Page 62 of The Boy Who Cried Bear
“Do the people chasing you think you lied?”
She shakes her head. “No. They wanted us to lie. Now … Well, now lying wouldn’t do any good, so they want us dead.” Her voice drops with bitterness. “They got half of that.”
The man they put in jail is dead. Dana can’t undo the damage by retracting her statement, so it’s all about revenge.
Revenge would be murdering Max.
Revenge would not be taking him captive and demanding that Dana “tell the truth.”
An inkling of an idea creeps in.
I read the notes again.
“Has anyone in town seemed particularly interested in your story?” I say.
She slumps, now more defeated than angry. “Everyone’s interested in it. I made a mistake with that. I thought we should stick to the basic truth when we came here, for the boys’ sake. So that people understood what they’d been through.”
“That their father was killed for testifying against a criminal.”
She nods. “I should have just said their father was murdered and I was shot. That would have been enough. But I didn’t want them needing to lie. The version I let everyone know is the version the boys know. I thought that was the right thing to do.”
“People were still overly interested. Curious.”
“Some were. No one pressed for details, if that’s what you mean. We all get the talk about that—everyone here has the right to privacy. It was just more uncomfortable than I imagined, with everyone knowing what happened. I got the feeling…” She glances away. “I got the feeling I’d said too much. That it made some people wonder whether we’d done something.”
“Whether you were as innocent as you seemed.”
Her eyes flash. “We were. We are.”
“I know that. But you suggested that people questioned your innocence. I’m asking for names.”
She shakes her head. “No one said anything to our faces. It was just a sense. Maybe I’m being paranoid. I just felt like, if I’d only said that my husband was murdered, it’d have been more clear-cut but…”
A twist of a humorless smile. “I’m kidding myself, aren’t I? They take one look at us and they think they know the answer. Crime. Probably drugs.” Another twist. “Someone did say something like that to me. Started talking about drug cartels and how violent they are and how even whole families could get caught up in it, as if I knew all about that.”
“Who?”
I expect her to say “Louie.”
She doesn’t. And with that, I have a new lead.
* * *
I find Gunnar at his perch. I climb up, and he’s there looking out, watching.
“Tell me about Lynn,” I say when he turns.
“Who?”
I give him a hard look.
“Oh, right. The chick married to Grant. Don’t know her. Why?”
“You sure you want to stick with that story?”
He frowns, and it seems genuine.
“She was seen coming up here,” I say.
