North Country(119)
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Where’d we go fishing?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know. Around the lake.”
“Was it just you three?”
“In the boat? Yeah.”
“What about on the lake?”
I frown. “No, there were other people.”
“Other people?”
“Yeah.”
“Approximately how many?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t count.”
“If you had to take a guess?”
“A guess? Five … ten … I really don’t know.” This guy’s annoying me. “And a loon. ”
“A loon.”
“Yeah. There was definitely a loon.”
Terry smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Did you see anything peculiar?”
“No.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Besides the woman floating face down in the water?”
“Right. Carol Roth. You dove into the water and saved her. Nice article in the paper, by the way.”
I grunt. That damn article is the reason I’m in here.
“So you brought Roth to shore and after EMS took her away, did you return to fishing?”
“No. We packed up and drove home.”
“All three of you?”
“Yeah.”
“In one truck?”
I frown. “No. Jameson drove himself. I went with Jack.”
“Was the boat with you?”
“Yes.”
He nods slowly. “Okay. I think we have all we need here. Thanks for coming in, Mr. Landry.”
That’s it? I pull myself up from the couch.
Schmidt offers me a smile as he moves to escort me out.
I’m halfway to the door when Terry calls out, “Oh, wait, one last question. Did your cousin Jack say anything about going back to the Bale House after he dropped you off that Friday night?”
“Jack? No.”
“You sure? Why don’t you give it a second’s thought.”
But I don’t need to. “He didn’t mention it.”
“Got it.” Terry waves me off, his focus on his notes. “Thanks for your time.”
The big detective walks me out.
I can see Emery’s form behind the cracked blinds in her office, but I don’t attempt to veer that way. I don’t want to cause her any more issues than I already have.
My father’s waiting outside in the truck. “How’d it go?”
“Okay, I think. But he kept asking about Jack. ”
“Jack.” He frowns as he pulls out of the station parking lot.
An uneasiness settles onto my shoulders.
“I’m worried about Jack,” I say into the darkness of my apartment, that ball of anxiety that’s been in my stomach all day still firmly rooted.
Emery’s fingertip smooths back and forth over the scar on my torso while my thoughts pilfer through the day. She showed up at my door in her pajamas around nine, Duke at her side, announcing that Isla was staying at her father’s. It couldn’t have worked out better had I begged. I need her beside me tonight.
“The way that detective was asking questions, something felt off.”
“That’s Terry. He can make you second-guess yourself while asking about the weather.” She pauses. “What exactly did he ask?”
“They wanted to know where Jack went after he dropped me off that Friday night, and if he took his boat with him when we left the next day. That detective seemed super interested in the fact that Jack met us there with the boat already in the water. Do they have something on him?”
“Honestly, Logan, I don’t know. I can’t go anywhere near this investigation, and Terry’s not bending the rules on that. He’s doing the right thing by keeping me away.”
“I didn’t even know Jack went back to the Bale House that night. I thought he went home after he dropped me off.” And he didn’t mention it while we were fishing.
“Yeah, he was there. His truck is hard to miss. It pulled back into the lot around ten, after he dropped you off. He sat at the bar, watching a late hockey game. He ordered Cokes. And then he left. Nothing about it looked suspicious.” Her breath skates over my bare chest. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
I’ve got plenty else to worry about. “What about you? What’s your boss gonna do?”
She pauses, seeming to give it some thought. “He can’t get me on misconduct for this because I formally recused myself from the case. He can try to make my life hell. Start fishing around my detachment, looking for ways to write me up. There’s already that complaint from those hockey parents sitting with PSB. Get a few more logged and he could build reasonable grounds for a suspension, at least to start. That never looks good on someone in my rank.”
“Doesn’t he have more important things to do?”
“Yeah, but all some of these guys have is their ego, so I wouldn’t put anything past him. He already doesn’t like me. He can still do his job while retaliating, and if he thinks someone else would do better for Cold River than I can, he’ll see it as his job to make that happen.” She sighs heavily. “At this point, I’ve started to make peace with it.”