Page 99 of You'll Be Sorry

“Oh, yeah? As someone who prides himself on knowing everything,what can you tell me about this cavern? You must’ve visited it a time or two yourself.”

“Do I look like a spelunker to you?”

“I don’t know, Mason. Back in the day, what were your hobbies and interests? I gotta believe you didn’t always wander about in tweed. Maybe teenage Mason favored jeans and concert T-shirts, or hiking pants and wicking fabrics. Everyone has a past.”

Which was an important consideration. Mandy had a tendency to view her neighbors for who and where they were now in life. Except thirty years ago, when the Dixons had disappeared, the town’s older citizens would’ve been in the prime of their active, outdoorsy lives. Certainly, many would have been capable of the physical demands involved in subduing and murdering a family of six.

“Tell me about Isla McLean.” The abrupt change in topic seemed to fluster Mason. Perfect. Mandy needed more people off kilter and talking.

“The hermit? What about her? Though…” Mason frowned, connecting some dots of his own. “Her cabin’s not far from here.”

Mandy waited.

Mason’s brow furrowed deeper. “Do you think she has something to do with this? The McLeans certainly have a reputation for lawlessness. I’m not familiar with any allegations of violence, though even by McLean standards she’s an odd duck. God knows her parents were no great shakes. Her father preferred the company of dogs while her mother quaked at the sight of her own shadow. If memory serves, Isla’s father died in a car accident, while her mother left shortly thereafter. At a certain point, it was generally assumed that she’d died. Isla’s grandfather raised her, till he passed along as well.”

Mandy knew she’d regret this next question. “Did my father know her? Isla? Were they…friends?”

The full implication of that word came through, whether shewanted it to or not. It shamed her to have such doubts about her own dad. It infuriated her that she’d let Isla crawl that much into her head.

“I never heard anything connecting your father to Isla,” Mason stated. And yet something about his tone.

“But my father and…”

Mason averted his gaze. “There’s no point in idle gossip—”

“Just tell me.”

“Your father was an excellent police chief and highly regarded in this community.”

“So help me God, I will shoot you.”

“The town postmistress was going through a rocky patch with her husband for a bit.”

“Betty Jenkins?”

“Chief Grady was often over at the home. You know how people talk.”

“They were friends! My parents, Betty and her husband, Paul. They were friends!”

“Exactly.” Mason offered a placating smile.

Except, except. Something niggling at the corner of Mandy’s brain. A shadow of a memory, her parents’ raised voices, her young self, pressed against the opposite side of the door. She suddenly felt ill.

“You’re right. Idle gossip.” She forced the words out.

“Clearly, everything worked out in the end. And Betty is, well, Betty.” The man’s voice softened considerably. Mandy remembered Raquel mentioning she thought the two were an item. Apparently, Shereford’s newest resident already knew things about the community Mandy didn’t.

Her sense of unease was building. Something hovered just beyond her grasp, a realization, intuition. Betty, her parents’ dear neighbor. Then her father’s investigative consultant. And now, Mandy’s closest confidante.

“I have to go,” she mumbled.

“You need to put together a proper update for the two p.m. meeting.” Mason was immediately back on topic. “With actual answers for this town. And, you talk to Raquel Collins, get that historic journal back. She returns it now, I’ll consider not pressing charges. But any later…”

Mandy stumbled her way back to her vehicle, no longer listening. There she took deep, steadying breaths, trying to tell herself her imagination was running amok. She needed sleep, more coffee, at the very least a long, hot shower.

Then, when none of that slowed her racing mind, she drove down the mountain in search of her longtime dinner companion to ask a bunch of questions she wasn’t sure she wanted answered anymore.

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