Repressed (Deadly Secrets) (26 page)

She didn’t believe him. He’d known she probably wouldn’t. But part of him had hoped the love she felt for him would be enough to make her question what she’d seen. Knowing now that it wasn’t sent burning pain straight through his heart.

She crossed the room and grasped her purse from her desk.

Panic coursed through him all over again. “Samantha, wait.”

“No. I . . . I can’t.”

“There’s more,” he called after her.

She stopped at the door, gripped the jamb, but didn’t turn.

“I think Seth knew what happened to Sandra Hollings,” he said quickly. “Your dream, the cabin . . . it all happened on the same night.”

She whipped around with horrified eyes. “How do you know? Were you there too?”

“No. God, no.” But just the fact she had to ask told him just how far she’d slipped out of his grasp. “I swear to you I wasn’t there. But I think Will Branson and Jeff Kellogg were.”

She huffed a sound of disbelief. “And I’m supposed to believe you? After everything, I’m supposed to believe that two men who have done nothing but support me and my mother the last twenty years had something to do with the Hollings disappearance?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “I would never lie to you. Samantha, you have to be careful around them. They were at the falls the night Seth died. They’re involved with the Hollings disappearance. I know it.”

“I don’t . . . ” Pain tightened her features. “I don’t know what to believe right now. I just . . . ” Shaking her head, she turned abruptly and rushed out the door. “I can’t do this.”

She was gone before he could stop her. Before he could push his legs into gear and run after her. And in the silence, his heart shattered into a million pieces beneath his ribs.

He’d lost her. Lost her forever because of one horrible night he could never change. Because of two men she thought were her friends.

His stomach twisted as his mind skipped to thoughts of Kellogg and Branson, and he pushed away from the table with a renewed sense of purpose. She might not love him anymore, but he was still determined to keep her safe. And he was willing to do whatever it took to make sure she stayed that way.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ethan’s cell buzzed just as he reached his car. One glance at the screen told him it was the call he’d been waiting for. Minutes too late. He lifted the phone to his ear. “Your timing sucks.”

“And you sound like shit,” his brother Alec said.

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” He looked around the parking lot as he slid behind the wheel. Samantha’s car was already gone. She’d probably gone home. He’d catch her there, try to talk some sense into her, try to convince her to leave Hidden Falls for good and head back to California. “What did Hunt find?”

Hunter O’Donnell, Alec’s friend, was a former Marine, now running his own PI and securities firm in Portland. The guy had connections all over the place, and when Ethan had called Alec and asked for help, O’Donnell had been at the top of his list.

“Sandra Jean Hollings . . . ” Papers rustled. “Twenty-five years old. Put on administrative leave of absence looks like roughly eighteen years ago.” He let out a low whistle. “Nice picture. Where the hell was she when we were in school? Remember Mrs. Kennedy who taught physics? Nasty. The woman smelled like Pine-Sol.”

“Alec. Focus.” Ethan reached for the pack of cigarettes he’d tossed on the dash, only to realize he’d already smoked the last one.

“Sorry. Okay, left Hidden Falls pending an investigation due to misconduct. Forwarding address listed a sister in Seattle.”

“What was the outcome of the hearing?”

“Um . . . Here it is. School board terminated her employment in early February.”

And if Samantha’s memory from the cabin was even remotely close to Seth’s death, that meant Sandra Hollings had returned to Hidden Falls in October. Eight months later.

“What kind of misconduct? Like with a student?”

“Don’t know. Hunt’s still looking for that info.”

“There’s got to be some mention of it,” Ethan said. He knew how gossip spread in a small town. “Old news clippings, complaint filed by a parent, something. It had to have gotten out. You know how the press is, even small town press.”

“Watch it,” Alec said. “Those of us in the press don’t appreciate jabs like that. And just so I don’t forget, Hunt says you owe him.”

“Irish whiskey,” Hunt hollered from somewhere behind Alec, his voice muffled.

“You hear that?” Alec asked.

Ethan frowned. “Yeah. I heard him. And you better not drink any of it. Keep going.”

“A case of Irish whiskey,” Hunt hollered. “From the old country. None of that piss-ant crap you can get in the States.”

Alec chuckled.

“What did she do after?” Ethan asked, trying to get his brother back on track.

“After getting canned? Doesn’t look like much. Can’t find any other employment records, if that’s what you mean. There are a few medical files, though. And this you’ll find interesting.”

“What?”

“Couple of bills that were never paid to the family birth center of Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington, Washington, just north of Seattle, from August, six months
after
she left Hidden Falls.”

