

“Yes, he is, but I’ve got one loose end I
need to sew up before I put in my papers.”

“Just hurry up, will you?”

“I’m going as fast as I can, believe me.”

“Michael?”

He was so tired. He couldn’t remember
ever being more tired. “Hmm?”

“Don’t let him take you from me, too. Do
you hear me?”

“I won’t.”

“Do you promise?”

Where the burst of energy came from he
couldn’t have said, but he rolled her under him and kissed her as if his life depended
on it. Maybe it did. “I promise,” he whispered and then went back for more.

Carly
and Brian had just returned from Cape Cod and were unloading the Jeep in front
of Carson’s two days later when Luke McInnis pulled up behind them in his
company truck. He got out and walked over to them. Carly squeezed Brian’s arm
to tell him to turn around.

“Hey, you guys,” Luke said.

Brian stepped in front of Carly. “What do
you want, Luke?”

“What are you doing?”
Luke cried when he noticed Brian’s
protective gesture. “Do you think I’d
hurt
her? I’ve known her all my
life! Why would I want to hurt her?”

Carly moved from behind Brian. “I don’t
think it’s you, Luke. I told Chief Westbury and the others that. I said you
were my friend, that you stuck up for me with that rude guy at Miss Molly’s.”

With his eyes still trained on Brian,
Luke said, “Thank you.”

“What were you doing in the cemetery the
other night?” Brian asked him.

“The same thing as you! Visiting a dead relative.
I was very close to my grandfather, and I go all the time.”

“Interesting that we were there at the
same time.”

Luke snorted with disbelief. “So that
coincidence was enough for you to go running to daddy and turn my whole life
upside down? I always knew you could be an arrogant prick, Westbury, but I
never thought you were malicious.”

“Think whatever you want about me. All I
care about is keeping Carly safe.”

“And that makes you different from anyone
else in this town? Who do you think was keeping an eye out for her while you
were off becoming a fancy lawyer?”

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this,
Luke.” Carly rested her hand on Luke’s arm. “I never suspected for a minute
that you’d be capable of the kind of things this man has done.”

Luke looked at Brian. “He did, though,
and so did his father. What I don’t get is how
could you
, Brian? We were
in freaking Cub Scouts together, for Christ sakes. You
know
me.”

“No, I don’t,” Brian said. “I haven’t
seen you in fifteen years. And even before, I didn’t know you that well.”

Luke shook his head, his expression full
of disdain. “I appreciate your support, Carly. I hope they catch this guy soon,
so you can breathe easier—so we all can. I guess I’ll see you at the concert.”

“What concert?” she asked.

“A bunch of Rhode Island bands are doing
a free concert on the town common tomorrow night. A show of support for the
people of Granville.”

“That’s nice of them,” Carly said. “We’ll
definitely be there.”

“Be careful, Carly. Just like your
fiancé
,”
he said with a pointed look at Brian, “I don’t want to see anything bad happen
to you. Not after everything you’ve already been through.”

“Thanks, Luke.”

With a final glare for Brian, Luke turned
and walked away. They watched him until he ducked into Miss Molly’s.

Carly’s eyes were focused on Miss
Molly’s. “It’s not him. I’d know if I had anything to fear from him.”

Brian tilted his head to study her. “And
how would you know that?”

“When you lose something, like the
ability to speak, it sharpens your senses, and you have to rely on your gut
much more than the average person. I get these
feelings
about people.
It’s hard to explain. It’s not him. I just know it isn’t.”

Brian put his arms around her. “I
appreciate what you’re saying, hon, but a gut feeling isn’t forensic evidence.”

“In the absence of evidence, it may be
all we have.”

He pulled back to look down at her, his
face twisted into an amused expression. “Well, listen to you. You already sound
like a prosecutor’s wife.”

She smiled. “A prosecutor’s wife. I like
the sound of that.”

“Good, because in nine days, that’s what
you’ll be.”

“I just want to be Brian Westbury’s wife.
That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

He kissed her, right there in the middle
of Main Street, without a care in the world as to who might be watching.
“You’ll be that, too.”

 “
I
like that one.”
Carly pointed to a plain gold band. “That’s nice.” She looked over at Brian.
“Don’t you think?”

“It’s boring.”

“It’s classic,” Carly argued.

“We can do better.” To the saleslady, who
watched their exchange with amusement, he said, “Can we see that one?” He
pointed to a circle of diamonds that glittered under the store’s bright lights.

The lady reached inside the case,
withdrew the ring, and handed it to Brian.

“Now that’s more like it. Let me see it
on you.”

“I don’t need this, Brian,” Carly said as
he reached for her hand and slid on the ring.

“It looks lovely with your engagement
ring,” the lady said. Reaching for Carly’s hand, she asked, “May I?”

Carly nodded.

The woman bent to take a closer look.
“It’s exquisite. Is it antique?”

“It was my grandmother’s,” Brian said.

“The stone is beautiful. Two carats?”

“Just over.”

“Well, I’ll let you two talk about it.
Give me a holler when you decide.” She walked away.

