Darrell leaned forward in his chair. “What was it?”
“According to one of the women on our side, Ruby did have something bad happen to her at the mine. This was well before the lawsuit was filed. Probably five or six years ago. My witness insists she saw a mine worker expose himself to Ruby and try to get her to give him a hand job. He was new to the job. An out-of-towner. What makes it interesting is that the mine fired him the next day. He left town and never came back.”
“But your witness doesn’t know who he was?”
“No. She doesn’t remember his name. I asked Ruby about the incident in her deposition, and she told me that nothing like that had ever happened. I couldn’t find a single worker who would back up the story, either. The really strange thing is, it’s like this guy never existed. I went through the mine’s employment records, trying to find anyone who was hired and fired within a short period of time. No luck. They must have scrubbed their records.”
“What does that have to do with Ajax?” I asked.
“That I could establish in court? Not a thing. I couldn’t tie him to this at all.” Norm shook his head. “But in the dozens of harassment incidents we’ve documented against the women at the mine, this is the only time that the mine ever took action against one of the men. Someone made a move on Ruby, and they immediately shut it down and got rid of him. Now if this had happened later, after the lawsuit got filed, I could see them wanting to protect her, because she was on their side. But back then? It doesn’t make sense. Why help Ruby and ignore what was happening to the others? The only answer I could come up with is that Ajax got involved. Either alone or by getting his uncle to intervene as the sheriff. That was speculation on my part, but that’s what my gut tells me. And I trust my gut.”
“Did you talk to Ajax and Jerry?” Darrell asked.
“I did, and they both denied it,” Norm replied. “But I don’t think my witness made it up, and I don’t think she got it wrong. So if everyone’s lying about it, that means they have something big they’re trying to hide.”
Darrell kept talking to Norm, but I had to take a bathroom break.
When I was done, I went outside for a smoke. I’d been trying to quit while I was pregnant, but that morning, I really needed a cigarette. I was uncomfortable, I was sleep-deprived, and I was unsettled by the return of the Ursulina. For the first time in months, I found myself listening to the forest again for the hufffffff of the beast.
It was a cold October morning. My boots crunched through frost on the grass. I had no hope of zipping my coat over my stomach, so when the wind whistled at me, I shivered. The gray sky had a winter look about it, as if the sun would never shine again. To tell you the truth, sweetheart, I was thinking about running away. I was tempted to get in my car right then and there and go somewhere else and never come back. Maybe that’s what I should have done. But wherever I went, I knew the monster would find me eventually.
I’ve known that since I was ten years old.
“Hi, Rebecca.”
The voice behind me made me jump. I turned around and saw Will, seemingly not cold at all in a short-sleeved T-shirt and khakis. “Oh. Hi.”
“Are you okay?”
I shrugged as I took a drag on my cigarette. “Sure.”
“When’s the baby due?”
“End of the month,” I said. “But she feels like she’s coming early.”
“She? Is it a girl?”
“I don’t actually know that, but yeah, I think it’s a girl.”
“You got another cigarette?” Will asked me.
“Will your dad kill me if I give you one?”
“Probably.”
I gave him one anyway, and the two of us stood there smoking. We were alone in the big yard, surrounded by soaring evergreens. Will seemed the same as he’d been, charming and strong, but he wasn’t the same at all, not really. He’d discovered that the world can be cruel, and once you discover that, you can’t look at life the same way again. You carry that anxiety with you forever.
“I heard you guys talking,” he said. “I heard about what happened to Ajax.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t like him. It sucks that he’s dead, but I didn’t like him.”
“Join the club,” I replied.
“Do you think the same person killed both of them? Ajax and Gordon Brink?”
“I don’t know.”
“I mean, you and me, we both know Jay didn’t kill him. My dad made me shut up about it, but the sheriff blaming Jay was bullshit.”
I’d never heard Will swear before. “Yes, I know. Jay didn’t kill his dad.”
The boy was quiet for a while. He blew smoke in the air, and the cloud vanished toward the trees. “Hey, Rebecca? I need to ask. Are we okay? You and me?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been different with me all year. Is it the gay thing?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Then what is it?”
I shrugged. “I blame myself for what happened.”
“That’s crazy. Jay killing himself wasn’t your fault. Neither was what happened to me.”
“I appreciate you saying that, Will, but I feel responsible.”
“Why? I came to you. I told you what was going on. That’s what started everything. If anybody should feel guilty, it’s me. I tried to rescue Jay, and instead I got him killed.”
“You did not do that.”
Will brushed away a tear. “Yeah. I guess. All I can do is live with it, right? But I’m glad you and me are okay. I’ve been worried about that.”
“We’re fine.”
“Thanks for the smoke.”
“Sure.”
Will turned away, but then he stopped. He looked at the cigarette in his hand as if it had reminded him of something. “Listen, I should probably tell you this. I mean, it may be nothing at all. When the sheriff blamed Jay for Gordon’s death, I figured it didn’t matter anymore. But now — with Ajax dead, too—”
I tensed. “What is it?”
“Well, it was a dumb thing. Jay and I were having a smoke one day here in the yard. I had a book of matches from the 126, and I used it to light his cigarette. When he saw the matches, he took the book from me. Then he shook his head and said that was really strange.”
“I don’t understand. What was strange?”
“Jay used to collect matchbooks when he was a kid. His dad would pick them up for him on his business trips. He had ones from all across the country. For a while, he had mason jars filled with them.”
“Okay.” I was still puzzled.
“The thing is, Jay was sure that he’d had a matchbook from the 126 in his collection. He recognized the design. The only way he could have gotten it was if Gordon had brought it back from a trip. So Jay thought Gordon had been lying about never being in town before last fall. Like it wasn’t the first time he’d been to Black Wolf County.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
When we were back at the sheriff’s office, Darrell and I searched Ajax’s desk.
The contents were what you’d expect. Underneath the files of active cases in his drawer, he had copies of Penthouse and Hustler, many with dog-eared pages so he could find the photos he liked the most. He kept a flask-sized bottle of vodka, plus a carton of cigarettes, a tin of breath mints, and a strip of condoms. We found a pocket calendar, but most of the entries were blank, so we weren’t able to determine if he’d planned to meet someone while Ruby was gone for the weekend. There was also nothing in the calendar to tell us if he’d been seeing a woman other than his wife.