Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

W hen Aaron called Maisey mid-morning the next day, he told her he’d found the boyfriend. “I think we should pay him a visit.”

“Oh, yeah. Where does he live?”

“No, I’m thinking we’ll go to the place where he works. And you’ll enjoy it.” That was certainly a weird thing for Aaron to say, and she wondered what would make him say that.

They pulled up in front of a building with a huge red and gold sign on the front. “Kendall’s Furniture?”

“I wondered if you were related.”

“I am. He’s my UncleBill.” A bell tinkled when they opened the door and in less than a minute, a man came into view.

His eyes went wide and he laughed. “Hey, Maisey! How ya doin’?”

“I’m good. This is my husband, AaronFriedman.”

“Deputy,” the younger man said in greeting and held out a hand, which Aaron took.

“Babe, this is my cousin, Will.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Will said.

Aaron nodded. “Same here. So we need to ask you about somebody. Won’t take more than a minute,” Aaron said, and Maisey watched Will’s face go from happy and welcoming to sour and skeptical in a nanosecond.

“Oh, please don’t tell me this is about Victoria,” Will said on a groan.

Aaron nodded slightly. “Actually, yeah. It is.”

“But I already told everybody everything I knew, which wasn’t much. I was here, helping unload a truck, when it happened.”

“It said in the interview that they asked you if anything had been bothering Victoria, and you said she’d seemed preoccupied, but she said nothing was wrong.”

Will nodded. “That’s right. Every time I asked, she just brushed it off. Said she was tired from all the travel.”

“You didn’t travel with her?” Aaron asked.

“No. Dad’s going to want to retire soon enough, and I need to be ready to take over the business. If something is going on here, I’m expected to be here.”

“You’re sure nothing like your brother,” Maisey said with a snort.

Will shook his head and frowned. “Oh, hell no. Nothing like Ward. Good for nothin’ asshole.”

Aaron glanced at Maisey. “Got his high school girlfriend pregnant, flunked out of the army, couldn’t hold a job at a burger joint,” Maisey explained. “The boy’s not stupid.”

“No. Just lazy,” Will added.

Aaron made an attempt to bypass more talk of Ward. “Okay. So you didn’t travel with her. Where had she been when she was killed?”

“Nowhere. She was doing stuff here in town or in the immediate vicinity. She’d been speaking at schools and colleges. Went to the University of the Cumberlands one day, over to Laurel County High School, and went to Whitley County another day. Matter of fact, I think Whitley County was the last one before… before it happened.”

Now Maisey had some questions. “Did she say anything about something happening there?”

“Not really. But I do remember her saying she had to go back to talk to the principal.”

Aaron blurted out, “That wasn’t in the file.”

“Yeah. I just remembered it one morning. I was thinking back, trying to remember if she’d said anything that would give me a clue.”

For some reason, that seemed very significant to Maisey. “So you don’t know why she needed to go back?”

“No. She didn’t say. I asked her, ‘Why? Did you forget something?’ She said, ‘Something like that.’ I have no idea what that meant.”

An uneasy feeling swept over Maisey. “No idea?”

“Nope.”

“And she went back?”

“I don’t know. That was the morning of the day she was killed. But I thought it was weird that she’d forgotten or lost something there. It had been a couple of weeks since she’d been there. I would’ve thought she would’ve realized it was missing before then.”

Maisey could feel her stomach clench, and she knew Aaron was probably thinking the same thing she was. “A couple of weeks, huh?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

Maisey forged on. “Have you talked to her sisters?”

“I talked to them at the funeral. Augusta said she’d gotten a call from Torie the night she died, but Augusta didn’t answer it. Said she was somewhere with a friend and didn’t have the ringer on.”

Aaron nodded. “Yeah. At the movies.”

“Right. That was the week ‘Freaky Fear’ was released. I think I was the only person on the planet who didn’t get to see it.”

“You can’t think of anyone who’d want to hurt her?” Maisey asked.

“No. Not a soul. She was sweet and kind. She never hurt anybody in her life and wouldn’t. Torie had trouble swatting a fly, so it wasn’t her. Hurting things or people just wasn’t in her skill set. She’s just like Victoria.”

Maisey nodded. “And how are you doing with all this?”

“How do you think?” Will’s face turned glum. “I was crazy mad in love with her. I’d already bought a ring and I was planning to take her to dinner on her birthday a couple of weeks later and ask her to marry me.”

It had to be hard, and Maisey felt horrible for him. “I’m sorry. I know you miss her.”

“You don’t understand. I was a fat, geeky, unpopular kid. I only had a couple of friends. I never thought she’d give me the time of day, but when we met, it was like something clicked. I couldn’t believe a woman that beautiful could possibly be interested in me, but she asked me out the first time. I would’ve done anything for her. I wish I could’ve protected her that night, but I can tell you that I gladly would’ve died in her place.” His voice broke as he whispered, “She was everything to me.”

Maisey hugged her cousin and he clung to her. His heart was broken and in many ways, it would never mend. She and Aaron hadn’t even been dating when he’d had a wreck in his cruiser, and she could still remember the feeling of panic in her chest when she found out he was injured and in the hospital. “I’m so sorry, Will. If there’s anything we can do…”

He straightened, dropped his arms from around Maisey, and glared at Aaron. “Find them. Find the asshole who killed her. I don’t care who it is―man, woman, choir boy, girl scout, I don’t care. Just please, please find them and make them pay for what they’ve done to her, to me, and to our families.”

“We’re trying, buddy. We really are. Hey, why don’t you come over for dinner some evening? I can grill, Maisey can come up with some sides, and we can sit around and shoot the shit. I’d love to hear some things about her when she was younger,” Aaron said with a grin.

Will seemed to come back to himself a little. “You’re on. I’ve got a few tales that’ll turn her scarlet in a hot second.”

“You wouldn’t,” Maisey hissed through gritted teeth.

“So, there was this one time when we were all going down to the swimmin’ hole,” Will started.

“NO! Time to go!” Maisey shouted and grabbed Aaron’s arm.

“No, wait, I wanna hear this,” he said, laughing.

“No. We’ve gotta go. Bye, Will. We’ll let you know if we find out anything.”

“You know I’m gonna tell that story!” Will shouted after them.

“Better not!” Maisey yelled back.

Aaron was still laughing when they got into the car. “So what’s the story with the swimmin’ hole?”

“I’m not saying, and you’ll never find out.”

“Will’s gonna tell me.”

“He’d better not.” It was truly humiliating, and she had no intention of Aaron ever finding out about that.

“Oh, come on, Maise! You’ve gotta tell me now!”

“No. I’ll never tell you that story. You hush. But now we know she was going to go back to the high school for something.”

“Yep. I wish she’d told him why, or left her sister a message. So, about the swimmin’ hole…”

“No. Not now, not ever.” She meant it. And if she ever suspected Will had told Aaron the story, he was going to join his girlfriend in the grave. She’d see to it personally.