Family Sins(62)

“Where did you park when you went into Eden?”

“At Talia’s house. In her driveway.”

And then he panicked. She was late. She wasn’t answering her phone.

“You don’t think—”

Leigh stood up.

“I don’t know what to think. I keep going over and over in my mind that decision Stanton and I made to help his sister and his brother to keep their homes. If we hadn’t, Stanton would still be alive.”

“You can’t second-guess yourself on that,” Bowie said. “That was nothing but pure love, helping them keep their homes, and everything that happened after that is all on the Wayne family. I love you, Mama, but I have to go. I need to find Talia.”

Jesse stood up.

“I will go with Bowie. I have sharp eyes.”

Leigh was getting ready to say no, and Bowie could plainly see her eyes were red from crying. Between the murder, her grief, and the stress of how the investigation was playing out, he guessed she was nearing her breaking point.

“It’s okay, Mama. Let him come with me. I’ll get the truck and refill the brake fluid. It’ll be enough to get us back into Eden, and if the brakes were tampered with I’ll get them fixed. And on the way we’ll look for Talia. We’ll be coming back this way later, so it’s no big deal.”

Leigh frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure. Jesse does have sharp eyes. He shot five squirrels right through their heads.”

Leigh relented.

“Okay, Jesse, you can go. But you have to promise to do everything Bowie tells you to. He’s the oldest brother, remember?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’s in charge,” Jesse said. “Like my lieutenant in our unit. He gives the orders, and I say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ and I do my job right.”

Aidan honked.

“There’s our ride, Jesse. We need to go now, Mama. We shouldn’t be long, but if we get held up I’ll give you a call.”

Leigh nodded, then followed them to the door, but there was a knot in her belly as she watched them leave.

*

Jesse was sitting in the backseat of Aidan’s car, and true to his word he rolled down the window and set up watch as if he was on patrol. He scanned the trees as they drove down the drive, and when they reached the blacktop, they had to caution him to not hang his head out the window.

He quickly obliged, but he sat as close to the door as he could get to watch the cliff side of the road as they started down the mountain.

Bowie glanced back and smiled at how seriously Jesse was taking his job.

“What are you looking for, Jesse?”

“Looking for your girl,” he said.

“Do you remember what she looks like?”

Jesse shrugged. “Kind of, but I’m not really looking for her. I’m looking for what’s not right.”

Bowie frowned. “What do you mean, little brother?”

Jesse just shrugged and leaned his head a little farther out the window to look at the road as they passed a big curve.

“The truck is just a little bit farther,” Bowie said.

All of a sudden Jesse shouted, “Stop the car! Stop the car!”

Aidan slammed on the brakes, making the car fishtail before coming to a stop. Before Bowie and Aidan knew what was happening, Jesse was out of the car and running.

They got out and followed him, grabbing him before he got too close to the edge of the cliff.

“Jesse! What the hell’s wrong with you?” Aidan shouted.

“It’s gone!” Jesse cried.

“What’s gone, Jesse?” Bowie asked.

“Can’t look. Can’t look,” Jesse muttered.

“Can’t look at what?” Bowie asked.

Jesse pointed over toward the cliff side of the road.

“The fence is gone. It was there, and now it’s not. Someone’s dead like Daddy. Can’t look.”

Bowie stared, unable to believe they hadn’t noticed, and then he saw the broken cable in a tangle off in the trees.

Even though he understood the ramifications of the broken cable, he wouldn’t let himself believe it had been Talia who’d broken it.

His heart was pounding as he ran to the cliff’s edge and looked down. When he saw the back end of a blue car plainly visible among the trees below, he had a brief understanding of how his mother must have felt finding Stanton.

“Oh my God! Aidan! It’s Talia. Call 911. Get an ambulance. Get a wrecker. She went over the cliff.”

Without waiting for Aidan to answer and without thinking about the danger, Bowie stepped off the edge of the mountain and took the fast way down in a running, stumbling slide.

Talia couldn’t be dead. God wouldn’t let that happen.

Aidan grabbed his phone to make the calls, and while he wasn’t looking, Jesse took one giant step out into space and followed Bowie down the side of the mountain.

Bowie couldn’t focus on anything but getting to the car.

He lost his footing countless times and started sliding down on his back. Then he dug in his heels and began grabbing at saplings to slow his descent until he could regain his footing.

As he neared the car, he kept hearing a strange dinging sound. By the time he got close enough to see, there was no movement inside the vehicle and no one shouting for help. He was almost on top of the car before he realized the dinging sound was because the car door was ajar on the passenger side and the keys were still in the ignition.