Brian Freeman - Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7)

‘Okay, somebody sold it to me. I gave them fifty bucks. And then I sold it to the accountant for two hundred. That’s commerce. Nothing wrong with that. Although now I wish I’d asked for a lot more.’

‘Who sold it to you?’ Maggie asked.

‘Just somebody I know.’

‘Who?’

Curt winced. His wet hair was shiny. ‘Look, are you sure you guys want me to tell you? Because I don’t think Stride’s going to be too happy about this. You neither, Serena. If I tell you, don’t blame me, okay?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Serena asked.

‘The girl who sold it to me,’ Curt said, ‘it was your girl. Cat. She’s the one who had the ring.’

He repeated her name, and it echoed.

Cat Cat Cat Cat Cat .

‘I’ll talk to her,’ Stride said.

He studied the closed door to Cat’s bedroom at the front of the cottage. He was seated in his red leather chair near the fireplace, and Serena stood against one of the dark wood columns that framed the nook where the fireplace was located. They could hear music through Cat’s door.

‘Do you want me to do it?’ Serena asked.

Stride stood up. ‘No, I want to deal with this myself.’

At Cat’s door, he knocked and heard her young voice answer from inside. He opened the door. Cat’s bedroom was small, with chambered windows facing the street, and two twin beds on the left and right. Cat was stretched out on her back on one of the beds, working on a book of Super-Advanced Brain-Tingling Sudoku Puzzles . She always did them in pen.

It was a reminder to him. This girl was smart. She had a gift, if she ever wanted to use it.

‘Hey, Stride!’ she said happily.

Cat rolled off the bed and gave him a hug. She did that most nights when she saw him. He felt bad that he wondered sometimes about her sincerity. He didn’t doubt that Cat loved him and Serena, but love was a complex thing for a girl like Cat, who’d been caught up in years of guilt, shame, and fear. He didn’t know if she could love anyone without trying to manipulate them.

Cat sat down on the end of her bed. She switched off the music. ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

Because she knew something was up. She could read his face. And he saw in her nervous brown eyes the uncertainty of a teenager who was keeping lots of secrets and wondering which one he’d uncovered.

Stride sat on the other bed. ‘I was thinking about your mother today,’ he told her. ‘I cared about Michaela a lot.’

‘I know you did.’

‘There’s not a day where I don’t feel regret about what happened to her.’

Cat hooded her eyes. ‘Me, too.’

‘Michaela told you to find me if you were ever in trouble,’ Stride said, ‘and you did. I’m glad you did, Cat. I didn’t always believe that things happen for a reason, but more and more, as the years go by, I do. Even when the worst things happen. I find myself realizing that the turns of life take us where we’re supposed to go.’

Cat was silent. She didn’t understand what he was saying, and when she didn’t understand, she got scared.

‘Do you like it here with us?’ he asked her. ‘Do you feel safe here?’

She nodded urgently. ‘Of course. You know I do.’

‘Then what’s going on with you, Cat?’ Stride asked quietly. ‘I need to be able to trust you, and I can’t. Neither can Serena. All summer, you’ve kept crazy hours, not telling us where you are. You’re hanging out with people you shouldn’t. You’re making bad choices. Why? We gave you a second chance, Cat. I gave you a second chance.’

‘I know you did, but I don’t deserve it. I’m not worth anything.’

He watched her eyes welling with tears, and he put up his hand. ‘Stop that. Listen to me. I don’t want to hear you talk like that. I don’t hold your past against you, and I never will. Who you were the day before you came here doesn’t matter to me, but what you do right now does matter.’

‘I told you, I’m not worth it!’

‘Well, I’m here to tell you that you are worth it,’ Stride said, ‘but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences, or that you get a free ride. You’re going to have to figure out a way to put the past behind you. You’re going to have to decide that your life — and your son’s life — mean something. And you’re going to have to look in my eyes and realize that I’m not going anywhere. Other people have turned their backs on you. Not me. And not Serena.’

He watched her. Her head was bowed, and she wouldn’t look at him. Maybe one day she’d be able to stare into his eyes and be her own person, but she wasn’t there yet. He exhaled in disappointment.

‘Serena talked to Curt Dickes tonight,’ he went on. ‘You know what he told her, don’t you?’

Cat chewed her lower lip. ‘Curt bought some things from me when I needed money. It was just a couple times.’

If Cat said it was a couple times, he knew it was many times. And that meant she’d been stealing.

‘What do you need money for?’ he asked.

‘Just day-to-day stuff. Buses. Music. Jewelry sometimes. I like jewelry.’

‘If you need money, you can come to us,’ he said.

‘I know, but I don’t like to do that.’

‘Are you buying drugs?’

‘ No . How can you ask me that?’

‘Because you’ve been lying to me, and I don’t trust you.’

‘I’m not using drugs. I’m not.’

Stride tried to stay patient. He couldn’t deal with all of this now. There was only one thing that mattered. ‘Okay, listen to me. You sold a black pearl ring to Curt a couple months ago. Where did you get it?’

‘I don’t remember.’

Which was a lie. Her face was flushed, and she couldn’t look at him.

‘Was it just the ring, Cat? Or was there other jewelry? I can describe all of it to you. Matching black pearl necklace and earrings. A diamond-and-sapphire bracelet. A hummingbird pin. An emerald brooch. Does that sound familiar?’

‘I only had the ring,’ she insisted. ‘How did you find out about it?’

‘Because that ring is connected to a gun, Cat. The gun and all the jewelry I talked about disappeared during a murder nine years ago. Now we’ve found the gun again. It was used in another murder last month.’

Cat’s eyes widened. ‘You mean at the bar — when Serena—’

‘That’s right.’

‘No! That can’t be. That’s impossible.’ She wrung her hands together and looked close to panic.

‘That gun showed up outside the Grizzly Bear Bar, Cat. Now some of the jewelry that went missing along with the gun can be traced to you. You . Do you realize the situation that puts you in?’ He got up and sat down next to her on the other bed. ‘Do you know anything about this gun? Or about the man who used it?’

She shook her head over and over. ‘No! I don’t know anything about a gun! Nothing!’

‘Then where did you get the ring?’

Cat looked dazed. And then she looked angry. ‘Talk to Al.’

‘Al?’

‘He’s my boyfriend. At least he was. He cheated on me. The ring came from his house.’

‘Did he give it to you?’ Stride asked.

‘No, I–I took it.’

‘You stole it? Why?’

‘I told you, I wanted money. And I like jewelry. You remember I always used to carry my father’s ring with me, right? I did that for years, but then I had to give it back. So I wanted — I wanted another ring to have. And I took it. Except I realized I couldn’t wear it, not with Al around. So I sold it to Curt so I could buy something else.’

‘Oh, Cat,’ Stride murmured. He was disappointed, and she knew it.

‘I’m sorry!’

He put his hands gently on the girl’s shoulders. ‘Are you telling me the truth? Because you know what happens next, don’t you? I get a search warrant tomorrow, and we tear Al’s house apart from top to bottom.’