Brian took Carly’s hand and brought it to
his lips. “It’s perfect. That’s the one I want you to have.”

“It’s too much, Brian.”

“No, it’s not.”

Carly looked down at the sparkling
combination.

With a finger to her chin, he brought her
eyes back to his. “What’s on your mind, honey?”

“We have to buy a house and cars. We’ve
got the wedding and the honeymoon. We don’t need to be spending money on
something like this. The plain gold one is fine with me. That’s what I want.”

He smiled. “Carly, honey, we don’t have
to worry about money. We’ll make a killing on my loft in New York. And I told
you, I’ve worked so much over the last eight years that I didn’t have time to
spend even half of what I made. I invested most of it and forgot about it. I
want you to have this ring. It’s important to me.”

“Why?”

“We’ve both had so little for so long.
Don’t we owe it to ourselves to live it up now?”

Touched, she said, “I guess so.”

“Now what? You’ve got that look.”

“I didn’t spend much of the money I made,
either. I’m sure it’s nothing like what you managed to stockpile, but I’ve got
about twenty-five thousand in CDs in the Granville Credit Union.”

His face lit up with delight and what
might’ve been pride. “Get out of here! You mean to tell me I’m marrying money?”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m sure
it’s nothing compared to what you’ve got.”

“It sure is something when you consider
how hard you had to work for it.”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

“So no worries about money? Will you
please let me buy you the ring I want you to have?”

“On one condition.”

He smiled. “What’s that?”

“I can buy
you
the one I want you
to have.”

His smile faded. “I don’t know. I’m not a
big jewelry person. You know that. Plain gold is about all you’ll catch me
wearing.”

“Oh, so we’re going to have a double
standard in this marriage? Is that how it’s going to work?”

“I’m starting to see there were benefits
to you not being able to talk back to me,” he grumbled.

Her grin lit up her face as she signaled
to the saleslady. “Can you show us what you’ve got in wedding bling for men?
I’m looking for something
really
flashy.”

Michael
paced the short length of his office, resisting the urge to sweep the piles off
his cluttered desk. So great was his frustration, so overwhelming his sense of
impotence, it was all he could do not to chuck the paperweight Brian had made
for him in grade school right through the window. Only the knowledge that none
of these urges would make anything better stopped him from acting on them.

A twinge of pain in his chest reminded
him of the consequences of internalizing the stress. He dropped into the desk
chair and did the breathing exercises they had taught him in the hospital.

“Bunch of voodoo science,” he grumbled,
even as the pain seemed to recede.

Matt burst into the room without
knocking, his blue eyes bright with excitement. “We might have a break.”

Michael sat up straighter in his chair.
“What?”

“Remember a kid named Randy Lowell?”

“No, should I?”

“He was in Sam’s class, Granville High
class of 1996.”

Michael racked his brain but couldn’t come
up with a face to go with that name. Shaking his head, he said, “What’ve we got
on him?”

“Woonsocket police stopped him on
suspicion of DUI. When they ran him through the system, they discovered an
outstanding warrant for a parole violation in Missouri.”

“What was he in for?”

“Attempted rape and second-degree sexual
assault—on a high school cheerleader in Jefferson City.”

Michael stood and made for the door.
“Call Nate. Tell him to meet us there.”

After
a full day in Providence, Brian and Carly rode home to Granville in northbound
rush-hour traffic leaving Rhode Island’s capital city.

“When did they say you can pick up your
suit?” Carly asked as she perused her wedding to-do list in the passenger seat.

“Three or four days.”

“I know, I know. You’ve got twenty of
them hanging in your closet in New York. But wasn’t it easier to buy a new one
than go to New York between now and the wedding?”

“Yes, dear.”

Carly shot him a victorious smile. “Since
I plan on being right most of the time, you’ll need to get used to saying
that.”

His scowl made her laugh. “We’ll have to
get down to the city eventually and clean out my place before I put it on the
market—not that there’s much to clean out.”

“After the honeymoon,” she said, filled
with delight and anticipation. “Ten days in Jamaica. I can’t wait.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind leaving the
morning after the wedding? We can push it back a day or two if you want to rest
up.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Rest up for
what?”

“The honeymoon, of course. You’ll need to
be
very
well rested.”

“I don’t know what you’ve got in mind,
but I plan to sleep and lie on the beach.”

Full of mock outrage, he said, “That’s
not a honeymoon! That’s a vacation.”

Carly smiled. She loved pushing his
buttons. After a few weeks back together, it was as if they’d never been apart.
Everything between them was as comfortable and easy as it had ever been.

They tuned into the radio when the
concert planned for Granville led the newscast at the top of the hour. “Local
bands from all over Rhode Island will come together tonight in a show of
support for tiny Granville, which has been rocked by the recent rape and murder
of a fifteen-year-old high school student and the aggravated sexual assault of
another teen earlier this year. Granville Mayor Bob Simon joins us in the
studio. Mayor, the entire state has been riveted by the events in your town.
How are your citizens holding up?”