Living Lies (22 page)

“Where is she?” Dean tried to yell, but his voice was too dry and hoarse.

Nate stopped, turned, and walked back to Dean. He bent to fit the gag in Dean’s mouth. With his hands still tied behind his back, Dean fought the only way he could. With one sweeping motion he threw his head back then swung himself forward, bouncing his forehead off Nate’s. A loud hollow clunk filled the quiet, and Dean’s head nearly exploded. He fell back onto the barn floor, gritting his teeth and struggling to keep from crying out.

Groaning like an injured animal, Nate pressed his hands to his forehead and staggered back a few steps. He pulled his hands away revealing a large red welt. With eyes darkened by fury, Nate stomped back to Dean.

Had he pushed the man too far? Would Nate kill him now, whether he needed him or not? Nate bent down, tangled his fingers in Dean’s hair then yanked his head back and stuffed the gag into his mouth.

Without so much as a backward glance, Nate walked away, leaving Dean on the floor almost the same way he’d found him.

Dean tried to yell from around the gag, but his words came out muffled. Where was Haley? And how would he ever get to her tied up the way he was?

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Erin?” Paige called, letting herself into her brother’s house. Not that she thought Garret or Erin would be home. Both her van and his SUV weren’t in the driveway when Paige arrived. Not that it mattered. Paige wanted Nate’s current address, and preferably without a big discussion.

The more she thought about Nate, the more convinced she became. The way he used to watch them, stare at them when they were teenagers at the store. He’d always given Paige the creeps.

And hadn’t she suggested Nate as a possible suspect just the other night? “Oh, no,” Haley had said. “Not Nate. It couldn’t possibly be Nate.” When would people listen to her? If there was one thing she could do well, it was read people.

Paige marched into the kitchen and rooted through drawers and piles of envelopes on the counter, searching for anything that might have an address or even a phone number. Anything that would lead her to Nate. And Haley.

After tearing apart the first floor and coming up empty-handed, Paige bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She went into her brother’s office and started rifling through the papers on his desk, then in the drawers. Still nothing.

Did these people not own an address book? She darted across the hall to the master bedroom. Framed photos of her nieces sat next to a large crystal bowl filled with potpourri on the surface of the wide dresser. Paige opened drawers and dug through neatly folded clothes, leaving them neither neat nor folded.

While rummaging through Erin’s underwear, her fumbling fingers fell on a small box, the kind jewelry stores placed the velvet box inside. As soon as she touched the thin cardboard, goose bumps raced up her arm and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. The temperature in the room dropped and Paige shivered.

She lifted the small white box, a perfect square, unremarkable in every way, except her reaction to it. Carefully, she lifted the lid. Waves of sadness and loss washed over her and tears stung her eyes as she peered down at the contents. A ring, a necklace, earrings and a bracelet. All Michelle’s.

Separately, only the earrings, plain gold hoops, may have given her trouble recognizing them as her sister’s. The rest, though, were Michelle’s. The necklace with the gold cursive M pendent that Jonathan had given her for Christmas, and the pearl ring her parents had given Michelle for her twenty-first birthday, and lastly, the bracelet. A dark pinkish gold bangle with intricate patterns engraved into the gold. Her grandmother’s name and the year her grandfather had purchased it in India during the war engraved on the inside.

Michelle’s jewelry, the jewelry she had been wearing the night she disappeared tucked away in her sister-in-law’s underwear drawer. What did it mean? Had Erin murdered Michelle? Where did Nate fit in? Or did he? Did Erin take Haley? And Dean? Or was Dean an accomplice? Or was Haley’s abandoned car just a coincidence?

“I didn’t take them for myself.”

The voice out of nowhere made Paige jump and she nearly dropped the box as she spun around. Erin stood in the doorway, looking tired and much older than her years. Snowflakes melted in her hair and on her clothing.

“Why do you have these?” Paige asked, her voice deceptively calm.

“I thought if she were found, it would keep them from identifying her.” Erin smiled ruefully. “I was barely twenty, what the hell did I know about anything?”

“Why did you kill her?”

“I didn’t,” Erin said, sounding genuinely surprised. “I just helped bury her.”

“You didn’t bury her. You wrapped her in a blanket and stuck her in a hole in the floor.”

“I didn’t want to. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“What the hell happened? Who killed her?”

