26

Emily knocked on Nick’s front door. Paul answered, and Emily met him with a stern look.

When she saw his face, all she could think of was that if Paul was guilty of collusion in Sandi’s disappearance, then Nick was harboring a criminal. But at best, Nick was taking sides—pinning her and Jo against him and Paul.

“Nick’s at work,” said Paul, who looked like he hadn’t slept all night.

“I’m not here for Nick.” Emily brushed past him and inside the house. Paul closed the door and joined her in the kitchen, a bright windowed room that overlooked the lake. The sun was peeking in and out of billowy clouds reflected on the calm lake waters. Peaceful. Serene. Nothing like the storm brewing in Emily. Or Jo.

“Jo already filled me in on a lot of details, so we’re gonna short-cut this conversation,” Emily started, turning to face Paul, whose brow crinkled in a forlorn look.

“You saw Jo this morning? How is she? Is she okay?” he said. “Can you please tell Jo that I’m sorry and I want to talk to her?”

Emily glared at him. Not a chance.

“Who are the members of the pack, and where can I find them?”

“How bad does she hate me?” pleaded Paul.

“Who are they?”

“Nick’s dealing with it.”

“What can you tell me about the sex video?” Emily wasn’t about to back down, and she held no empathy for Jo’s husband right now. She bored a look right through him until he slumped into a chair at the kitchen table.

“I’m not proud of what I did, Emily. I’m mortified. I just didn’t think it was a big deal back then, and …”

“And you never thought it would come back to haunt you,” Emily finished.

“I wasn’t even with Jo at the time.”

“That’s not the point. You stood by and did nothing when a young girl was being sexually exploited. You can work out your marital issues later; right now you need to be concerned about how this looks in light of Sandi’s disappearance and death.”

“I didn’t kill her,” blurted Paul.

Emily strutted to the window. “But you didn’t exactly do anything to help her, either. You were part of this, Paul.”

“Sandi and James were a thing, so I thought she was in on it. I actually thought she was getting paid for it.”

“Clarify. Paid for what, exactly?”

“Sex with other guys.”

“Are you saying James was her pimp?”

“Anyone with a brain can put two and two together. How else did she get the new phone? Or the designer handbags?”

“Was anyone else from the pack sleeping with her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were you?”

“No.” He answered quickly and defensively. Emily drew her eyes sharply at him and held his gaze to see if he would break it.

“No,” he said again. “I was not sleeping with Sandi.”

“Do you know who killed Sandi?”

“No, Em. Of course not!” he groaned. Emily drew in a long breath. Ross could have fooled Sandi into thinking he cared for her. He could have colluded with James to make the videos with Sandi and sell them. He certainly hadn’t been living in riches. And Sandi would never have been the wiser. It would explain why she looked drugged in the video.

Emily unlocked her gaze from Paul, and his drifted out the window toward the lake. With shoulders slumping, he moaned, “God, Emily, I was such a stupid kid!”

“Do the right thing.”

Paul kept quiet for a moment and clenched his jaw. “We were sworn to secrecy.”

“That was over ten years ago. Are you telling me that your loyalty is to a bunch of dumb jocks instead of your wife and kids and this community?”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Make a statement to the cops and then give them the other names.”

“Look, I don’t believe Sandi was a hundred percent the victim here,” said Paul, taking on a more authoritative tone. “She liked the attention. Dating James elevated her from country bumpkin to popular girl.”

He certainly had changed his tune quickly. “That doesn’t give him the right to film her having sex and sell it around school!”

His eyes darted to the floor. “I understand that—now.”

Emily cocked her head at him in dismay. Where was Paul Blakely, the model husband and father? Did he really care more about saving his reputation than his marriage? Jo would be raging with anger if she could hear him right now.

Paul rose from the table and went out the French doors that led to the deck overlooking the lake. He was acting like a sniveling, stubborn jock. Jo had been justified in kicking him out.

“If you want any chance at making this right with Jo and this community, you’d better come clean and cooperate with this investigation,” she called out to him.

Emily marched out the front door. She was shaking with fury as she got into her Nissan Leaf and drove away. What a bungle of events! She tried to imagine how Sandi must have felt when she learned that Nick, her good friend, had discovered her sex tapes were circulating. Confused. Angry. Shamed. Embarrassed. She must have wanted to confront James. And then what? Most likely Sandi would have called James and asked him to come over. James knew Nick would snitch on him. No doubt with this much at stake, he would have wanted to go after Nick. So he showed up at Nick’s house to address the matter. Maybe he tried to lure Sandi away. Maybe Sandi didn’t want to go? Emily pictured a fight breaking out between James and Nick—with Sandi trying to intervene and … getting caught in the crossfire. A misdirected punch. A violent throw to the floor. And Sandi suddenly dead between them. Neither knowing who had caused the fatal damage. Or one knowing the other had done it, but both were culpable. Was that the secret of the pack?