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Ash exhaled hard in exasperation. “I shouldn’t have to tell you how urgent this is, Van. With that podcast stirring up the public, we need to get ahead of the press on this, and the only way to do that is if you talk to me.”
“I understand.”
Ash held out the card again.
He waved it away. “I don’t need it. Give me an hour, and I’ll come in. I want to get this over with.
Ash studied him with narrowed eyes for several moments. Finally, he gave a curt nod. “One hour. Please don’t do anything stupid like skip town.”
Donovan breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m not going anywhere. I loved Darcy. It was a stupid, toxic, teenage kind of love, but she was my first everything, and I still care about her. I want to know what happened to her more than anyone.”
Ash’s expression softened. “I know you do. But, speaking as your friend and not the sheriff, I have to warn you that things are about to get ugly.”
“I know.”
“One hour, Van.”
“I’ll be there.” He watched Ash leave, his mind racing. Unlike Sheriff Jerry Tennison, Ash had to know he was innocent, so why did agreeing to the interview feel like a step toward the gallows?
Fuck.
He had to go to Sasha, tell her what was happening, and prepare her for the worst. And he should probably contact a lawyer. He never called one when he was interviewed as a dumb eighteen-year-old—a mistake he didn’t plan to make a second time.
He had a lot to do in only an hour.
Since Rose was still in her office, he stepped behind the bar himself to retrieve Sasha’s lunch. When he straightened from the fridge, he found himself face-to-face with a ghostly pale woman. She had huge dark eyes and hollow cheeks—a walking personification of the word haunted. He stumbled back a step in shock before his busted mind realized it wasn’t actually a ghost or another goddamn hallucination.
“Veronica.” Her name left him on a hard exhale of relief. “Jesus. Warn a guy before you go sneaking around.”
A bit of color returned to her cheeks. “Sorry.”
Veronica Martens was an agoraphobic mess of a human, but she had ventured out of her comfort zone to join Redwood Coast Rescue’s K9 unit, which he had to give her credit for. Given what she’d survived, it was brave of her even to try. But in the end, it proved to be too much, and she retreated back to her home, emerging only for their group therapy sessions. Really, it was amazing she’d set foot in the Mad Dog at all—even if it was only for therapy while the pub was closed.
“I thought you left.” He hadn’t seen her since Rose interrupted the session and assumed she’d crept out of the back to avoid all the drama.
“I was going to, but…” She hesitated and hunched in on herself.
“Are you okay?” He started to reach for her shoulder, remembering a half-second too late that it was the wrong move to make.
She flinched back. “Sorry. I should go.” Pulling up the hood of her sweatshirt, she nearly sprinted toward the door.
He hurried around the bar to catch her. “Vee, wait.”
To his surprise, she did stop. She drew a breath that shook her thin shoulders, then slowly turned back to him. “I should’ve mentioned something sooner, but I wasn’t sure it was my place. Before she died, Chrissy told me something about—” She broke off and glanced nervously around. She reminded him of a rabbit, constantly searching for threats, ready to run at the first hint of one.
He shook his head, not understanding where she was going with this. “Hang on, you mean Chrissy Jimenez? Our Chrissy from group.”
“Yes. She was the closest thing I had to a friend.” Veronica bit down on her trembling lower lip, then drew another deep, fortifying breath. “Right before she died, she was… you know, working the steps. She was trying so hard to get clean, and she was on number nine—making amends to people she’d wronged. One of those people, she said, was you.”
“But she never wronged me.”
“She said you didn’t know about it.” Her gaze lifted briefly to the blank television, and suddenly, he understood.
He sank down onto one of the bar stools, stunned. “Chrissy was at the party on Hidden Beach.”
Veronica nodded.
“Holy shit.” He hadn’t known Chrissy back then. She’d been new in town, having transferred to Redwood Coast High School just the month before. He didn’t meet her until much later, after they’d both returned home broken from their military experiences. “She knew something about what happened to Darcy. That’s why she thought she had to make amends.”
