“But he didn’t.”
“He did—I think.” She takes another deep breath. “Joe came to me and said Craig wasn’t where I indicated.”
“Wait, Ollie said something about looking for the deer.”
She shakes her head. “I wasn’t completely honest. I didn’t want them to find Craig.”
“But he was found.”
“He was, about a half mile downhill. The swales fill fast. It seems that from where I left him, he washed downstream.” She wrings her hands. “Joe knew—he knows. Everything.”
“About how Craig died?”
“Abouteverything.” She exaggerates the word. “Joe was on the search-and-screen committee with me and others. He knew that we shouldn’t have hired Craig. Joe knew we made a mistake. He knew about Theodore’s daughter, about you, and why both of you left town. He probably knew about others—at least rumors.”
Theodore’s daughter?
Sydney?
“You weren’t the first.”My sister was referring to Sydney Morton.
“You’re special.” Keith said I was the only one to have a child.
“Mom, did Sydney Morton...? Was she pregnant?”
“No, at least not that I know of.”
Sighing, I lean against the kitchen counter as my mind tries to make sense of this revelation, how Craig died and verification of what Keith said. “So, the committeewasinformed about Craig’s past transgressions before he was hired?”
“Yes.”
“Keith knew. He’s the one who sent you the police report.”
She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. You hired him anyway. And it shows that Keith?—”
“That he what?” she interrupted. “That he had a vendetta against his brother. Do you think that will help his case?”
My stomach twists as bile threatens to move upward.
Mom steps backward and crumples, falling to her knees. “I’m so sorry, Jillian. I’ve lived with the regret of bringing him to Blue Gil since he arrived, since you left and were forced to make terribly difficult decisions...” She looks up at me. “Don’t you see? The opportunity to right a horrible wrong presented itself, and I took it. It was a split-second decision that created more death and destruction. I thought, in that millisecond, that if he were gone...” She’s weeping as she speaks, her words punctuated by gasps for air. “I’m sorry. Craig’s death… brought Keith to Blue Gil. Everything… everything is my fault. I wanted... to stop his hire. I didn’t. How many others would suffer?”
“Sheriff Manes?”
Her words are barely audible. “He was the one who talked me into agreeing to the hire. When Craig informed us that he was marrying Serena, Joe thought Craig changed his ways and would be good for Blue Gil. Joe wasn’t the only one. They thought he was our best prospect—a Big Ten football star willing to coach at our little school.” She gasps for breath. “Joe was the one who came to me, persuaded me.”
I consider telling her what I learned, that Craig didn’t die from his injuries but from drowning in the ditch, but as I stare at my mother, I can’t. I’m not sure if the information will help or hurt her. She—like so many of us—has suffered enough.
I reach for my mom’s hand and help her stand. For a moment, we embrace.
It’s as I pull back that I say, “I’m going to the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek Airport today and finding an earlier flight. Echo wants me back.”
The tears have subsided, yet my mother’s breathing is erratic. She reaches for a paper towel and wipes her eyes and nose. “You’re not going to tell anyone?”
I shake my head. “Someone once told me that sometimes the answers are right in front of us, but we don’t want to see them.”
Mom reaches out and pulls me into another hug. “I’m so sorry, for everything.” Her words hit the sensitive skin of my neck in warm puffs.
