“You see, if you’re smart, you can learn something from our business relationship. Never, ever let a bitch get you in a vulnerable position.” Nash turned his attention forward. “You’ll get screwed every time.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Monte Sano State Park
Saturday, August 7; 9:00 a.m.
“Why did you bring me here?” CJ asked.
Braddock surveyed the rustic setting as they exited his SUV, then looked at his passenger. “I rented this cabin so we could talk without any distractions.”
The state park’s campgrounds and cabins were no more than half an hour from Huntsville proper, but there was nothing else this deep in the woods atop Monte Sano. He’d rented a cabin here a couple of times. Once just to get away for the weekend; the other time so that he and Cooper could escape to brainstorm on a particularly puzzling case.
Escape was the other reason Braddock had made the decision to come here. He had allowed his need for vengeance to override his logic twice now. Shelley Patterson was dead for that reason. Now CJ was going down that same path. Both had made that decision of their own accord. He’d gone along with Shelley out of sheer desperation. But he couldn’t let CJ do this. She had been gone from the life she and Shelley had shared as kids for too long. She’d lost the edge that growing up in the village had instilled.
He’d suspected she wasn’t going to wait for him. If she had left before he’d arrived at Abbott’s this morning ...
He couldn’t let that happen. So he’d shown up and basically demanded she come with him.
“Is this about yesterday’s meeting?” CJ asked as she followed him to the entrance of the cabin.
“It’s about the investigation in general.” He unlocked door and pushed it open.
She considered the open door before swinging a guarded gaze toward him. “You’re not changing my mind. In fact”—she hitched her purse strap higher up her shoulder—“the only thing you’re doing is wasting my time. I have plans for this morning—like talking to Juanita Lusk and ...otherswho might be able to provide information I need.”
He understood without question that Nash was among theothersshe mentioned. “I won’t wastemytime trying to change your mind about what you believe you need to do. What I am going to do,” he said, stepping across the threshold, then turning back to face her, “is make you an offer Nash won’t be able to refuse.”
Unconvinced, she stared at him a moment.
“Trust me, CJ.” He moved back to give her room to enter.
The stare-off lasted another few seconds. Then she brushed past him on her way inside.
He closed the door and moved around the cabin to open the shades, letting in the morning sun. The place was primitive, but it did offer a small basic kitchen and bath beyond the one main room. A bed, a couch, and a fireplace—not that they would be needing a fire. Noon was hours away and the temperature had already climbed into the low nineties. The altitude and the cloak of thick woods kept the cabin’s interior reasonably cool.
She tossed her bag onto the plaid couch and moved to a window with a view of the valley below. “I lived here most of my life and I never once had the luxury of staying in a place like this.”
He glanced around. “I wouldn’t exactly call it luxurious.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Your folks weren’t into weekend getaways with the kids, huh?” He braced one shoulder against the window frame and studied her profile. He loved looking at her. That delicate jawline and nose. The blond hair she usually kept up out of the way. There was a strength about her that amazed him.
“My folks were into drinking and partying.” She didn’t look at him, instead continued to stare out the window. “And God only knows what else. The village was all Shelley and I had. We talked about vacations in what we considered faraway places, like Florida or even Tennessee. But we never had a vacation. Not even once. The only getaway we enjoyed was the occasional sleepover at Widow Daniels’s house across the street.” She did glance at Braddock then. “She died last year.”
He could imagine the blond-haired sisters playing in the street. Skipping along the sidewalk, waiting for the ice cream truck to come around the neighborhood. From what Shelley had told him, that had been the highlight of their summers. “You never stayed with friends?”
She laughed. “The parents of the nice kids at school didn’t invite kids from the village to stay at their homes. The other kids in the village had it as bad as we did, so that wasn’t an option.” She turned away from the window. “Besides, I couldn’t risk staying away from home overnight unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“Why is that?”
“Because my mother might pass out with a cigarette in her hand. Or leave something cooking on the stove.” CJ plopped down on the sofa. “Or pass out in the bathtub.” She pulled out her cell phone, checked the screen. “The only time we stayed away from home was when my mother and father got into a major war, which made staying at home hazardous to our health, or after my father’s murder, when my mother brought in a drunk-ass slob who leered at us.”
“So you’d take your sister someplace safe.” What kind of childhood was that? There were people who didn’t deserve to be parents. CJ’s fell smack into that category.
“Like I said before, I have things to do. Can we get on with this?” She cleared her face of the emotions he’d watched play out as she spoke of her childhood. Gone was the vulnerable little girl she’d dared to allow to surface, and back was the hard-edged doctor who wasn’t taking any grief from anyone.
“I told you that Shelley wanted Nash to pay for what he’s gotten away with all these years. Besides the murders he’s suspected of being responsible for, he’s the major contributor to the prostitution and drug markets in Madison County. Basically he’s a lowlife scumbag who doesn’t deserve to live. But then, you know all that.”
