Shadows from the Grave (9 page)

As Chase started to answer, they heard Richard and Jackie heading across from the main house. “I’ll tell you later,” he said. “I’d rather not get into it in front of Mom and Dad.”

“Okay,” she said, “but you don’t leave here without telling me what’s going on, understand?”

“Cross my heart,” Chase promised as he went to open the door for his parents.

At Annie’s request, they got the paperwork for the lease out of the way first, and then sat down to eat. As the meal progressed, talk quickly turned to Chase’s parents’ upcoming vacation. They were scheduled to leave the next morning for a cruise of Europe and the Mediterranean.

“I’m glad you’re still going,” Chase told them after Richard expressed concern about missing so much work on top of his father’s funeral. “This will be the first real vacation the two of you have had without one or all of us kids along for the ride in over thirty years.” He was surprised to see his mother blush at his words.

Richard sent Jackie a warm look. “We’re looking on it as a second honeymoon,” he said. “And yes, as much as we love you kids, we’re looking forward to some time alone. It’s been a tough year, and it’s time for a break.”

“You’re riding down to Louisville with Joely?” Annie asked.

Jackie nodded. “It made the most sense,” she said. “She goes back to school next week, and the drive will give us a chance to spend some one-on-one time with her. We’re spending the night in Louisville tomorrow, then flying out very early that next morning. Now, how we’ll get home from Louisville in a few weeks, I’m not sure.” She smiled at Chase’s exasperated look and winked at Annie.

“Mom, we’ve told you—” he started.

Jackie cut him off with a laugh. “Chase, that was too easy. I’m joking.” She was fully aware that Beth and Ethan were planning on driving down to pick them up. “Just don’t forget to check in on Daddy while we’re gone.”

“Especially on the weekends. I know,” Chase said. “Though Pops has been so busy lately with his lady friend, I doubt he’ll even notice if we don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t a wedding announcement in his future, the rate they’re going.”

Jackie scowled at her oldest child. “Richard Chase Hudson, hush your mouth. That’s not funny,” she scolded.

Chase grinned. “That was too easy, Mom.”

Jackie wadded up her napkin and threw it at him. “Annie, you’ll have to keep a close eye on this one,” she said. “I shudder to think of what kind of trouble he could get into, left to his own devices.”

Richard laughed. “The boy’s been living on his own for a number of years now, Jackie. I think he’ll be fine. But I agree, Annie, you should keep a very close eye on him while we’re gone.”

Annie blinked, a pink flush climbing into her cheeks. “Ummm… okay.” She turned to Jackie. “It must be interesting, to say the least, for you to see Sampson dating again at his age,” she said, trying to deflect the heat off the subject of her and Chase.

Jackie
hmmm’d
as she picked up her glass of iced tea. “That’s one way of putting it.” She took a drink and considered her words carefully. “Don’t get me wrong, Annie. I want Daddy to be happy. God knows, the last few years Mother was alive were no picnic. It’s just a really weird feeling, seeing him with someone else, even though Mother has been gone for a while now.”

“I can understand that. Speaking of mothers, though, how is your mother doing, Dr. H.?” Annie asked.

Richard snorted. He sat back from the table and crossed his arms. “Oh, she’s on a tear,” he said. “I went by today at lunch to check on her, since we’ll be leaving tomorrow. She pretty much told me to go to hell when I refused to cancel this vacation and stay in town to be at her beck and call.” Jackie shot him a questioning look and he nodded. “Queen Ethel was on full display today.” He paused. “I shouldn’t say that,” he added, shamefaced.

Chase disagreed, his own face guarded and stony. “Why not? It’s nothing less than the truth, Dad. After what she said the day of the funeral, I don’t know if I could force myself to go see her unless she was sick and dying.”

“Chase, that’s pretty harsh, don’t you think?” Jackie admonished.

“Not particularly,” he said. “Not after the things she said.”

“I know what you all said yesterday when you got back, but do you think it’s just the stress of losing J.R. that’s causing her to act like that?” Annie asked. She and Hannah had been filled in on the day’s events after everyone returned to the farm yesterday afternoon. She stood and started clearing the table, and Chase got up to help.

