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“So any ideas on why she didn’t this time?”
Dak shook his head. “I’ve been letting that rattle around in my head ever since I got that call. The thing is, she doesn’t usually come up this time of year. There’s not that much to do. Sometimes she’d go sailing right off the coast. And she liked deep-sea fishing. But you don’t do that now. Or she’d just walk or bike around, go for hikes. Again, that stuff is better left to the summers or fall. And Jennywashere during the summer. We met up a few times, talked about Dad and the old days. She seemed really good.”
“She didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary, any unfinished business up here?”
“Unfinished business? Like what?”
“I don’t know. It’s why I’m asking.”
“No, nothing like that. She seemed, well, like the old Jenny.”
“What about Alex? Where was she when Jenny died?”
Devine had forgotten to ask the woman, but he could do so later and compare it to what Dak told him.
“At that time of night she’d have been at the house asleep.”
“So you two didn’t talk about that?”
“If you want the truth, Alex and I don’t really talk all that much.”
“What happened to her?”
Dak shot him a troubled look. “What do you mean?”
“I was told that she was assaulted many years ago. And the person who did it got away. But that it changed her.”
“Who did you hear that from?”
“Is it not true?”
Dak finished off his drink. “Yes, it’s true. But she wasn’t just assaulted. She wasraped, beaten, and left for dead.”
Devine flinched. Harvey Watkins hadn’t told him Alex had beenraped. But maybe he didn’t know. Watkins had said it had all been hushed up.
“Alex couldn’t ID her attacker?”
“No, she couldn’t for some reason. I was never clear on why.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I was pulling a deployment in Germany. With the different time zones it was hard to keep up with life back here. I heard snatches of what happened. I tried to get leave to come home, but apparently your sister getting raped wasn’t a big enough deal for the Army to allow that. When I finally got back no one was talking about it. Everybody was actually walking around on eggshells.”
“But she was different?”
“Yeah, she sure as hell was. If I ever catch the son of a bitch that did it—”
“So no leads or anything?”
“Apparently not. The cops concluded it was some stranger.”
Devine decided to shift gears. “Do you know Annie Palmer?”
Dak looked at him suspiciously. “Why do you ask?”
“Just trying to understand as much as I can about this place and its dynamics.”
“I know her. In fact, we dated off and on a few years ago.”
