Girl, Forgotten (Andrea Oliver 2)

“I wish I could be more helpful.” Ricky snapped out a towel and folded it in thirds. “What you said about Esther—you’re right. She deserves some peace. I can only tell you what I told Bob Stilton forty years ago. I saw Clay in the gym dancing with some cheerleader most of the night. I can’t even remember her name now.”

Andrea pretended that she hadn’t read the exact opposite in Ricky’s witness statement. Emily’s best friend had claimed that she’d skipped the prom altogether. “Who else do you think it could be?”

“I mean—” Ricky plucked another towel from the pile. “People will do anything to protect their children, right?”

Andrea felt a warning flag go up. “Right.”

“You’re not getting it, are you?” Ricky snapped out another towel. “Emily had a hard time being mean to people, even when they deserved it. Clay called them her collection of broken toys. And Cheese was the most broken of them all. He was always hanging around her, sort of like a sad little puppy. And she was nice to him, but not like that.”

Andrea wanted to make sure she understood what Ricky was saying. “You’re telling me that Jack Stilton, the current chief of police, killed Emily Vaughn?”

“I’m only saying it could explain why no one was ever charged. The old man was protecting his son.” Ricky looked up from her folding. “Don’t listen to me, hon. I watch too many murder shows on TV.”

Andrea figured she’d heard enough. “Thank you for your time. Let me know if you think of anything else.”

Ricky took a break from the gum-smacking. “I’ll do that.”

Andrea walked out the door. She felt her tongue finding the ridge inside of her cheek as she walked down the steps. She tried to wrap her brain around what had just happened, if only because Bible would have questions.

He waited until she had closed the car door and put on her seatbelt. “Whatcha got?”

“You ever hear the term goat-rope?”

“I certainly have, partner.” Bible pulled away from the curb. “Generally that kind of animal clusterfuckery is marked by human error, and I have a hard time believing you made some kind of mistake in there.”

He had no idea. “Ricky thinks Stilton killed Emily Vaughn.”

Bible gave a surprised laugh. “Junior or Senior?”

“Junior. Senior covered it up.”

“Well ain’t that something.” Bible didn’t sound convinced. “But what I’m hearing is your ass kind’a straddled two horses in there.”

Andrea felt the rebuke, but she continued the metaphor. “Ricky led me by the reins. Right out of the gate, she brought up Emily Vaughn. I didn’t even get to drink my Pepsi. Dean Wexler did the same thing earlier in the truck. It’s like they were both reading from identical scripts—first they bring up the judge, then they bring up Emily, then the goat-rope commences.”

Bible frowned. “Be more specific about Ricky.”

Andrea tried to bullet-point it. “She talked about how her brother drowned in New Mexico two weeks after Emily died. She told me that she was a shitty friend to Emily. And then when I finally pushed her onto the subject of the farm, she went after Dean Wexler.”

“What about Nardo?”

“She says he’s not into whatever Dean is doing but—I don’t know. He has to know it’s happening. Then again, he’s clearly a sadist. Maybe he likes to watch?” Andrea felt like she needed to write all of this down in her notebook so she could keep it straight. “Ricky claims that none of the culty stuff was going on when she lived at the farm.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I don’t know.” Andrea should get a tattoo of the words on her forehead. “She’s scared of them, I think. Definitely more Wexler than Nardo.”

“Makes sense. He controls the money. He’s in charge,” Bible said. “Keep going.”

“Dean pushed through a permanent restraining order against Ricky. Can we look that up?”

“I’ll get Leeta on it.” Bible typed on his phone as he drove. He asked Andrea, “Permanent throw up a flag for you?”

“Yes,” she said. “With a temporary order, the judge usually signs off on a sworn statement, and the order expires in a few months or a few years. To make it permanent, there’s a hearing where you have to present a statement of danger, show evidence of violence or abuse, and give graphic details that persuade the judge to make the order indefinite.”

“Correct,” Bible said. “What else?”

“I guess the weirdest part was, Ricky told me that whatever is going on at the farm is the same shit that happened to Emily.”