“You sure they were…？”
“Definitely,” Cass said. “His windows were all steamed up, and she was giggling and sort of pulling her clothes together. I knew exactly what that looked like.”
“Oh honey,” Hattie said, leaning her head on Cass’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry you never felt like you could confide in me.”
“I couldn’t. I was so mortified. If anyone had found out? My folks? Zenobia would have killed me. And what would you have thought of your slutty best friend?”
“I would have thought that shithead Holland needed killing,” Hattie said fiercely. “I would have keyed his car.… No. I would have slashed his tires.
“Wait,” Hattie said, her eyes widening. “Were you the one? The anonymous caller who told Molly Fowlkes that Lanier was sleeping with your high school boyfriend?”
“‘Boyfriend’ was a wild exaggeration,” Cass said. “But I was drunk and I was mad, because I’d just read that tenth-anniversary story of hers. I kinda went a little postal.”
Cass wiped her nose again, then held her hand over her heart. “But I swear, Hattie. I swear on the Blessed Virgin Mother, I never thought Lanier was dead. People were saying she ran off with a guy. I never thought he had anything to do with her disappearing. I just thought … I guess, I wouldn’t let myself think, I mean … what does it say about me that I never told anyone? Not even my best friend, about what I did?”
“What you did? You were a fifteen-year-old little girl. He got you drunk and then he did what he wanted to you. It was statutory rape.”
Despite the heat, Cass was shivering, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “I should have said something when we found her wallet. I wanted to, but I just couldn’t.…” She looked over her shoulder at the house. “I should have said something.”
“Maybe,” Hattie conceded. “But what difference would it have made? Makarowicz said her body has been there for years. Probably since the night she disappeared. Holland probably killed her and hid her body down there. Who else would know about that old septic tank? We walked over the manhole cover dozens of times, and didn’t know.”
“What do we do now?” Cass asked.
Hattie stood and reached out a hand to her best friend. “We call Makarowicz and tell him what you just told me. And we make sure Holland Creedmore pays for what he did to you. And to Lanier.”
48
The Plot Sickens
The detective answered after two rings. “This is Detective Makarowicz,” he said. “What’s up, Hattie?”
Hattie glanced over at Cass, who nodded.
“Mak, I’m over here at the house with Cass Pelletier, who you’ve met. She just told me something about Lanier Ragan and Holland Creedmore that I think you need to hear.”
“I’m listening,” Makarowicz said. “In fact, I’m on my way over to pay the Creedmores a visit right now.”
Hattie put the phone on loudspeaker and Cass leaned forward to recount the story she’d just shared. Her face was tense, her voice crackling with emotion.
“Fucker,” Mak said, when Cass’s humiliating ordeal was complete. “Motherfucker.”
“Yeah.” Cass’s voice was toneless.
“I’m sorry, Cass, but I need to ask you a couple questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you absolutely sure it was Lanier Ragan you saw that night, getting out of Holland Junior’s car?”
“I’m positive.”
“Any chance you remember the date this happened?”
“Not the date, but I know it was the Cardinal Mooney–Country Day game, because that was always the big rivalry. It was my sophomore year, so it would have been 2004.”
“That helps,” Mak said. “I can look that up, easy.”
“Did you ever let Junior know you’d seen him with Lanier Ragan?”
“No!” Cass was emphatic. “I would rather have died. Anyway, he never called me again. I’ve been trying to bleach that nightmare out of my brain for the past seventeen years.”
“Don’t blame you,” Makarowicz said. “Just one more question. Did he ever take you out to his parents’ house on Tybee? The house y’all are working on now?”
“You mean the hookup house? No. I was strictly his parking lot sidepiece,” Cass said.
“Good enough,” Makarowicz said. “I’ll need to get a written statement from you, but in the meantime, I appreciate your being straight with me. It can’t be easy, dredging up this ugly stuff all over again.”