“He shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
“You make it sound like it was his fault. I’m the one that swerved off the road.”
He nodded. “It was partly his fault. He was twenty-one and had a blood alcohol three times the legal limit. His girlfriend was equally drunk.”
She shook her head. “I really don’t want to sit here and malign them.”
“I’m not asking you to. But let me be clear. That accident wasn’t all your fault.” He thought about her claims about the second driver, claims the officer at the scene had dismissed. “What can you tell me about the other driver?”
Her gaze sharpened. “No one has ever asked me about him. They think I made him up.”
Desperation radiated from her. Whatever the cops believed, she believed there’d been a second driver. “I’m asking.”
She fingered the bracelets and pursed her lips. “We were driving home. Everything was fine. I was sober. And then the headlights on the road. I didn’t think about it at first. And then he switched into my lane. I thought he’d move, but he kept coming. I hit the horn. And he kept coming. At the last second before we were to cross a narrow bridge I panicked and swerved. I hit the tree. My air bags deployed, but Jeff and Sydney were thrown clear.”
Her hands trembled now and the urge to touch her intensified. “Anything else you can tell me about the second car?”
“Until last night, no.”
“What happened last night?”
“I dreamed about the accident. I dreamed the other driver came up to my car and touched my hair. Told me I’d saved his life.” She shook her head. “I guess the stress of Rory and Sara is pulling all kinds of weird stuff out of my brain.”
“Or a memory.”
“The police never found traces of a second car.”
“By the time you were conscious and mentioned the second car it had rained heavily. If there’d been traces, they were washed away.”
A half smile tugged the edge of her mouth. “It sounds like you believe me.”
“I do.”
Her gaze sharpened. “Really? Why? Everyone else thought I made the second driver up.”
“Summing people up is what I do for a living. I believe you.”
Her gaze softened and held his for a long moment. “Thanks.”
She’d trusted him. Now he’d trust her.
“I believe Sara was murdered.”
Her face paled. “What?”
“We found her car miles away from where we found her body, and she didn’t strike me as the kind of gal who walked that kind of distance especially in heels. There is no record she called a cab or a friend to drive her to the second location.”
A wrinkle furrowed the soft skin between her eyes. “Sara was murdered.”
“Yeah.”
“So she couldn’t have killed Rory?”
“I don’t know how the two figure together. But I’ve two people who both stayed at Shady Grove and both are dead from apparent suicide.” He tapped the edge of his cup with his index finger trying to gauge how much he should tell her. Like a fisherman tosses a baited line in the water, he opted to give her a detail. “I went to Shady Grove the day before yesterday to get the list of kids who were there the same time you were.”
She shook her head. “And I’ll bet you didn’t get much.”
“Not yet. But I will.”
“Use your biggest legal guns on them, Ranger. Their clients paid for supersecrecy, and they expect their secrets to stay buried forever.”
“I’ll get the answers I need.” He frowned. “Has anyone else bothered you lately?”
She sighed. “Rick Dowd. Sydney’s brother.”
“When?” he growled.
“At the feed store the other day. He’s hurting. I know that. But he was rude.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
She met his gaze. “No, don’t. Like I said, he still grieves for his sister, and seeing me was a surprise.”
“Was it a surprise?”
“It was for me.”
“And you’re sure it was for him?”
A wrinkle furrowed her brow. “I assumed so.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, you’ll let this drop and leave him be.”
“I’m not making any promises on that score.” She stared at him as if searching. “What do you want to say?”
“I’m not sure I should. You might go raging out of here.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t rage. Too much.”
His honesty made her smile. She studied him as if she too were doing a little fishing. “I spoke to a woman today who was with me at Shady Grove.”
“I thought you didn’t know any real names.” He fought a surge of frustration.
“I saw her a couple of years ago at a wine festival. She told me the name of her dress shop. I tracked her that way.”
When they’d met and discussed Sara, why hadn’t she told him about this person? But he didn’t press, sensing the brittleness of Greer’s trust.
Carefully she picked up her cup and took a sip. “I visited her yesterday after I talked to you about Sara. I wanted to make sure she was okay.” She tossed him a tentative if not guilty smile. “I told her I wouldn’t tell anyone about her.”
“Why?”
“She has a new life. She doesn’t want to remember the past. When she approached me two years ago, I wasn’t happy to see her. And I don’t think she’d have talked to me if she weren’t a little drunk.”
Secrets simmered in this elite group of the privileged. And if he pushed as much as his gut demanded, she’d scramble back into her ivory tower never to be seen again. And so he did what he didn’t do well. He waited.
She shoved out a breath. “I asked her about Sara. Asked if she’d seen her recently. She hadn’t. Nor had she seen Rory. And like I suspected she didn’t want to talk.”
“What’s her name?”
Her brow furrowed as she studied his face. She wanted to trust him. Wanted to, but wasn’t ready to make the leap. “I told her I wouldn’t reveal her past.”
Greer needed to learn he was a man she could trust. Just like she enticed those nags to trust her, he needed to persuade her. “I can’t protect her if I don’t know her name.”
“She’ll be upset.”
His muscles tightened and pinched with impatience but he kept his voice steady. “Greer, I can’t help her or you if you don’t put faith in me.”
She fiddled with her bracelets.
“Greer. Tell me.”
Her gaze locked on his, she nodded as if deciding to leap. “Jennifer Bell. She owns a dress shop in Austin called Elegance.”
Satisfaction venturing beyond the job burned through him. He’d extended a hand to her and she’d taken it. “I will talk to her.”
Her cheeks flushed as if she’d betrayed a dark secret. “She won’t talk to you.”
“Why do you say that? I can be subtle when I put my mind to it.”
His rare attempt at humor passed her by. “Because she’s afraid her past will be exposed. A lot of the kids at Shady Grove came from families who value status above all else. My parents were like that.”
“And yet you’re talking to me.”
“I left that world behind. For me it was about survival.”
“She might not be as attached to that world as you think.”
“She is.”
“I need to talk to her, Greer. That’s not negotiable.”
Frustration churned in her gaze. “I told you she didn’t keep up with the other two.”
“I’ll ask my own questions during an investigation.”
“Jennifer and I were friends at camp. If she’d planned to talk to anyone, it would have been me.”
“I can be persuasive.”
A frown furrowed her brow. “She’ll know I sent you.”
“If she’s smart, it won’t be a big leap for her.” He leaned forward a fraction, wanting to ease the anxiety rippling through
her. “She doesn’t need to know you sent me.”
“It’s not that. I’m not afraid of what she’ll say. I feel like I’m betraying her. But I’m afraid if I stay silent, she could be hurt.”
“You were right to tell me.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Why did she end up at Shady Grove?”
She shook her head. “No. That’s for her to tell you, not me.”
“How did she try to kill herself?”
“Ask her.”