Erin looked at Paige, long and measuring. Paige wanted to strangle the stupid bitch, but she waited. Here was the answer to Michelle, and the way to Haley. Erin sighed and flopped down on the edge of her bed. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

“My father did it, he killed her,” Erin said. “My mother was away at my aunt’s, and when Garret dropped me off that night I found him standing over her. He looked so confused, I didn’t realize what had happened. There was so much blood.”

Dear God, Paige thought, what had he done to her? Paige didn’t want to hear more, but she had to.

“I knew he was attracted to her. I even knew he was sending her the flowers and cards. I encouraged Lara to blame Dean so no one would suspect. I never thought he would hurt her.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?” Paige asked. She could hardly believe the calmness in her voice, so incongruent with the chaos in her mind. Like a tornado tearing through her brain.

“He was my father,” Erin said. “And he was so sorry. He just wanted to talk to her, to explain how he felt about her, but it had gone so horribly wrong. He didn’t mean to, it was an accident.”

“If it was an accident, why hide it? Why bury her in my grandmother’s house?”

“Perhaps accident is a poor choice in words,” Erin said, coldly. “The point is, he didn’t mean to do it. He didn’t want to hurt her. It just happened. We didn’t know what to do. I thought of going to the police, I really did. I saw what it was doing to your family. I was there, remember?”

“I remember.”

“But he cried and begged me to help him. It had been three days by then, I was afraid that if I went to the police, they would think I was his accomplice.”

“But you were,” Paige said. “Whose idea was it to hide the body in my grandmother’s basement?”

“It was Dad’s,” Erin said. “She was staying with you by then and he had offered to pick up the mail and shovel the driveway. Your father gave him the key. We couldn’t keep the body in the shed much longer. The police had released Dean by then and they were beginning the house-to-house searches. The ground was frozen, so he thought he could hide it there until he could think of something else. It was only supposed to be temporary until we saw the floor in the dirt basement.”

Paige couldn’t speak as she tried to equate Erin’s confession with her memories of those first awful days. She remembered Erin’s presence like a shadow next to her brother, her expression stricken when the police said they feared the worst. And Nate’s anger that something like this could happen. His kind and supportive words to her father. She remembered her father giving Nate the key to her grandmother’s and thanking the man for all his help when all along Michelle’s battered body lay hidden in his shed.

Perhaps if her father had never given him the key, he would have been found out. Erin would never have married her brother. Her parents may have found some comfort in at least knowing what had happened to her sister. Dean wouldn’t have been labeled a murderer, and most importantly, Haley wouldn’t be missing now.

“Nate has Haley,” Paige said.

“I know,” Erin replied. Her eyes filled with tears. “You have to believe me when I say I never wanted this to happen.”

“But it did, and you knew it would,” Paige said, clenching her fists at her side. Fury boiled deep inside her the minute the first tear slid down Erin’s cheek. That single tear enraged Paige more than anything Erin confessed.

“I didn’t want it to,” Erin said, on a choking sob. “I wanted to stop him, I thought I could this time. Dean was staying there—”

“Yes, he was, and did you not stand in my mother’s kitchen three days ago and call him a killer?” Paige asked, cutting off her sister-in-law’s tearful denials. “You knew it wasn’t him. So why did you sic me on him?”

Erin looked at her with wide, glassy eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but snapped it shut again. Her face paled and Paige knew she’d caught Erin in a lie.

“You’re lying to me,” Paige said, taking a step toward her.

“No,” Erin denied. “Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”

“You wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up and bit you on the ass.” With her patience all but gone, and time ticking away, she clamped down on her temper and lowered her voice. “I’m going to ask you two questions, and I want the truth no matter how ugly it may be. If you tell me the truth, I won’t tell Garret how you lied to him for the past twelve years.”

Erin said nothing, but she nodded and Paige took that as a good sign.

“How did Dean fit in?”

“I didn’t want my father to hurt Haley,” Erin said, tearfully. “But if he did, I wanted you to know that Haley had been with Dean.”

“So he would get the blame again,” Paige said.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Erin sobbed.

“Where is Haley now?” Paige asked.

“My father bought a place on Old Base Road. Number 12. He has a silver mail box.”

“Give me the keys to your SUV,” Paige demanded.

“What?”

“I need your keys. I’m taking your truck.”

“Garret went out to meet the police at Haley’s car. He has the SUV. I have the van.”

Impatience exploded inside her head. “Fine, give me the keys to the van.”

“Why?”

