“He’s a good guy,” I said.
“He is but—”
“I know. I would want to do it myself as well.” And though I didn’t need to remind her, I did anyway. “I’m here for you, Amy, no matter what.”
We hugged tight just as we always did through the years when either of us faced a difficult situation.
“Call me when he shows up,” I ordered. “I don’t like the thought of you being alone with him.”
“How terrible that I should feel uncomfortable with my own father,” Amy said.
We shared one more hug and she drove off.
My dad stepped out of the woods just as Amy pulled away. Rarely—actually never—had I seen my dad look as if he was defeated. The man had always been a tower of strength and courage to me. I hated that he blamed himself for being wrong about the Carson murder.
“I’ll help you solve this, Dad,” I said when he got close.
He rubbed at his chin, the way he did when frustrated. “A thirty-five-year-old crime won’t be easy to solve.”
I hooked my arm with his. “It’s a challenge, Dad, and when does a Madison back down from a challenge?”
“I don’t know, Pepper, this just may never get solved.” He shook his head as if he didn’t want to think of the possibility. “How did Amy take the news?”
“Tears, confusion, questioning what she should do,” I said, worried for my friend.
“Noah Berwick was no good from the beginning. He was nothing more than a handsome drifter. Your mother and I and most of the town were surprised he stayed with Nancy six years. We thought for sure he’d leave her sooner than that. But I suppose he had it good with Nancy having inherited her parents’ house and her having a good job at Strathmore Builders. He barely worked, though he did dote on Amy.” He shook his head. “But you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“But he wasn’t old at the time, Dad,” I reminded.
“Set in his ways, habit, whatever you want to call it,” my dad argued. “It’s hard to break old habits, change yourself if your heart isn’t in it. and I, and others, knew it was only a matter of time before the drifter in Noah Berwick surfaced again and off he went.”
Now he’s surfaced yet again, and I wondered what his reason was for returning to Willow Lake after all these years?
“CSU was delighted that Stan volunteered to examine the bones and make an identification since they’ve been swamped with work right now,” my dad said.
“Winter sports accidents keeping them busy?”
“That and two murders in the county. One is looking like a domestic dispute and the other they haven’t a clue,” he said.
“I am itching to get at the Carson case, Dad. It’s time it was solved.”
“It could already be solved, Pepper. Travis could have killed Rita in a rage, then went to the woods and killed himself, the forest and time digging his grave for him.”
“Autopsy of the bones should give you something even after all these years. And I don’t think for a minute you believe the forest and the weather dug his grave.” I tilted my head in question. “Don’t you want to know for sure what happened to both of them?”
My dad rubbed the back of his neck. “I damn well do.” He panicked, looking around to see if anyone heard. “Don’t tell your mom I said damn. Damn I said it again.”
I laughed, my mom having trained the whole Madison family to keep a clean mouth, which we all managed to do in front of her and when out of sight—though sometimes we slipped like my dad did now. She even had the whole town telling on us if we did.
“I’m not a tattletale, Dad.”
His brow shot up. “Your brothers would differ with you.”
“They deserved every tattle,” I said proudly.
“I can’t argue with you there,” he said with a smile.
I was relieved to see him smile. “I’m going to solve this cold case, Dad.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you did, Pepper.”
“Sheriff!”
We both turned at the shout to see a man wearing a CSU jacket headed our way.
“You should come look at this, Sheriff,” the man said.
“What is it, Nick?” my dad asked.
“It looks like there is another set of bones buried beneath the ones found.”
3
I stood in front of the huge lodge windows watching the snow fall and hugging a mug of oolong tea, and wondering if the crime scene unit had gotten a protective tent erected before the snow filled the grave. It didn’t take that long for the snow to turn heavy around here, but of course, they knew that.
Snow was something Willow Lake residents took with stride. They were used to driving in snow and the snowplows were already out in force… but not so in the woods. The pristine beauty of a recently fallen snow in the woods could be breathtakingly beautiful, not so being caught in the actual snowstorm itself.