Chapter 13

". . . didn't make any other friends at the bar after that," Taft admitted. "Kristl was hinting about going to my place, but I said I had to catch an early flight and we left it at that. She gave me her number and I told her I'd call her when I got back."

Mac was listening to him on her cell's speaker as she drove to Riversong Church. She flexed her hands on the wheel. She'd felt a flare of emotion at his first words about Kristl that she'd pushed aside.

"I said I would call her Monday, after my ‘trip' to Phoenix, where I have family. She said she's taking care of her mother, which has precluded any other kind of job. Meantime, still waiting to hear from Kingman's family, his mother, mainly, and I've changed my mind. I'm going to go ahead and contact Sally Colville and Ham. Let me know how church goes."

"Sure thing."

"How's the foot?"

"I'm not as good at wrapping it as you are, but it's passable. I think I can hobble in without support."

"Let me know if you need my expert touch again."

"I will." Taft had started this conversation with the fact that Detective Haynes had called him with the information that there was white paint scraped along Gavin's vehicle and now the department was treating his accident as a potential crime.

But the big news was the results of the tox report on Ethan Stanhope. Fentanyl.

He and Ingrid had both died of fentanyl poisoning.

"What?" she'd gasped after Taft gave her the grim news. Taft's sister, Helene, had died of a drug overdose and Taft was a bulldog when it came to bringing drug dealers and their ilk to justice. The whiff of Mangella dabbling in that market is what had ended Taft's relationship with the man, and though Mangella swore up and down he wasn't involved in drugs, Taft didn't believe him.

"Yeah," Taft said grimly. "It's likely the accident was caused by loss of control from the drugs."

Taft then went on to tell Mac that the tox report hadn't been made public at Coral and Art Stanhope's request, which gave Mac the uneasy realization that Gavin's insistence there was more to Ethan's accident was correct. She'd absorbed that news slowly, but concluded that was what he'd tasked her to find out, so she was going to do it. Was Gavin also right about The Sorority being involved? And did his own accident have any correlation to Ethan's? Someone wanting him to stop telling everyone and anyone that Kristl, or some other Sorority member, was to blame for Ethan's death?

And what about his brother, Tim?

Taft swore under his breath, bringing Mac back to the present. "Prudence is calling again. I've put her off too many times. Let me know how church goes," he said again. And he was gone.

Mac stared at the road ahead of her. She needed to shake herself all over like a dog, throwing off all the unwanted feelings. Maybe engage in scream therapy or go for a jog . . . if she only could.

She exhaled and forced herself to consider this disturbing twist. Gavin blamed Kristl for Ethan's death. He'd flat out said so to Mac, before veering off and blaming all of The Sorority. They all had sex with him. And Kristl had complained to Taft that Tim Knowles had turned away from her because of Gavin's warning that Kristl was responsible for Ethan's death. So, why was Gavin so sure Kristl had something to do with Ethan's accident? Mac hadn't really listened to him when he'd accused her before. She had firmly believed Ethan Stanhope's death was an accident, but if it wasn't . . . why did Gavin blame Kristl? When had he started blaming her? From the beginning, or had he focused on her as the supposed killer because she and Tim were getting together?

And how had fentanyl ended up in Ethan's and Ingrid's systems? Ethan could have taken the fentanyl himself, but Ingrid? How had she come in contact with it?

She pulled into the parking lot of the church. If Gavin was right and some or all of The Sorority had been involved with Ethan, might one or two of them wish to shut him up? And if that were true, would they really resort to murder? And if so, how did they do it? They didn't spike his drink at the party. Too much time passed between the party and the accident, and also, Ingrid wasn't with Ethan earlier that night.

Mac headed for the church steps. She was wearing black slacks and a white sweater and had a thin black trench coat thrown on, unbelted. No rain at the moment, but she was forced to carefully dodge shallow puddles in the shiny wet asphalt.

She'd arrived in time to meld with other members. As she moved forward she got lucky. Tawny Price was just climbing the front steps. Mac tried to not limp, though that was impossible, and her awkward gait drew Tawny's eyes. Her brows lifted as she recognized Mac, and no wonder. Apart from Tim's funeral, Mac couldn't remember the last time she'd been inside a church.