“Because it has to be better than my Mustang in the snow.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“I don’t think so,” Paige said. “Just give me your keys.”

Paige lunged for them, but Erin lifted her arm above her head, like a child playing keep-away. Paige was taller than Erin by an inch and a half, and had little trouble reaching her hand, but Erin clenched the car keys tightly in her fist. Paige tried to pry her fingers open. When that failed she gripped Erin’s hair and gave it a hard yank. Erin cried out, the sound filling Paige with grim satisfaction.

Erin dropped the keys, reaching back to grab Paige’s hand, and they jingled as they hit the carpet. Instantly Paige let go and swept the keys from the floor.

“What in the hell is going on here?” Garret demanded, standing in the doorway.

“Nate killed Michelle, and Erin knew the whole time,” Paige said, Erin’s confession spewing from her lips like a broken water main. “She helped hide the body and kept his secret. Now Nate has Haley and that’s where I’m going.”

“You said you wouldn’t tell him.” Erin gasped.

“I lied,” Paige said. “That’s a concept I thought you’d be very familiar with by now.” Paige turned and dashed down the stairs, the keys digging painfully into her flesh.

Where was she? Haley sat up straight on the large bed, her gaze darting about the dark room she’d awakened in. Her head pounded, and her throat burned. She scrambled away off the bed and went to the window, pulling back the greenish gold drape and peering out at the white flakes swirling against the black sky.

Her body ached like she had been hit by truck, and as she stepped away from the glass the sight of her reflection in the window stopped her. Her lips were swollen, a thin cut split the lower one. Dark purple bruises had formed around her mouth and on her cheekbone. Memories of Nate punching her at the side of the road rushed through her.

She had to get out of there. But where was she? She turned back to the window. Aside from the vague outline of a barn, she could make out little else through the falling snow.

Barns were found on rural properties. She was on a rural property, but where? She could be anywhere. Miles away from anyone who could help her.

She glanced at her stocking feet on the dark wood floor. What had Nate done with her boots and coat? She didn’t see them. It didn’t matter. She’d hike miles in the snow barefoot and naked to get help if she had to. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

Determined to escape, she tugged at the window, but the glass wouldn’t budge. She ran her fingers over the frame, searching for a lock. Nothing.

Could she break it? Haley looked for something to smash the glass. And again found nothing.

With fear and panic expanding inside her like a poison bubble, she went to the door. Weak light shone under the crack at the bottom. Pressing her ear against the smooth wood, she listened for any sign of life. Nothing.

She closed her hand on the cool metal of the knob and turned it. Unlocked. The door was actually unlocked.

She stuck her head into the hall. To her left, an open door led to a dark room, and another across from where she stood. To her right, the hall opened into the rest of the house.

As quietly as possible, Haley crept toward the opening. Her heart beat crazily, echoing inside her head as she reached the edge of a sunken living room and stopped. A fire burned in the stone hearth on the far wall. The flickering flames cast long shadows over the small open kitchen and dining areas facing her.

No sign of Nate. Perhaps he’d stepped out. Maybe he’d gone to kill Dean. The image made her head swim. No. She bit back on the overwhelming fear. She couldn’t think like that. If she wanted to save Dean and herself, she needed get out of there now.

She started toward the front door, glancing over her shoulder, terrified that Nate would emerge suddenly from the shadows and put a stop to her escape. The orange glow from the fire lit a photograph on the table. With a frown, she moved closer. Bits of clipped and torn photographs littered the wood surface.

She lifted the scrap that had caught her eye. Paige, at about twelve, sat on a large rock surrounded by forest and tried not to smile. Haley remembered when that picture had been taken. Her entire family had been camping in Algonquin Park. The last vacation they had taken as a family. She remembered her father teasing a smile from Paige. She remembered the moment well because she’d once been in that photo. Someone had cut her image out.

A large soft-cover book lay in the center of the photograph scraps, the word “Scrapbook” typed across the front. With trembling fingers, she turned the first page and her stomach dropped. The thick paper was covered in pictures of her at various ages arranged in a collage.

She flipped to the second and third pages. More pictures of her a little older, right up until last week. Photos taken while she’d been locking the store, getting into her car. Pictures taken of her through her living room window while she read the paper. God, he was crazy.

“It’s something, isn’t it?” A voice from nowhere made her jump and step back. She turned in the direction of the kitchen, where the disembodied voice had come from.