Page 78 of The Summer that Changed Everything
“She’s still his sister.”
Ford’s hand tightened on the phone; Lucy could see his veins standing out. “She’s much older now, less vulnerable to how he’ll react,” he said. “And she has her husband to support her through the fallout.”
“Goddammit,” Claxton shouted. “You two just won’t leave this alone. You’re bent on disruptingeveryone’slives. And forwhat? For a murderer who deserves to be in prison, anyway! Fornothing!”
“My father and I aren’t nothing,” Lucy said, speaking up for the first time. “The truth is the truth, and that’s what you should be protecting.Annais showing more integrity than you.”
“Be careful what you say to me,” he said.
“Because you’re afraid to face the truth even about yourself?” she asked.
“I’ve warned you. You’re causing trouble—and you’re not going to like the consequences.”
“The consequences? You mean like ‘someone’ breaking in and messing up my things again? Writing on the mirror?”
Ford lifted his hands to signal for her to back off. No doubt he was worried about continuing to provoke Claxton, but she was so tired of the chief of police being stubborn and unsympathetic.
“The point is this,” Ford said. “Anna is coming forward. She’s willing to sign a statement. What are you going to do about that?”
“Nothing,” Claxton snapped. “Because it doesn’t change a thing. It’s just his word against hers, and there was a lot more stacked against Mick McBride than that.”
“Not for Aurora’s murder, there wasn’t,” Ford insisted.
Although Lucy tried to hold herself back, she ultimately failed. “You can stick your head in the sand only so long before it starts to look like you’re not doing your job,” she said, and then Claxton hung up on them.
Tossing his phone on the ottoman, Ford said, “What an asshole.”
“He’s not going to do anything,” she said.
Ford strode to the windows and peered out at the ocean before returning to her. “Let’s see what CODIS reveals and go from there, because if we get a hit, his whole thesis crumbles.”
Lucy nodded. “While we wait, maybe it’s time to go see my father again.” Mick hadn’t returned her last letter yet. Since nothing had changed in fifteen years, he probably didn’t see any reason to rush, but she was suddenly in a hurry to get his feedback. Cracks were forming in what everyone had believed to be an open-and-shut case. Maybe with his help, they could make those cracks wider and wider until, eventually, everything changed—the whole darn narrative.
Red Onion State Prison was located in an unincorporated part of Wise County, near Pound, very close to the Kentucky border, which was seven hours away. But Lucy didn’t mind the drive because Ford had insisted on taking her. He’d said he was willing to come inside the prison with her, too, but Lucy couldn’t see how that would help. If anything, it would just make her father clam up. So Ford had agreed to wait outside in the parking lot. Since it took most of the day to get here, they planned to stay at The Inn at Wise and head home tomorrow.
As she perched on a vinyl stool, she once again felt a great deal of emotion. But this emotion was nothing like what she’d experienced when she’d flown here from Vegas in April. Now, instead of feeling like the injured party, she was afraidshewas the one who might’ve lethimdown, which tempered her hurt and anger, made her more open-minded and anxious to see him.
When he shuffled in and took his seat on the other side of the Plexiglas, she lifted the handset immediately. He was the one who delayed communication. He looked leery, as if he wasn’t entirely convinced he could tolerate whatever she had to say—even if it was hopeful.
Maybe he feared hope most of all.
At last, she saw his chest lift as he drew a deep breath. Then he brought the receiver to his ear. “You’re back.”
“Is that okay?”
He frowned. “I’d rather you didn’t come here.”
“Why?” She was afraid he was going to say, “Because it’s easier on me if you don’t.” Fortunately, he didn’t.
“I don’t want to be a ball and chain, that’s why. It makes me happier to imagine you building a good life—maybe finding a man who’ll give you the family you want.”
“I can’t move on until... until I take care of this unfinished business,” she said.
“It’s not unfinished if it has to do with me.” He chuckled without mirth. “Hell, the man I was died fifteen years ago. That’s about as done as a person gets.”
She studied him closely. Was he guilty? Or could she trust him as she’d once believed she could?
Maybe she’d begun to doubt him too soon, too easily. After all, she also had trust issues, hadn’t even known her own mother. Billie had run off with another man, abandoning them both when Lucy was just a baby. Mick once told her that Billie would occasionally show up early on. But the last time she came to see Lucy, he’d allowed her to babysit while he worked, and she’d stolen everything of value in the house and left Lucy sleeping in her crib.