“No, unfortunately,” Jackie said. “That’s just who Ethel is. If she ever has anything nice to say about this branch of the family, that’s when we should worry.”

“That’s just so sad,” Annie said, changing the subject before the mood deteriorated. “Moving on, I have a Brown Bag blueberry cheesecake. Who wants a piece?” Everyone laughed when Chase’s face lit up. His weakness for cheesecake was well known.

Jackie and Richard stood, and Jackie gave Annie a hug. “None for us, honey, but thanks. We’ve got to scoot and get ready for tomorrow. I’m only half-packed, and Richard still has a ton of paperwork to get through.”

“We’ll probably see you in the morning before we leave,” Richard added, giving Annie a quick hug before they made their way to the door. Chase saw his parents out, and when he returned, all traces of the relaxed countenance he’d been showing were gone. Even seeing the large piece of blueberry cheesecake Annie had cut for him didn’t do much to improve his mood.

“Okay, now I’m really worried,” Annie said, as they took their plates and sat down on the couch. “It’s pretty bad, then?”

Chase nodded but didn’t speak, taking a large bite of cheesecake instead. He held the dessert in his mouth for a minute before he swallowed. “Do you have any beer?”

“In the fridge,” Annie said. He got up and grabbed a couple bottles, holding one out toward her. She nodded, and Chase came back over, handed her a bottle, and sat down. He pulled a couple of sheets of folded paper out of his back pocket.

“I received a card at the office today. This is a copy of the letter that was inside.” He handed it to her, but hesitated before letting it go. “It’s pretty graphic,” he warned.

Annie set her plate down on the coffee table and took the paper. As she read the words the killer had written, Chase saw her swallow. He set his own plate down and leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. When Annie finished reading, she handed the letter back to him.

“You called the cops, right? Gordon, Ethan? Someone?” she asked.

“Of course,” he replied. “I called Gordon, and he called Stacy K. She came over and got everything, took it down to Louisville for processing. I made the copy before she got there.”

“That’s a page out of Beth’s book,” Annie said. “She’d be proud of you.”

Chase gave her a half-smile. “It is. And it’s true—easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission. I didn’t think Stacy would object to me copying the letter, but I didn’t want to take a chance. I just snapped a picture of it with my phone and printed it out before I left the office.” He fell silent, gazing down at the label on the bottle of beer.

Annie thought he looked more than a little lost, and her heart broke watching him. “Chase, I’m sorry. Surely what he says in that letter, it isn’t true. About Kiely.”

To her surprise, Chase laughed. It was a bitter sound, and as he turned to face her, the self-loathing on his face shocked her. “I have the feeling it’s all true, Annie.” He stood up to pace around the room. He seemed restless and angry.

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

Chase just shrugged and took a long swallow of his beer. Annie waited for him to answer, not wanting to push. Finally, he said, “All these years, I’ve never told anyone this. Not anyone outside the investigation, anyhow, and even then, not in all the detail I’m getting ready to share with you. It just didn’t seem right to tell anyone, to blacken Kiely’s memory. There wasn’t any point to it, not when the truth would cause more pain than good.” Chase kept his gaze on the bottle in his hands, picking at the label as he spoke.

“You know she was killed just after school started back, right? What most people don’t know is that we had pretty much broken up that spring. I had been offered an internship with the Commonwealth Attorney’s office down there, and she wanted me to go home to Ashland with her. I chose the internship instead.”

Annie frowned. “But Chase, surely you don’t feel guilty about that. You weren’t even in law school then, were you? For you to have been offered that internship, at that age, that early in the game—you’d have been stupid not to take it.”

“I had just finished my first semester. I was about a year ahead of my class.” He sent her a bitter smile. “We always have a choice, Annie. Good, bad, or ugly, I don’t regret making the decision I did. Not after everything else that happened.” He paused when thunder sounded in the distance, and Annie smiled.

