Chapter 30

THIRTY

FRIDAY

As Dustin Crawley rode the fence line checking for breaks, he received a frantic call from Lily. At home, he’d turned off his burner phone the moment he’d heard the news about finding the body of Marissa Kendrick out at the Old Mitcham Ranch. The discovery would have the women in their secret group on edge—and rightly so. Living with his parents had its drawbacks, and a phone going off every five minutes would cause undue attention. His pa believed that smartphones were a time-wasting curse, and he’d turned on the burner only once he’d ridden out of earshot.

He’d wanted to leave home to forge a life for himself years ago, but his parents needed him to run the ranch as they weren’t getting any younger. The time he spent away on the rodeo circuit meant that his father had to hire someone to take his place, but it was the only respite he got, as living with his folks was anything but easy.

He listened in silence as Lily raved on about Marissa’s death. He understood that she was upset and caught her underlying concern that it was one of them who had murdered her. The idea of her going to the cops with this notion would undo years of careful planning to keep all of them safe. “Nothing has changed, Lily. What happened to Marissa was tragic and can’t possibly be related to what happened twelve years ago. Don’t you figure if one of us was a serial killer, we’d have all been murdered by now?”

“It just seems very strange.” Tunes from Lily’s car radio came through his earpiece. “Nothing happens for twelve years and then their bodies turn up and now Marissa is murdered.”

Pulling up his horse and dismounting to go and check the fence line, Crawley shook his head. “Nope, it’s just a coincidence. This is the problem with you women: you start panicking the moment a small thing goes wrong. Us guys just keep on doing what we’re doing, keeping our heads down and not interacting with each other. You have to admit that you, Josie, and Marissa have been acting like idiots this week. The moment those bodies showed up in the river, suddenly there’s a conspiracy between us. I’ll contact Clint and pass on your concerns but if you’ve already been seen in town with Jess, you could have caused irreparable damage. You know what people are like in this town. The sheriff asks for information and people love to gossip. The pizzeria has CCTV cameras, so meeting him isn’t something you can deny. Trust me I don’t want to go to prison because you’re making stupid mistakes.”

“I made it look like normal.” Lily sucked in a breath. “It was more like ‘well fancy seeing you here after all these years,’ rather than a planned meeting. We spoke for a few seconds and then I picked up my pizzas and left. Jess was more concerned about his wife discovering that he’d met another woman in town than what I was telling him.”

Taking a pair of pliers from his tool belt, Crawley twisted the wire to repair the fence. “Really? You come on about Marissa wanting to go to the cops about what happened twelve years ago, and you don’t figure it’s going to cause a problem? Have you considered the implications if she’d blabbed? The fact that you believed it was a good idea sent shockwaves through us guys. It’s just not about you girls, you know. We have responsibilities and people who rely on us. You just can’t make up your minds to do something stupid without due consideration of what might happen to everyone else.”

“Do you figure any of the guys are capable of murder?”

Suddenly glad that Lily couldn’t see him, Crawley bit back a laugh. That night on the mountain, all the guys knew that Cole and Abby were still alive. They would die from their injuries and there was little hope that they would survive, but they all knew. Anyone of them could have stopped the burial but none of them wanted to risk the implications of what had happened. They’d all covered up a crime and were equally responsible. Maybe it was time to make Lily fully aware of the truth. “That night on the mountain, when we buried Cole and Abby, we knew they were still alive. Josie knew they were still alive as well. Do you recall when we went over to the bushes and talked in a huddle? You and Marissa were sitting on the rocks bawling your eyes out. We all agreed that Cole deserved to die and Abby would be better off dead than living with the injuries that she’d sustained. We did what was best for everyone. The moment you pushed dirt into that grave, you were as guilty as the rest of us. So if the question is ‘which one of us might be capable of murder?’ the answer would be ‘all of us.’”

“Oh, my God. You knew?” Lily sucked in panicked breaths. “I had no idea. Look, I’ve gotta go. I’m late for work.” She disconnected.

Crawley stared at the phone for a few moments. Marissa’s death had absolutely no effect on him whatsoever, but her threat to go to the cops had been a problem. He thought for a beat and then called Clint Wasser. After bringing him up to speed about the phone call from Lily, he climbed on his horse and headed back to the ranch house. “I figure Lily is losing her mind. She doesn’t seem to be coping and right now she’s a loose cannon. I’ve tried talking to her and explaining what would happen to all of us if she went to the cops.”

“So she has it in her mind that Marissa’s death is tied in with what happened before?” Wasser gave a strangled laugh. “Don’t they understand that if we hadn’t trusted them, in a town like Black Rock Falls, any one of us could have murdered them and no one would have known it was us? We don’t have a motive to kill them, well, as far as the cops are concerned. Maybe we were na?ve to trust them.”

Heading into the stables, Crawley dismounted. “Well, I’m guessing it’s too late to change things now. Contact the others and then get back to me. I still believe if we stick together, we’ll be okay. There’s no evidence to prove we were on the mountain near those caves that night. We’ve gone over it a thousand times. What we did on that night gave us a watertight alibi. Others saw us arriving at the campsite by the river, we all left together after midnight and there were many more walking down the mountain with us. Unless one of the girls spills, no one will ever know what really happened that night.” He hauled off his saddle and dumped it onto the rack. “The only thing that concerns me at the moment is if any of us left any evidence at the Old Mitcham Ranch when we had our meeting. It was a very safe place to meet and the perfect place to murder someone.”

“Yeah, but we can’t risk meeting there again. The sheriff will be all over that place, but I doubt they’ll discover we’ve been there. It’s unlikely there’d be any tire tracks. That old gravel track is thick and hard even after all the rain. Everyone was freezing cold and wearing gloves. It’s not as if anyone could have left fingerprints anywhere. I figure we’re safe enough.” Wasser paused a beat. “ Now that you’ve made the situation clear to Lily, when I speak to Twotrees I’ll make sure he reads the riot act to Josie. She has a lot to lose being married and all. I can’t imagine Bob staying with her if he discovers her dark past. Maybe she needs to be reminded of that before she goes flapping her lips.” He sighed. “Leave it with me. I’ll get back to you.” He disconnected.

Crawley removed the bridle from his horse and commenced brushing it. He looked into the bright brown eyes and smiled. “I wish people were as uncomplicated as horses.”