“Where’s Roland?” I stared at the cluster of officers and medical personnel on the scene. They were lifting Andy Appleton’s decaying body from the cellar space beneath Clara Appleton’s barn.
Clara had been taken away in handcuffs. Sergeant DelGrande was with her now. Considering his close relationship with her, I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling right now…
“I don’t know where he is. I think…still at the medical examiner’s office. Waiting for the autopsy results for Rachel Coffey,” Mike said.
Roland seemed to be the only one missing from this potential crime scene.
“Listen, Mike. I know you guys don’t always trust me because of what happened with Ezra Clark…”
Mike shook his head and put up a hand to stop me. “You don’t have to explain. We all knew he was a rotten drunk. But at one time, he was a good cop. And we just have this weird inclination to always protect our own…it could have happened to any of us. You did the right thing.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Thank you,” I said, awkwardly.
It felt good, hearing one of my fellow officers backing me up for once. I almost stopped myself from saying what I said next: “Listen, Mike. Roland knows more than he’s saying. I’m not saying he was involved in Nova and Lily going missing, but he talked to her that night. For twenty-six minutes. Why wouldn’t he tell us the truth?”
Mike chewed on his lips, eyes glazed and fuzzy, as he stared at the corpse being loaded into the back of the examiner’s van.
“Mike. What aren’t you guys telling me?”
Mike sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, feverishly.
“You can trust me, Mike. I’m listening. I just want to know…”
Mike turned to me and said, “It has nothing to do with Roland. He was drunk that night…too drunk to be handling the on-call line, too drunk to drive…so, I’m the one who took her call.”
My eyes widened. “Mike! What did Nova say that night?”
“She wanted to know if we’d found her daughter. If we had any news. She was scared. I talked to her, tried to reassure her…”
“Okay…”
“And after I dropped off Roland, I decided I should ride by the cabin. Just in case. It was like three in the morning…”
“Mike. Did you go inside her cabin the night she went missing?” I asked, my pulse thudding in my ears. Why didn’t he tell me this earlier?!
“No. It was the strangest thing…she was out on the road when I pulled up. Almost like…like, she’d been taking a late-night jog, or something. She got in the cruiser…and…I know this sounds crazy, but she was sweet. And scared. She asked if she could go back to my place.”
“What?!” I stepped back from Mike, my eyes narrowing. Did Mike do something to Nova?!
As though he could hear my thoughts, he said, “I was a perfect gentleman, I swear. We talked. We had a few drinks at my place. We even watched a bit of a movie before the sun came up…but then I fell asleep. We didn’t have sex…I didn’t hurt her, I swear. When I woke up in the morning, she was gone. I don’t even know how she got home, because I’d driven her to my place in my cruiser…and then I got called out to the cabin, and there was all this blood…”
“Mike. You have to tell this to Sergeant DelGrande. You can’t hide this…why would you keep this a secret? You might have been the last person to see Nova Nesbitt alive.”
“I was scared. I thought it’d get blamed on me, since I’d just been with her. It was unprofessional of me, taking her to my home…”
“Wait.”
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“You said it was just Nova. But where was Lily? According to Clara, no one actually took her…it was all part of the plan to frame Martin, so they could get away…”
I looked back and forth, between Mike standing beside me and Clara’s farmhouse.
Either he was lying, or Clara was. One of them knew the truth…