“Can you be so certain she wasn’t pushed? By one of those guys?” she said, less strident in her approach now.
He looked away, avoiding her eyes. “They didn’t do it. They wouldn’t.”
“Did you or anyone actually see her slip and fall into the river?”
He shook his head.
“What about Porter Bates?”
“What about him?”
“Those guys wanted to teach him a lesson all those years ago, too. Didn’t they? They delivered to Porter Bates the ultimate justice. Death. Are you so certain they didn’t do the same to Jasmine? To save Shelley? To save your marriage?” She paused. “To teach Jasmine a lesson?”
“Jeezus, no, they were just spooking her. She offended them.Sheattacked them in the pub. I simply made a mistake. I don’t know anything about what happened to Porter Bates, okay?”
Angie weighed him, wondering how much he really did know.
“Angie,” he said quietly, using her first name now, “please, listen to me. Please just let sleeping dogs lie. What good can it do to rake all this up now? What good can it do for Shelley? What good can it do my daughter to know that I was unfaithful to her mother, that I slept with a client? Jasmine Gulati slipped and fell, that’s all. Please to God, just leave it where it lies.”
“And if she didn’t slip?”
His eyes gleamed with emotion. His nose reddened. His voice dropped in tone and turned husky. “It would break my family, Angie. Do you need to break up my family in order to make Jasmine Gulati’s old grandmother happy?”
“It’s not about happiness, Garrison. It’s about the truth. It’s about the law, just retribution.”
“Is it? Really? Even if everyone has already paid?”
“What happened to her journal?”
He blinked and looked confused. “What?”
“Jasmine kept a diary. Every evening on the trip she wrote in it, claiming it was some titillating exposé. What happened to that journal? Did you take it from her things after she went over the falls?”
“No, I did not. I ... it must have gone to her family, with her other things.”
“But it didn’t.”
“I don’t know what happened to it. I didn’t know it had gone missing.”
“I’ve been told Jasmine teased you and Jessie with the fact her journal contained salacious material. Were you worried at any point it might contain details of her sex with you that night?”
“Of course I worried. But no one said anything after she disappeared. It all died down.”
Conveniently.
The lodge door swung open wide with a crash. Both Angie and Garrison jerked round in surprise. Shelley exited the door bearing a tray with two steaming mugs. She set the tray down on a small table beside the bent willow bench. She clicked on the outside light. Angie realized how gloomy it was getting already. That clock in her chest ticked faster. She had to get off this mountain before nightfall. She didn’t feel safe out here. She should try to check in with Holgersen again.
“Shelley?” Garrison said, looking worried. “Is everything okay?”
Her gaze darted between her husband and Angie, her pale, thin hands fidgeting. “I ... I thought you guys might be cold out here.” Hurriedly she picked up a mug and offered it to Angie. “Hot chocolate,” she said.
Angie accepted it gratefully. She was frozen and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. But the look on Shelley’s face gave her pause.
Shelley said, “Uh, Garrison, why ... why don’t you take yours inside? I’d like a word with Angie,” she said. “Alone.”
He didn’t move.
“Please, Garrison.”
