Funeral for a Friend

36

Brayden stared, transfixed, at the blond woman on the stage in front of Devin Card. In the midst of looking for Cat, he simply stopped what he was doing and couldn’t take his eyes off her. She came out of nowhere, emerging from the crowd of people crushed around the west-side steps. She had a kind of simple grace, not like a victim and not like a hero. And yet her presence electrified the room, as if royalty had joined them. She was right there above Brayden, barely twenty feet away from him, staring straight ahead at the man she’d accused. He felt others pushing to get closer to the stage, wanting to see her face.

The whispers began.

That’s her. She’s the one. Who is she?

Then she answered the question for them.

“My name is Andrea Forseth.”

Brayden heard her speak, and she had a surprisingly powerful voice. He thought about the courage it took for her to be here. To stand up for herself in this place. All day long, he’d heard reports in the media that the anonymous victim would finally come forward, and he hadn’t believed it would really happen. There was no way she would put herself through this circus. But here she was. Looking at her now and seeing the wolves gather, he could only wish she’d stayed away. She would never have peace again. They would rip apart her life, pry open every secret.

There was no reward for trying to do the right thing. Only regret.

When she put down the microphone, he was near enough to her to read her lips. I want you to tell me that you remember me.

But she already knew the truth. Devin Card didn’t remember her at all. The look on her face was eloquent, the look that said she’d made a mistake by opening Pandora’s box. Better to keep the demons locked inside.

The emotional drama up on the stage made Brayden want to close his eyes. This was too painful to see.

Then his phone interrupted him, the ring tone muffled in his pocket. He wanted to ignore it, wanted to stay focused on the woman just above him, but he knew he couldn’t. He covered one ear with his hand and looked away as he answered the phone. It was a 911 dispatcher, transferring an emergency call to him.

As the transfer came through, he began to say his name, but he didn’t even get it out before a voice erupted over the line.

“Shit, man, it’s her! You’ve got stop her! It’s Colleen! It’s Colly!”

Brayden winced at the shouting. “Who is this? Curt? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, man. She killed him. She fucking killed Wyatt, man! Blew his head off! I found his body in her apartment!”

“Curt, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Colleen!” Curt bellowed into the phone. “Damn it, aren’t you listening to me? It was her, man, it was never Wyatt. She’s the one stalking Cat. Colly’s the one obsessed with her. You’ve got to get Cat away from that girl, man! That bitch is going to kill her!”

“Shit!”

Brayden shoved the phone back in his pocket.

He pushed through the crowd in a panic, shoving people aside, shouting for everyone to get out of his way, but he had no idea where to go. He’d lost her. He’d failed.

Cat needed him, and he’d failed.

Where was she?

Devin didn’t remember her. She was a fool to think he would.

All these years, Andrea had harbored the notion that when Devin finally came face to face with her, he would recognize the girl he’d assaulted. She would see an awakening in his eyes as he studied her features. You couldn’t rape someone and forget who she was. You couldn’t erase that person completely from your memory.

But he had. His face was completely blank as he shook his head. She was a nobody to him. As far as Devin Card was concerned, he’d never seen her before.

Andrea lifted the microphone again.

“You were the first boy I ever kissed,” she said. “Did you know that? I don’t remember whether I told you that at the time. You said I reminded you of Nicole Kidman. You said I was even prettier than she was, and you asked if I wanted to make out, and I said yes. You asked me if I wanted to go upstairs, and I said yes. I thought that’s what I wanted. I mean, I was with Devin Card. That was every girl’s fantasy back then. But later, I said no. I told you that I wanted you to stop. And you didn’t listen to me.”

Card said nothing. She could see him clenching his jaw shut as his face turned to stone. He knew she wasn’t lying. He might not recognize her, but he recognized himself in her description. He knew she was talking about him, not anybody else. That line about Nicole Kidman. How many times did you use that one, Devin? It wasn’t just with me. You said that to all the girls, didn’t you?

“I’m sure there were so many of us back then. That’s the problem, isn’t it? So many parties. So many conquests.” She put down the microphone and stepped closer and spoke under her breath. “Do you need a clue about when it was? Peter Stanhope fucked my sister in front of everybody that night. Don’t tell me you forgot that, Devin. That’s when it happened.”

She watched his mind working furiously.

Oh yes, he remembered that. She could see a new awakening in his eyes. He felt doubt. She was pushing buttons, reminding him of things he’d done, things he’d seen. Maybe it had really happened just the way she said.

Nicole Kidman. Peter and Denise.

Is any of it coming back now, Devin?

Card took a step away from her. She could see him breathing slowly in and out. She waited. Everyone waited. What would he say? He put the microphone to his mouth, then put it down. Impatience spread through the ballroom like a virus. He had to say something. Here she was, in front of him. She’d done what he asked her to do; she’d come forward, identified herself, and told her story. Not one word of it had changed.

You know I’m telling the truth, Devin.

But as Andrea waited in the silence, she saw someone out of the corner of her eye. Stride. Her ex-husband. The man she’d tried to love, the man she’d kept all of her secrets from, the man who’d cheated on her, the man she’d lost. He was on stage, walking toward her, beckoning her. The cameras hadn’t noticed him yet. Only she had. His presence distracted her, tore her away from her focus on Devin. She wanted Stride gone, wanted no one else to be part of this moment. She needed to hear what Devin would say. This was the moment she’d wanted for years.

Go away!

But he kept coming closer. Andrea’s gaze bounced away from Devin, over to Stride, and then back. Stride wanted to talk to her, but she couldn’t imagine why. Not now. Not in the middle of this. His expression was inscrutable, the way it always was, sharing nothing.

“Andrea,” he murmured.

Her whole body tensed. She needed him to leave. He was ruining everything. Devin was about to talk, but then he saw Stride, too, and he knew that something was wrong; something strange was happening. He put down the microphone, and Andrea wilted with dismay. She’d missed her chance. The moment was gone, and moments like that never came back.

She found herself unable to move. She stood where she was, waiting, feeling the tears come. Stride came closer and closer, until he was right next to her. His body close to her, still familiar after all this time. Everyone saw him; everyone had the same question about why he was there. She tried to summon her voice to tell him to go, to shout at him, but she knew, she knew, he had something to tell her.

Something that she didn’t want to hear.

He leaned in so close that no one else could hear him speak.

“Andrea, I’m sorry. You need to know this. We think Ned Baer was in Duluth that night thirty years ago. We think he was at the party where you were assaulted. I just wanted you to be aware of that. Because maybe... maybe somewhere in your mind, it means something to you.”

She heard the words he said, but she hardly heard them at all.

She blinked over and over.

“Ned Baer,” she murmured. And then again. “Ned Baer.”

That man. That man had come into her house seven years ago, with his questions, with his prying and prodding about her past. With things he knew, things no one else knew. She’d tried to stay calm, to deflect and deny, but the more she told him that she didn’t know what he was talking about, the more she fell to pieces and gave away the truth. He was going to expose her secret. Everything was going to come out.

And yet there was something more.

There had always been something more about him.

There was this smell about him that instinctively made her sick. The touch when he shook her hand made her skin crawl. Seeing him, hearing the raspy noise of his breath, made her want to run and hide. And as she fell apart, as she admitted to him without saying a word that this had all happened to her, there was the strangest vibe about him, something twitchy and aroused and afraid.

She knew what it was now.

It was the look she’d wanted to see from Devin Card. The look of truth. The admission of guilt.

Ned Baer remembered her.

“Oh, my God,” she said aloud, her hand flying to cover her mouth.

She didn’t have time to say anything more.

Behind her, the screaming began.