The Drowning Child

20

Ren picked up her purse from the passenger well of the car, and started searching through it for gum.

Fuckity fuck. This is a development I could do without.

‘I thought,’ said Ren, pulling out a packet of gum, offering him one without looking, ‘that you and Marianne were still—’

‘Cinnamon?’ said Paul. ‘No thanks.’

Ren popped a piece of gum in her mouth. ‘How can you not love that burn?’

‘You left last night,’ said Paul. ‘We were cut short earlier... when I was trying to tell you.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Ren. ‘How are you doing?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s the right thing.’

As it was the last time.

‘It’s a complex situation. I—’

I don’t want to hear your depressing shit. I’ve got my own depressing shit. And people are dead in mine. ‘Sorry,’ said Ren, ‘I just remembered I have to call someone before now.’

I can’t believe I just said that. Jesus.

And now you have to make the call in front of him. Think quickly, bitch.

As she scrolled through her Contacts, they arrived at Clyde Brimmer’s house.

Ren looked up at it. ‘It looks like it was blown here by a tornado. I have a feeling it will be rancid.’

‘I see your feeling and raise it.’ He got out of the car, leaned into her. ‘Let me do the recce. Sit tight.’

Ren watched as he went up to the door and knocked on it. He turned around to her with a face of faux terror. She laughed.

Clyde Brimmer appeared at the door, barefoot and bleary-eyed.

Ren’s phone beeped with a text. She looked down.

Joe Lucchesi.

Something shifted in her chest.

Oh, no: do not like this man either. You can’t handle damage.

You fucking are damage.

Joe was the ex-NYPD homicide detective who came to Denver to work the Duke Rawlins investigation alongside her. Ren opened his text.

Hey there...

Don’t ‘Hey there’ me. It’s adorable. Even without a comma. Men are crap at punctuation.

She read on.

… i hope life is treating you well.

Capitalize your fucking i’s!

… x

Her heart surged.

From one fucking ‘x’. How old am I?

She thought of the first time she saw Joe, when she was waiting to pick him up at Denver airport. He walked through Arrivals, handsome, muscular, holding his beautiful sleeping daughter in his arms. She felt an instant attraction that vanished because they clashed, but returned when he apologized, and remained, despite him telling her she reminded him of his late wife.

She remembered the night they had slept in the same bed, and how she had run from it the next morning, because she was with Ben.

Joe Lucchesi... another man of mine wrapped up in guilt.

And more...

Her stomach tightened at the thought; the other memories, the horrifying ones: she and Joe had been the only two there at the harrowing peak of the investigation, when Duke Rawlins announced that he was the father of Grace, that beautiful sleeping daughter: eight years earlier, Duke Rawlins had drugged and raped Joe’s wife, and she had died in childbirth.

Stop.

She thought of replying to the text.

To say what? We’ve seen too much. We are forever altered.

She thought of Joe’s face, his eyes, his strength.

He is so sexy. He is kind. He is a wonderful father.

She thought of his pain, his anger, his tears.

He is... wildly damaged.

Run.

Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuun.

Run.

Two for one!

She glanced up at the house. Clyde Brimmer was taking a while to process whatever Paul was saying to him.

Are you kidding me, though? Ben. Joe. Paul.

Emotional.

Overload.

Paul turned back to Ren, gave her a thumbs-halfway-up before he disappeared through the front door.

The place half-stinks?

Ren went into the house.

The place half-stinks.

Paul was alone in the living room. He raised his eyebrows when she walked in. ‘Well?’

‘Good call,’ said Ren. ‘I can just about handle this.’ She looked around. ‘So many questionable surfaces...’

‘Sit beside me,’ said Paul, smoothing out the sofa cushion.

Clyde came back in. ‘I feel like I should offer you some coffee.’

Feel away. ‘There’s no need,’ said Ren. We’re happy with our current gut flora. She stood up. ‘Sorry, Clyde – I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Ren Bryce, I’m on the CARD team with Paul.’

Clyde sat down on an armchair, nodded without looking up. ‘You’re a beautiful lady.’

Ren laughed. ‘Thank you.’ Blind drunk already.

‘We wanted to talk to you about why you came to the press conference,’ said Ren, ‘and what you were saying about the lake, your concerns about Caleb.’

Clyde’s eyes went wide, but his gaze stayed on the floor. He was kneading something between his thumb and forefinger. He held up an opaque white stone.

Ooh – moonstone. ‘That’s beautiful,’ said Ren.

He held it out to her.

Cooties!

She took it in her hand. ‘It’s really beautiful.’ Hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer.

He beamed. She handed it back to him. ‘Thank you. Did you get that in Gemstones in town?’

Are you connected to Teddy Veir?

Clyde shook his head. ‘No, no...’ He kept shaking his head.

‘Where did you get it?’ said Ren.

He shrugged. ‘Been such a long time, I can’t remember.’

Ren nodded. ‘So,’ she said. ‘The lake... what can you tell me?’

There was a haunted look in his eye. ‘Aaron was a strong swimmer.’

Aaron? She and Paul exchanged glances.

‘He’d lived by that lake for seven years,’ said Clyde. ‘I was so shocked...’ He trailed off.

‘That he drowned?’ said Paul.

Ren could see Clyde’s hand shaking. His foot started to tap the floor.

‘Clyde,’ said Ren. ‘You can trust us. I promise. What is it?’

‘The lake...’

Ren leaned into him. ‘Are you... afraid of the lake?’

He thought about it, brought his gaze a little higher, his eyes pale, watery, flickering with questions.

‘I’m afraid of Gil Wiley.’

The what now? ‘Wiley?’ said Ren.

‘Wiley...’ said Clyde, ‘is going to kill me.’

‘Why do you think that?’ said Ren.

‘Cos I drive him crazy – that’s why. That’s why I’m always trying to get past him to Pete. But Wiley stands in my way the whole time.’

Always? How many times do you come forward with shit?

‘He’s a dismissive man,’ said Clyde. ‘Very dismissive.’

‘What do you feel he’s dismissing?’ said Paul.

‘What I’ve been trying to tell him,’ said Clyde. ‘About Aaron Fuller.’

He lowered his head, then brought his wide, fearful eyes for the first time to meet Ren’s. ‘I don’t think it was an accident,’ said Clyde. ‘Or maybe it was. I don’t know.’ He shrugged. ‘But something else definitely happened to Aaron. I think... maybe he had been hurt before he went into the water.’