Page 8 of Tangled Past
Chapter Three
The storm had long since passed during the night, but the island still smelled of salt and damp pine. Asa sat hunched in a kitchen chair, a half-empty mug of coffee cooling on the table beside him. The light above cast circles across the file spread open in front of him.
He should have been exhausted from lack of sleep. His body begged for rest after the long drive to Hope Island, the emotional reaction to being back here. The unexpected and searing encounter with Maya Callahan. His mind refused to quiet down enough for sleep. It hummed with too many voices from the past, each layered over the other until they tangled like seaweed caught in a tide.
Maya.
Her name alone carried a weight. He’d expected her to recoil. Instead, she’d only stared, guarded, like a stray animal cornered between fight and flight.
The image wouldn’t leave him. The tilt of her chin, the way her eyes had gone distant as if dragged backward through time. Asa pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes and exhaled hard.
Through the years, the promise he made to his father continued to eat at Asa. He needed answers. Jonas had done his best to get them for his nephew, but he failed. Now, the timing felt right for Asa to come back personally and use his skills to get to the truth despite Jonas’s discouragement.
Asa told himself he’d see it through to the end no matter what he found. He’d thought he was prepared for this case. Thought he’d braced himself for every ugly corner it would force him into, but nothing had prepared him for her.
He’d imagined meeting her again. What he’d say to her. Looking into her eyes had sent him back to that moment in the barn. The frightened little girl, peeking out from a hay bale, was rocking back and forth while holding her stuffed rabbit.
After all these years, whatever memories she’d locked away that day remained hidden. What if his drive for answers into his father’s past brought a nightmare to life for her?
The sound of a vehicle moving down the gravel drive to his cabin pulled Asa from those thoughts.
He bolted to his feet and grabbed his handgun from the kitchen counter. This cabin was isolated by a long driveway from the road. No one would happen down this way without looking for him. Only a handful of people knew he was here. His uncle, JT Wyatt’s team, Maya.
He cracked the curtains in the living room and then relaxed. JT and Declan exited an SUV. The second vehicle, a police cruiser, stopped beside them, and a third man followed them up to the door.
Relief worked its way through his frame. Asa hadn’t realized he was so tense.
He placed the handgun on the nearby bookcase and yanked the door open before they had the chance to knock, hoping there was news on his father’s case.
“Asa,” JT managed once he’d recovered from his surprise. “This is Chief Will Kelly.” He turned to the red-haired man at his side.
Asa extended his hand, determined to give the law officer the benefit of the doubt. “Nice to meet you, Chief.”
“You, too, Asa. As a rookie officer, I read through your father’s file many times. The former police chief I took over for investigated it as a cold case. I believe others in the past had as well. Unfortunately, none of us were able to solve it.” He shook his head. “Yet, I remember hearing about it from my aunt, who was on the island at the time. Back then, my family lived in Bangor. Do you mind if we come inside?”
Asa snapped out of his shock. Others on the police force had looked into his father’s murder? This was news to him. “Sure. Of course. Come in.” He stepped back to let them inside. “Coffee?”
All three declined.
What the chief said clicked in his mind. “So you still have the original file?” Would there be more information in it? Notes from the later investigations?
Will moved to the table where the crime-scene photos took up most of the space. He turned back to Asa. “Sadly, no. There was a fire at the records storage facility about ten years earlier. Your father’s information, as well as others, was destroyed.” Will’s chin lifted. “One thing that always stood out to me was this: At the time of your father’s murder, the state offered assistance, but the case was classified as an isolated incident and never formally escalated by the detective investigating the murder. That decision should’ve raised serious red flags.”
Nothing about the classification added up. Why hadn’t someone questioned it?
“There’s very little information to go on in the file, and it’s obvious the case was mishandled,” Will told him. “Thedetective listed as lead on the case resigned and left the island a few days into the investigation. Obviously, that created a lot of speculation, though it was believed he didn’t have anything to do with Raymond’s murder.”
Alarm bells were going off like crazy. The person who worked under his father, who investigated the murder, had disappeared. “Still, it’s odd. Did he leave on his own accord, or was he made to disappear?”
Chief Kelly eyed him for a long moment. “I’ve wondered the same. Detective Nathan Malone wasn’t married. We contacted his family on the mainland, but no one had heard from him. The same is true today. I reached out to his sister, who told me she hasn’t had any contact with her brother in twenty-five years.” He glanced down at one of the photos. “The detective who took over the investigation from Malone was green. He’d barely been on the force for a few years. His name is Thomas Hale. He did his best, but nothing ever came from his investigation, and eventually the case went cold.”
“Where is he now?” Asa asked with urgency. “Perhaps Hale would have more insight into the case.”
“Killed himself. He left the force about three years after your father’s murder and moved to the mainland. He didn’t have any family. Shot himself in his apartment.”
Things just kept getting stranger. “That’s an awful lot of people dying and disappearing,” he said to Will.
“It is. According to the police who found Hale, there was nothing in the apartment but a few beers in the fridge and a half-eaten pizza on the table where he shot himself. Nothing personal at all.” Will looked him in the eye. “And yes, that is strange.” Will’s gaze shifted to the file once more. “From all accounts, those who lived on the island at the time like my sister spoke highly of Raymond Dutton. Everyone respected him. Most of hiscases were simple ones. He didn’t appear to have any known enemies.”