“She had a baby?”

“Can’t find any birth certificate or any birth record. But why else do you go to a birth center?”

Damn
. “Does Hunt have an address for the sister? Maybe she can help us.”

“No luck there either. Tried it. Christie Hollings was reported missing by a neighbor about two weeks ago.”

“Fuck.” Ethan ran a hand over his head.

“Yeah. Convenient, if you ask me.”

“What about the others?”

Papers rustled again. “Jefferson Davis Kellogg. Man, the guy just sounds slimy.”

“He’s a politician.”

“Ah. That explains it. I knew I’d heard that name before. Let’s see. Thirty-four years old, graduated with top honors from Willamette University, went to law school at Harvard. Straight-A student. President of the debate team. Varsity letter in tennis. I bet this guy’s real fun on a Friday night?”

“What else?” Looking through Kellogg’s transcripts wasn’t helping the situation, and it didn’t give Ethan any solid info to warn Samantha.

“Guy’s clean as a whistle. Seriously. Too clean. No rowdy college behavior, no jilted lovers. It’s almost as if someone’s wiped his record spic ’n span.”

That didn’t surprise Ethan. He ran a hand over his face.

“Only thing that even raises a flag at all is his lightning-quick Vegas marriage to one Margaret Wilcox. No preannounced engagement. And judging from his family’s well-to-do political status and Wilcox’s shady upbringing, that couldn’t have gone over well. Shotgun wedding?”

“No. Margaret didn’t strike me as someone who’d get herself into trouble like that. I don’t think he married her because she was pregnant.”

“Blackmail?”

“Possibly.” Though most people didn’t blackmail others into marriage. In this case, though, it made a sick sort of sense. “What else?”

“Speaking of the dead. Margaret Anne Wilcox. Thirty-three years old, grew up in Hidden Falls. Was raised by her grandmother in a trailer park on the south side of town. Smart chick—got a scholarship to Portland State. Was working as an administrator at a high school in the city when she up and eloped with Kellogg.”

“When was that?”

“About three years ago. She finished out the year, then moved home with her new hubby.”

Interesting.

“Kenneth Saunders,” Alec said, drawing Ethan’s attention once more. “Man, this guy was a piece of work. Thirty-three, married right out of high school, two kids ages twelve and ten. Looks like Washington County Sheriff’s Office was called out to his house numerous times for domestic disturbances.”

“Any arrests?”

“No. Wife refused to press charges each time.”

“Nice.” Ethan’s stomach rolled at the thought of Saunders alone with Samantha. “She’s better off without him.”

“Obviously. And I saved the best for last. William Branson. Thirty-four, son of Henry and Eileen Branson. Mother committed suicide when he was a teenager. Father was a teacher at Hidden Falls High. Elected town mayor, served ten years. Branson attended Oregon State Police Academy, worked as a lieutenant in Portland for several years. Moved back to Hidden Falls about three years ago when he was hired as chief of police.”

“Why’d he leave Portland?”

“Don’t know. Mayor of Hidden Falls hired him. Um, Lincoln Jenkins.”

“I met Jenkins at Kellogg’s party. Runs the paper here in town. I didn’t realize he was the mayor as well.”

“He chummy with Branson?”

“Not that I could tell. But everyone knows everyone in this town.”

“Curse of the small towns,” Alec muttered.

Ethan tapped his hand against his thigh. “The question is what happened three years ago to draw Branson back and to make Kellogg marry Wilcox.”

“Good question. When did Samantha move home?”

“Just a few months ago. Whatever caused them to shift back here had nothing to do with her.”

“You hope,” Alec said. Voices echoed on the other end of the line. “Hey, Ethan. I’m gonna put Hunt on. He’s got some info from the Washington County ME.”

“Okay.”

The phone crackled, and Hunt’s deep voice echoed across the line. “Got a headache yet?”

“I’ve had a headache since I first drove into this town.”

“That’s got to feel good. Okay, I just got off the phone with Jill Bradbury. She’s the Washington Co. ME. Your guy Branson? He told her not to rush the results of those remains you found up in the woods.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Not for remains that old. Odds of identification without family of some kind offering dental records is pretty slim.”

“Like a sister.”

“Yep, like a sister. Bradbury also passed on some info from the Wilcox autopsy. The woman wasn’t raped. ME found garrote marks around the neck, but there were no other signs of a struggle—no tissue under her fingernails, no other bruising, nothing. Body was completely clean—too clean, if you get my drift. She’d had sex before she died, but it looks like it was consensual. And judging from her dear husband’s statement, it wasn’t with him. He claims he was out of town the day she was killed. His staff is backing him up on that. This woman was a piece of work. She makes Alec’s ex look like June Cleaver.”