“This house has a screened-in porch,” she reminded him. “Want to go out back and sit? Watch the storm roll in? You look like you could use a diversion.”

This time when he laughed, it was a much more natural sound. “You have no idea. Sure, storm watching sounds good.” He grabbed the plates off the coffee table and carried them to the counter, where he set them and the beer bottle down.

When he turned toward the hall that led to the back porch, Annie was waiting, hand outstretched. “Come on, friend. Let’s go watch the storm, and you can finish your story.” Chase took her hand and followed close behind her down the hall. As soon as she opened the door, the wind rushed in and brought the smell of ozone with it. He took in a deep breath, letting the fresh air fill his lungs and calm him. They settled in on the glider lounge, and Annie gave Chase a minute to relax. Angling her body toward his, she rested her head on her hand and watched him watch the storm.

When Chase saw what she was doing, he smiled self-consciously. “I like storms,” he said. “The tempest, the violence, and then the calm.”

She smiled. “I know. So back to that summer… you broke up because of the internship. Then what?”

“Then she came back for the fall semester. She was hell-bound determined to make up with me. We did, and then we had another fight. Then she died.” The wind picked up as he said the last sentence, and Chase raised his face into it, letting it wash over him. “When they found her, they discovered that she was two months pregnant.”

Annie sucked in a sharp breath at the revelation. She laid a hand over his and squeezed. “Oh, my God. Chase, no. I’m so, so sorry.”

He squeezed back and shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. It wasn’t mine.” He felt the surprise that jolted through her body. “Apparently, she hooked back up with her high-school sweetheart over the summer. He was going to marry someone else, and when she told him she was pregnant, he didn’t care. It didn’t stop his plans. She knew her father would marry her off to the first man he could find who was willing to take her, and I guess suddenly I didn’t look like such a bad prospect.” Annie didn’t have any words. She just tightened her grasp on his hand and laid her head against his shoulder.

He continued, “See, Kiely’s family never liked me. I wasn’t one of them, wasn’t from the hills. They knew I’d take her away from them, bring her here, and they didn’t want that. After they found her body, they blamed me, thought I had something to do with her death. So her sister, Amy Lynn, was all too glad to tell me exactly what they thought of me, and what Kiely’s motives were in coming back to me that fall.” He looked down into Annie’s face. “She was going to come back and get me into bed as soon as she could, and then
discover
the pregnancy soon after. She knew how I felt about family and responsibility, and she knew I’d think the baby was mine. By the time I found out otherwise, it would be too late. They came up with that little scheme when the baby’s father refused to marry her.” A large clap of thunder sounded, seeming to punctuate his words. Annie jumped, and Chase tucked an arm around her as the storm began in earnest. For several minutes, they sat and watched the rain blow around the house.

“When did you find out she was pregnant?” she asked.

Chase put his right ankle on his left knee and scratched at a mosquito bite. “I found out when the investigators asked me about it. Then later, I had an argument with Amy Lynn. That’s when it all came out.” He paused. “What Kiely didn’t count on in her little plan was that I’d started having second thoughts over the summer. I had Mom and Dad as an example of how a couple should work. I’d also been a really geeky, awkward kid, and I didn’t have any confidence in myself. Kiely was my first serious girlfriend.” Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and moved his arm back to his lap. “I wanted our relationship to be about more than sex, and when Kiely came back, there was something different about her. Something harder, edgier. It hadn’t been there before. I guess it set off a warning signal inside me somewhere. It definitely made me uncomfortable. When she started using every trick in the book to get me in bed, it left me cold. I knew she was up to something. I just didn’t know what.”

Annie was quiet for several minutes. “I’m torn,” she finally said. Her voice was very quiet, but he could hear the anger threading through it.

“Torn how?” he asked.

She shook her head and looked away, toward the field and barn beyond. “Because I’ve known women like that. Women who use men. They make me sick. They think the world exists to serve them. And that Kiely did that to you? Your first experience with women was her?” She sighed. “It hurts, Chase. You’re too good of a person for her. I hope this doesn’t upset you too much, but if she were here right now, I’d slap her upside the head.”