Spilled Blood

8

Chris found Tanya on a side-street twelve blocks from the school. She sat on the top step of a box-like yellow house, with her fleshy forearms wrapped around her knees and iPod earphones shoved in her ears. When she saw his car stop, she scrambled to her feet with her red curls bouncing, and he was afraid she would run. He got out quickly and held up his hands.

‘Tanya, it’s okay. I want to help.’

The girl regarded him suspiciously. She unplugged the headphones and shoved them in her pocket.

‘I’m Olivia’s father,’ he added.

‘I know who you are.’

Chris studied the street in both directions. They were alone. The mature trees hung their bare branches over the neighborhood. It was a gray day. ‘Ms. Valma was concerned about you,’ he said. ‘Johan told us what happened.’

‘He shouldn’t have done that.’

‘You’re lucky he was around,’ Chris said.

‘Yeah. I know. I just don’t want to make this into a big thing.’

‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’

‘I’m fine.’

He walked up the sidewalk to join her. The house where Tanya sat was old and small, a relic from the 1950s. The curtains on the windows were drawn, the driveway empty. ‘Do you live here?’ he asked her.

‘No.’

‘Whose house is it?’

‘I don’t know. I was tired of running.’

Chris gestured at the steps. ‘Mind if I sit down?’

‘Whatever.’

He sat three steps below her and rubbed his jaw, which moved stiffly as if he were the Tin Man in need of an oil can. Even without rain, the painted step felt damp. The porch smelled of wood rot and of the cloud of Tanya’s sugar-sweet perfume. He smiled at her, and they sat in silence. She was a pretty girl, with a fresh, pink face. Her voice had a sweet lilt, but she spoke softly. She was like a timid cat. He imagined her with Olivia, and the contrast was striking. His daughter was outspoken; Tanya was a wallflower.

He thought about what he knew of this girl. Like Olivia, she’d lost a parent to divorce and a friend to cancer. She’d been rejected by her friends in Barron. Now she was the center of attention from police and attorneys in a murder investigation, and she’d been pulled into the violence between the towns. It looked like the last place she wanted to be.

‘So what’s up with Kirk Watson?’ he asked her.

Tanya’s face scrunched into a scowl. ‘He’s a beast.’

‘What did Kirk want with you?’

‘I don’t know. I guess he blames me for what happened to Ashlynn.’ She added under her breath, ‘It’s partly my fault. I left her there.’

‘What does Ashlynn’s death have to do with Kirk?’

Tanya rolled her eyes. ‘It’s the feud. It makes him feel important. He’s always bragging about rescuing Barron from the people of St. Croix. It’s like he thinks he’s a general trying to win a war.’

‘Is that how the other kids in Barron feel?’ he asked.

‘Mostly they’re just afraid of him. He messes with the girls. He always has money, and nobody knows where he gets it. It’s like he’s got the whole town under his thumb.’

‘What about Ashlynn?’ Chris asked. ‘Did Kirk mess with her?’

‘They dated for a while.’

‘From what I’ve heard about Ashlynn, Kirk Watson doesn’t seem like her type.’

Tanya shrugged. ‘Kirk’s a jerk, but he’s pretty hot. Girls want to be with him, no matter what he does. Ashlynn dumped him, though. I don’t know, maybe he hit her or something.’

‘But now he’s trying to be an avenging angel when she’s dead?’

‘She was a Barron girl. She was Florian Steele’s daughter.’ Tanya added, ‘I’m really sorry about Livvy, you know. I feel like I betrayed her by talking to the police.’

‘She doesn’t blame you.’

‘Yeah, well, we were both stupid. I can’t believe what happened.’

Chris tried to read her eyes. He saw a scared teenager, in over her head. She wasn’t a compelling suspect to dangle in front of a jury. No one was likely to believe that she was a murderer. Even if she was.

‘What did happen that night?’ he asked.

Tanya blinked, as if she’d remembered who he was. ‘I don’t know if I should be talking to you.’

‘That’s okay. If you want, I’ll drive you home right now, and you don’t have to say a word. I’m just trying to help Olivia.’ He waited a beat and then added, ‘She says she didn’t do this, Tanya. She didn’t shoot Ashlynn.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘Do you believe her?’

‘I don’t know. Livvy was crazy that night. She had the gun, she was screaming at Ashlynn. That’s why I got the hell out of there. I called her later and she said nothing happened, but then I found out that Ashlynn was dead. I mean, who else could have done it, right?’

‘You called Olivia? When?’

‘It was an hour or so after I got home. I couldn’t sleep. I was watching TV in the living room, but I kept thinking about Ashlynn. So I called Livvy to make sure everything was okay.’

‘Did you tell the police?’

Tanya’s eyes fluttered, as if she’d made a mistake. ‘I – I don’t think I did.’

‘It’s okay. Tell me about the call.’

‘I called Livvy’s cell. She answered right away.’

‘Did she say where she was?’

‘She said she was home. I asked if Ashlynn was okay, and she said yeah, she was fine. She told me she sobered up and dropped the gun and left Ashlynn there.’

That was exactly what Olivia had told him, too. An hour after the crime, and four days after the crime, she was telling the same story. That was a good thing.

‘How did Olivia sound?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, she was pretty down. Like she’d been crying.’

‘Just to be clear, Olivia specifically told you that Ashlynn was fine.’

‘Yeah, that’s what she said.’

‘What else did you two talk about?’

‘I said, should we call somebody? You know, Ashlynn was stranded, shouldn’t we do something about it. I was pretty upset.’

‘Okay.’

‘Olivia said no. I figured she wanted to teach Ashlynn a lesson.’

‘Then what?’

‘That was it. I hung up. I went to bed, but I woke up around five o’clock, and I kept thinking about Ashlynn out there by herself. I felt really guilty that we didn’t help her. She didn’t deserve that. So I woke up my dad and told him the whole story, and he called the police.’

Chris was nervous about his next question; he didn’t want to inflame the girl’s suspicions. ‘Did you think about going back there yourself? I mean, after you hung up with Olivia. Did you think about driving back there and helping Ashlynn?’

‘Yeah, sure,’ Tanya admitted.

He watched her face. ‘But you didn’t?’

‘No. I should have, but I didn’t want to be out there by myself.’

If she was lying, she was good at it. She met his eyes dead on, as if she were daring him not to believe her.

‘I really appreciate your help, Tanya,’ he told her. ‘Do you want me to drive you back to school?’

Tanya shook her head. ‘I want to see my dad.’

‘Does he have an office downtown?’

She nodded.

‘I’ll drive you down there.’ Chris pushed himself off the wet step, and as he headed down the sidewalk toward his car, Tanya caught up with him. She stopped him with a hand on his arm.

‘Mr. Hawk? I didn’t tell anyone about this, and I don’t know if you want to hear it or not.’

‘What is it?’

‘Well, there was something else going on between Ashlynn and Olivia.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know exactly what it was,’ Tanya said, shaking her head. ‘Olivia keeps a lot of stuff to herself, you know? I’d get upset with her sometimes, because she was keeping secrets from me. But this thing with Ashlynn, it wasn’t just about Mondamin. I could tell. It was something personal.’