The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)(11)

I’m not going back. I promised myself that when I left, and nothing has happened to change that.





CHAPTER FIVE


Zach’s day started off with the identity of his dead girl and went downhill from there. Elouise Perkins. He’d thought he knew everyone in town, but the Perkins family kept to themselves. They lived in a little trailer just outside town on ten acres that nobody wanted despite their trying to parcel it off for years. He’d had a few run-ins with Michael Perkins over the years since he’d been back in town. The man liked his booze, and when he got rolling, he liked to pick fights.

Zach climbed out of his cruiser and walked to the trailer door. Informing the family of their only daughter’s death was a new one for him, too, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Hell, he wasn’t liking his job all that much right now. He liked the slow small-town life. The calls he usually went on were for petty little things like noise complaints and property-line disputes. Michael Perkins getting into a bar fight was the worst he had to deal with, and that was just fine by him.

It took nearly ten years, but death followed me home.

Zach knew it wasn’t that simple, knew that this murder had nothing to do with his time away, but a small, superstitious part of him couldn’t help wondering. As much time and distance as he’d put between himself and what had happened in the desert, if he closed his eyes, he could be back there in an instant, a coating of dust on the back of his tongue, his hearing half-gone from the deafening sound of gunfire, his vision narrowed down to bright splashes of red against the background of browns.

I’m not there. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

The door opened before he got there, Ruby Perkins staring at him with lifeless eyes. They’d been in the same year at school before she’d dropped out because she was pregnant. Pregnant with Elouise. The thought made him sick to his stomach. “Ruby.”

“You’re here about my girl.” Her voice was just as empty as her dark eyes. “She’s dead, ain’t she?”

That stopped him cold. “What makes you think that?”

“Heard that you found a dead girl yesterday, and here you are with that look on your face, so that means the dead girl is my girl.”

“You heard about the body being found?” Damn it, even without the coroner office’s leak, keeping information under wraps in Clear Springs was downright impossible.

“Everyone has.” She stepped back, opening the door farther for him. “You might as well come in. You want something to drink?”

“No.” The word came out sharper than he intended, but nothing about this encounter was going like he’d thought. “Why didn’t you come to the station if she was missing?”

A rustling in the back of the trailer made him turn as Michael Perkins walked into the main living space. It had been a few weeks since he’d been in the back of Zach’s police car, and he looked even worse than he had then. His belly hung over his jeans, escaping the white tank top that was a few sizes too small, and his hair stuck out oddly, not hiding the fact that it was thinning rapidly. His face had the vaguely red and bloated look of a regular drinker, and Zach had to fight against coughing at the strong stench of whiskey coming off him. It’s always whiskey.

He took a careful breath. “Michael. I’ve come about Elouise.”

Michael flopped onto the couch and held out his hand. Ruby scuttled over and handed him a freshly opened beer, her head ducked and her shoulders hunched. It made Zach sick to his stomach. He knew those signs. He’d seen them often enough during his time in the force. They didn’t have much in the way of domestic abuse in Clear Springs—not since a few families moved out—but it was known to happen from time to time.

Apparently it happened here.

He thought of the rainbow of bruises on Elouise’s body and went cold. “When’s the last time you saw your daughter?”

“A few days. Maybe a week.” Michael waved that off. “What I want to know is how you’re going to make this right?”

If anything, he got colder. “We’re pursuing all avenues—”

“Not that.” Another casual wave, though there was nothing casual about the way his bloodshot blue eyes watched Zach. “People are talking, talking about how she was found, how everyone saw all there is to see of our girl. It’s not okay.”

“I’m not arguing that.”

“Then you need to make it right. Can you really put a price on the kind of pain Ruby and I have experienced because your people didn’t stop those dipshit kids?”

Zach stared. Surely he was hearing the other man wrong? “You want me to pay you?”

“Emotional trauma. It’s worth a pretty penny.”

It was everything he could do to hold himself perfectly still and keep his voice calm. “I’m sorry for your loss—both of yours. We’ll find out who gossiped about the state Elouise was found in, and they’ll answer for what they did. Once the medical examiner up in Augusta is finished, we’ll release Elouise’s body to you for burial.”

Michael sneered. “Guess we’re going to be expected to pay for that, too. What a crock of shit.”

“Get the fuck over it.” The words were out before he could think better of it, but he wasn’t in the mood to play nice, not when this idiot was shitting all over the memory of his daughter. He clenched his jaw. “What can you tell me about the last time you saw her?”