“We’re already wet.”
“I’m telling you, he must’ve doubled back. I don’t think he’s in here anymore.”
“Did you get a good look at him, at least?”
“Whoever it was wasn’t very big. I’m guessing it was a teenager.”
Joe pivoted in a circle. “I’ll give you a hundred to one it wasn’t a teenager.”
The protective instinct that had surprised Kennedy a few moments earlier rose inside him again. He didn’t understand why Grace affected him so deeply now that they were adults. He knew he wanted her to forgive him so he could forgive himself for how he’d treated her in the past. But he also wanted her to like him, which didn’t make sense.
Maybe it was the challenge, he decided. He’d always made friends easily, had never met with much resistance.
Or maybe he wanted to make a difference in someone else’s life, the way Raelynn had made a difference in his. Grace needed him. He felt compelled to be there for her this time, to do what he could to compensate for everything she’d suffered before.
“Why do you say that?” Kennedy asked and started out of the woods as though the argument was settled.
“I think it was Kirk Vantassel,” Joe answered, falling in step beside him.
Kirk was taller than Kennedy or Joe, and Kennedy had just said that the culprit was small. But he didn’t point that out. “Why Kirk?”
“Because it was Madeline Barker who broke in. We chased her down in the alley.”
The rain had soaked through Kennedy’s shirt, plastering the cotton fabric against him. He used his arm to subtly shift the book to his side, where he could better hide it. “Madeline’s a model citizen. Why would she break into Jed’s shop?”
“She’s convinced he killed her father. Told us she was searching for evidence.”
That made sense to Kennedy. Madeline was always coming up with possible scenarios to explain her father’s disappearance. She’d printed several in the paper. Maybe she’d uncovered a new lead.
Kennedy could easily imagine how eager she’d be to pursue it. She loved the Montgomerys, had been defending them for years. He could even see her recruiting Grace to help her tonight. Was the book some type of evidence, then?
“Did Madeline tell you Kirk was with her?” he asked, squinting up at the rain.
“She claims she was alone. But when Les told me you followed someone else through his yard, I knew she had help.”
Kennedy kept his eyes trained on the circle of Joe’s flashlight moving over the ground directly in front of them. He was tempted to look behind but wouldn’t let himself. Surely Grace would give him enough time to get rid of Joe before trying to head home. “Did you and the others turn her in?”
“No. She promised to pay for the damage she caused, so we let her go. She’s already been through a lot.”
They reached the edge of the meadow, where moonlight made it easier to see, especially in contrast to the darker woods.
“Losing her father was tough on her,” Kennedy agreed and, since the weather provided the perfect excuse to hurry, he started to jog. He wanted to get Joe out of the area as soon as possible, and he wanted to see what he’d found. The book pressed to his side seemed to have the soft leather cover and thickness of a Bible. But it couldn’t be, could it? As far as he knew, Grace wasn’t particularly religious. Neither was her family. A few years after the reverend went missing, the Montgomerys quit church altogether, giving the townspeople something else they could point to as proof that they were lost souls. And Kennedy highly doubted she’d take a Bible from Jed’s shop. Even if Jed had one there, why would anyone steal it?
“Having your uncle go missing was probably hard on the Montgomerys, too,” he said, to keep the conversation going.
“That’s bullshit,” Joe said, catching up to him. “If you ask me, Madeline needs to look a little closer to home if she wants answers. It’s like I said at your office—you should pressure McCormick to reopen the case. This wouldn’t have happened if the police were making any progress.”
Kennedy flung his wet hair out of his face. “You think we’d be doing Madeline any favors by going after her family—again?”
“The truth is the truth,” he responded between breaths as they ran. “She deserves the truth, no matter what it is.”
Kennedy knew Joe wasn’t pushing the issue for Madeline’s sake and almost volunteered that Grace had been with Madeline at Jed’s, helping her search for evidence. He was tired of Joe’s unrelenting prejudice. But he thought it was better not to mention Grace in connection with the break-in. McCormick might’ve let Madeline go. Everyone liked Madeline. Grace, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as popular in Stillwater as her stepsister. Kennedy suspected they’d lock her up for the same infraction.
“Do Irene, Clay and Grace deserve to suffer through another investigation?” he asked, because Joe had slowed and he didn’t want to lose his attention.
Joe was busy shining his light on the woods behind them. But at this question, he pivoted and started walking again. “Hell, yeah, if they’re as guilty as I think they are. Justice needs to be done.”
“Justice. And what if they’re not guilty? Where’s the justice in disrupting their lives?”
He shrugged. “Them’s the breaks, you know? It could happen to any of us.”
They crossed the railroad tracks. “Pretty easy for you to say,” Kennedy muttered. “Since nothing like that ever has.”
Joe pulled Kennedy to a stop. “Wait a second. I’m on the victim’s side. Something happened to my uncle,” he argued. “I think it’s damn time the police figured out what, don’t you?”
Jerking his arm free from Joe’s grasp, Kennedy sheltered his face with his other hand. “What’s really driving you on this, Joe? That’s the part I’m missing.”
“The truth, like I said. It should be important to you, too.” Rain dripped from the ends of Joe’s hair, which curved in toward his face. “Are you going to help me or not?”
Kennedy remembered Grace’s unequivocal rejection in the parking lot of the pizza parlor. He knew of only one thing that might make Joe vindictive enough to force an issue that could hurt Grace so badly. “You want to get with her again, don’t you. You want to get with her and she won’t give you the time of day.”