Ethan barely heard him. “Margaret would have fought back if someone had tried to kill her.”

“That’d be my guess. Any woman would. Unless she didn’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some people are into kinky shit,” Hunt said. “It’s called erotic asphyxiation. Heightened sexual awareness when the airway is—”

“Yeah. I’ve heard of it.” Ethan rubbed the nape of his neck. He didn’t need to imagine it to get the idea.

“I’m just saying, it could have been a sex session gone awry, or—”

“Or someone knew she was into that and took advantage of her. And by the time she figured out what was happening, it was too late. Shit,” Ethan muttered.

“Yep. That’d be my guess. If it had been an accident, and the boyfriend simply wanted to cover it up, he would have dumped the body. He wouldn’t have positioned it on your girlfriend’s dining room table. That was a clear warning, if you ask me.”

Ethan’s chest tightened. Samantha wasn’t his girlfriend. Not anymore. “Is the investigation still open?”

“No. Got word this morning that Branson closed the case. Report states he had enough evidence to prove Saunders killed her. Convenient, don’t you think? Guy’s dead now. Can’t argue.”

“Shit.”

“Kellogg’s holding a press conference about it tonight. He’ll probably compliment the chief of police on his swift action. This bodes well for both of them. Branson gets credit for protecting the residents of Hidden Falls, and Kellogg gets the sympathy of his constituents. His poll numbers have skyrocketed since his wife’s death.”

“They’re covering their tracks.” Sickness gathered low in Ethan’s stomach.

“Yeah. And doing it pretty damn well. Listen, I’m gonna dump all this with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Jack Simms owes me a favor, but most of what we’ve found is pretty circumstantial. There’s no hard evidence here to indicate Branson or Kellogg had anything to do with either the Hollings disappearance or the Wilcox murder.”

And that was just what they wanted. Ethan wished for another cigarette.

“My gut thinks differently, though,” Hunt added.

“Mine too.”

“Safest thing for you to do is get your girlfriend out of that town. If she knows anything about what happened to that Hollings woman, and these two yahoos find out, odds are pretty good she’ll be the next one to turn up missing.”

Ethan reached for the keys and turned on the ignition. “That’s where I’m headed.”

He just hoped he could convince Samantha to leave before it was too late.

“Dammit.” Sam pulled her car to the side of the road as steam billowed from the hood. Swiping her nose with her sleeve, she tried the starter again. It whirred once and puttered out.

She dropped her head against the steering wheel and drew a deep breath that did nothing to ease the hot sting behind her eyes. This was all she needed. The one time she wanted to run, she couldn’t.

It had to be a nightmare. None of this could be real.

Memories bombarded her. Running after Seth that night when he’d walked away from her on the path. Hearing voices through the woods and chasing after them, afraid whoever had hurt that woman in the cabin was going to try to hurt him. Coming over the ridge sweaty, tired, and sore. Then seeing him lying lifeless in the water below as another boy held him under.

That boy had been Ethan. Her chest squeezed tight. She’d never seen him up close in court. The judge had let her testify in private with him and a counselor. She’d told them about the horrible boy who’d drowned her brother. About the splashes and screams she’d heard. They’d shown her a picture lineup of multiple suspects roughly the same age, and she’d identified Ethan. But . . . the Ethan she knew could never have done such a thing. He’d said he was a troubled kid, but could someone change so drastically? Go from evil to good in only a matter of years? She wasn’t sure.

She closed her eyes tight. Focused on that memory. On the fight in the water. On Ethan holding Seth by the shirtfront. On the trees and shadows and voices echoing from the shore.

Her head came up, and she blinked several times. Others had been there. She’d never let herself focus on that part of the memory before. But now she was certain that Ethan hadn’t been at the falls alone.

I jumped in to help him.

His words ran back through her mind. Could he have been telling the truth? Her heart raced as she sniffled and swiped at the tears on her cheek. She thought she’d been sure, but if there had been others at the falls, it was possible
they
had hurt Seth, and, as Ethan had stated, that he’d arrived late and tried to save her brother. And if that were true, it meant . . .

“Oh God.” Horror swept through her, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

Her eyewitness testimony had been the evidence the court needed to send Ethan to that juvenile detention center. She was the reason he’d spent a year of his life in a prison for children. She’d altered the course of his life far worse than Seth’s death had altered hers.