Beneath Devil's Bridge(64)

“Did you lie in those interviews, Maddy?” he asks quietly.

She looks up at him. “Did you?”

He swallows.

She spins her chair and wheels out from under his touch. She goes out of the room. He stares after her.

He knows he lied.

He knows why he lied. Because Maddy had asked him to.

Darren grows even more worried. Because he doesn’t know what endgame Maddy is playing now.



Eileen Galloway listens to the third podcast episode. She’s alone in the house. Her husband, Rex, is at the pub, as he usually is at this hour. Eileen is knitting furiously, a scarf that is getting longer and longer. Too long. But it helps with stress. She’s a high-strung woman to begin with. And now she’s fretting over this podcast story. Because she’s always felt that her daughter, Beth, and the others were hiding something. They were protecting some male. She’s certain of it. She knits faster. One purl, one plain, one purl, one plain . . .

TRINITY: You have just listened to Clayton Jay Pelley’s confession. Word for word in his own voice, read from a copy of the police transcripts. Those words are a record in black and white. They are the exact replica of what Clayton told Detectives Rachel Walczak and Luke O’Leary that night in the interrogation. There is audio and visual to accompany them.





THEME MUSIC GROWS LOUDER


So I ask you all this question: Do you think it’s actually possible that Clayton made a false confession in order to protect his wife and child from himself? In order to lock himself behind bars, to seal himself off from worldly temptations that could cause him to hurt children in the future? Was this addiction of Clayton’s an illness, a scourge, that he truly tried to fight by seeking medical help, but failed? Is this the extent of it? That Clayton Jay Pelley, in his twenties, was a secret child porn addict and a functional alcoholic who played cool-guy teacher at school? A young and vibrant and handsome man who tutored Leena Rai, and who was idolized by her? But he never sexually assaulted her, or murdered her?





THEME MUSIC INCREASES IN VOLUME


And if this is the case, if he’s telling the truth now, if he did not engage in sexual intercourse with Leena Rai on the night of the Ullr bonfire, why did Maddy Walczak lie? And if Maddy Walczak lied, does that mean Beth Galloway did, too? What about the other kids, who at first all tried to get their stories straight?

And once again, I must ask: Why is Clayton talking now? What’s in it for Clayton Jay Pelley?

Someone out there listening might know the answer. Someone has to know something. If you have any input, please call. And tune in next week—

Eileen reaches forward and jabs the STOP button. She sits for a long while, thinking. Then she reaches for her phone. She calls Rex at the pub.



Granger is back at the Raven’s Roost. He’s had dinner there and is drinking yet another beer at the bar with Rex Galloway and a few others. Their heads are bent forward as they listen to episode three of the podcast, which recently went live. Granger is disinclined to go home. This whole affair has sucked his partner back into a strange place. He knew the podcast would do that to her. He’s also unhappy. Edgy. He wonders if Rachel has gone to see Luke O’Leary at the hospice yet.

“Bloody woman,” Granger mutters about Trinity as the episode ends. He’s had more than a few beers, which means he probably won’t be able to ride his bike home now, and he’ll have to bunk down in town, and things will get darker between him and Rachel at a time when he should be focusing on being better and being there for her. “Dragging this all up—it’s messing with the collective psyche of this town.”

Rex gives a slow, rueful smile. “Spoken like a drunk shrink.”

“Is Beth listening to this?” Granger asks. “Is she participating?”

“Yeah, she already spoke with Trinity. She said Dusty Peters did, too.”

“Beth already spoke to Trinity?” Granger repeats. “Johnny never told me.”

Rex shrugs. “I guess those interviews are yet to be edited and aired. Eileen is listening, too. I’m sure the whole town is tuning in by now.”

“Along with half the country, who listens to these kinds of things in the name of entertainment.” Granger takes another sip. “What do you think that wanker in prison is going to say next? Do you think he’s going to offer up some conjecture about why Maddy supposedly lied?”

“Hell knows. What about Rachel? Has she been interviewed yet?”

Granger swallows the last of his beer, plunks the empty on the counter. “No. And she won’t be.”

“And Maddy?”

“I have no idea. Maddy does her best not to communicate with us.”

Rex holds his gaze, and Granger feels his body itch.

“Is Maddy still messed up about the affair Rachel had all those years ago? With that RCMP cop on the Leena Rai case?”

Granger grunts. “Whatever it is, it just seems to get more bitter over time. And this podcast surely must be dredging up those old feelings in Maddy, which can’t help.”

During therapy sessions with Granger, Rachel spoke to him about her broken marriage. About her feelings around Jake. About how much she’d really cared for Luke O’Leary. Granger knows this much. He also knows that Rachel struggled deeply with the dissolution of her marriage. It undercut her very identity. Her sense of self. And it was all exacerbated by the Leena Rai case. Because of it all, she began to struggle with her focus on the job. She made some stupid decisions, lost her temper more than once. It compounded problems at work. Resentments about her being fast-tracked for police chief started to surface. Staff began to sabotage her—or so she believed. And suddenly one day Rachel found herself unable to get out of bed. She was diagnosed with clinical depression. Put on disability leave. Therapy was mandated. Therapy with him. It cost her the promotion. In the end she quit.