"Mackenzie," Tawny greeted her in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Tawny, despite her name, had dark hair that she wore in a no-nonsense short bob. She fit perfectly in Mac's mental image of a rodeo rider with a rangy build. Her nails were clipped short and she wore flared black pants with the toes of her cowboy boots peeking out from beneath.

"Truthfully? Gavin Knowles asked me to look into Ethan Stanhope's accident just before he was in an accident himself. I wanted to talk to the Stanhopes so I came to church."

"Really." Tawny eyed her carefully. "Coral and Art don't talk to many people. They're pretty closed off. And if you bring up Ethan and Ingrid . . . you won't get very far. How's Gavin, by the way? I heard he was run off the road."

Now it was Mac's turn to be surprised. She'd just learned about the white paint on Gavin's car this morning. "Is that what's been determined?"

Tawny shrugged. "I thought that's what I heard."

They were walking into the church together and Tawny's husband, Henry, joined them. He, too, wore cowboy boots, his prominently showing beneath pressed jeans. They could have been brother and sister they looked so much alike, and it didn't surprise her that they owned a farm about an hour south of the urban confluence of River Glen, Laurelton, and Portland.

Mac sat in the pew next to Tawny and Hank and dutifully opened the hymnal to the designated songs, which she knew none of. Her eyes roamed the crowd, but she didn't know what the Stanhopes looked like. When the minister started his sermon, Tawny silently pointed to a couple across the aisle and about five rows ahead of her. Mac could see the woman's upswept blond hair, long neck, teardrop pearl earrings and the man's thinning salt-and-pepper hair, which was barely covering a growing bald spot.

She kept her eyes on them throughout the rest of the service. When it was over, she moved with Tawny and Hank back toward the opened double doors. Rain was now pelting down and the parishioners were waiting for the cloudburst to end. A few did carry umbrellas. In all sorts of colors, they popped open like instantly blooming flowers.

Mac waited in the vestibule, shuffling away as best she could, finally leaning a hand against the wall to keep from being knocked off her precarious feet. When the Stanhopes appeared, Coral Stanhope slid her a cool look. Art Stanhope just brushed forward in front of his wife, frowning up at the sky.

"Mrs. Stanhope?" Mac asked politely.

Coral zeroed in on Mac with laser-like intensity. Her eyes were a cold gray and Mac had a sudden forgotten memory of her from high school. She'd thought she'd never met Coral Stanhope, and though that was true in the main, she remembered seeing her at a football game. It was Homecoming, and Mac had been talked into going by Summer Cochran. "Come on, we gotta do that rah-rah thing our senior year," Summer had encouraged the whole drama class. They'd gone together in a group and Mackenzie had recognized how little she knew about the game, even though her dad used to watch college football and she was aware of a few basics. Ethan was there with Gavin and there was some kind of brouhaha happening between Ethan and his parents with Gavin's eyes ping-ponging back and forth between them. Art Stanhope had been quietly furious, but it was Coral glaring at Ethan with those wintry eyes that stuck in Mac's brain. What had the fight been about? Something to do with church? Maybe? And Ingrid's name was invoked. Ethan hadn't done something right and his parents were furious. Or was it Ingrid they were mad at?

"Hi, I'm Mackenzie Laughlin. I'm a classmate of Ethan's and Gavin Knowles's," she said, her throat dry and her pulse speeding up. "I saw Gavin in the hospital and he—"

"Are you one of them?" she interrupted tensely.

Mac hesitated. "One of . . . ?"

"Are you one of the girls who ruined our son's life? Brighty said she ran into one of them at the hospital. Was that you?"

"I . . . was at the hospital to see Gavin," she admitted. This was not going to turn out well.

"Coral," Art said, looking back when he realized she'd stopped short. The rest of the congregation was flowing around them, as if they were an island in the stream.

"Go on ahead," she told him. "I have something to say."

Uh-oh . . .

"I've dealt with a lot of speculation over the years, Miss Laughlin. I lost one son and daughter to a terrible car accident, and the only reason I still have my oldest is because he didn't meet any of you."

Mac could feel her face heat.

"So, if there's anything else you want, take it up with our lawyers, Segal it was the same one she'd grown up in. She wasn't as sure about Erin, or even Leigh, but she sure as hell knew where Parker Flooring was.