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“Yeah, I do.”
Did Mariana still drive that old beater? There hadn’t been a vehicle in the driveway. He’d assumed the family car was in the standalone garage in the back, but he hadn’t checked what was in it.
Mental note, get grandma a reliable new car ASAP.
“When Emma didn’t text back, she started calling but Em didn’t pick up,” Jesse continued. “According to Mariana, that was pretty unusual. Mari always said Emma was the responsible one, and she was the flaky one…”
Jesse paused as if waiting to see if he would comment on the pet name.
Garrett wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t touching that situation with a ten-foot pole.
“Next, she called around to Emma’s friends, but none had heard from her. That was when Mariana called me. She asked me to start checking the roads between their place and town. We both assumed Emma was on foot and her phone battery had died. Without the flashlight on it, she would have had a hell of a time maneuvering through the woods.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
He remembered that about this place. Unless the moon was right overhead, it would have been pitch-dark, the only light sporadic patches where the moonlight was able to break through the trees.
“We thought everyone who could have given her a ride was accounted for.” Jesse stepped back, pivoting to face north and the direction of Garrett’s old cabin. “Truth be told, if I’d known about the two of you, you would have been a prime suspect—a poor but beautiful young girl with the richest guy in town…”
Garrett should have been offended, but he couldn’t blame the guy. “Fair enough. But for the record, it wasn’t me.”
Although in retrospect, the accusation would have been welcome. If one single fucking person had told him about the accident…
He sighed. Yeah, he really had to stop playingthat game.
“I know. Mainly because dozens of witnesses put you at your cabin during the accident window.”
Jesse squatted for a second, picking up a rock. He turned it in his hands. “You hadn’t been home in a while, so the party was big news. I was going to check later. But at the time, I thought it more likely that Emma was walking home from somewhere else.”
Garrett nodded. “You said Mariana found her.”
“Yeah.” Jesse threw the rock past the tree line opposite the ridge. “I was searching the southern trail. It winds a bit more but lets out close to the library and café. But Mariana took this road and spotted some damage over here.”
Pivoting, Jesse walked a couple of yards, gesturing to a spot on a thick pine at the edge of the road some dozen yards from the shoulder.
“It’s healed over now, but there was some obvious splintering just here, white and fresh. It stood out in her headlights, so she got out to investigate, using the flashlight on her phone.”
Jesse crossed the road, stopping at the edge. Below them was a steep drop-off.
The trees were thinner along the slope but that hardly mattered. Emma only had to tumble into one of those. It would have been like hitting a concrete pillar.
“Mari found her near the bottom, bleeding from the head but breathing.”
Garrett’s imagination was far too good. In his mind, he saw Emma’s beautiful face, covered in blood, her body crumpled and broken.
His jaw was so tight it felt like it might shatter. With effort, he pushed the nightmare images away.
Yes, they had lost years, but Emma was safe now. Garrett was going to make damn sure she stayed that way.
Both his girls would be protected.
He cleared his throat. “Thank God for Mariana.”
Jesse grunted an assent, his eyes distant. “The EMTs went down with a stretcher and neck brace. Emma had a broken arm and somecracked ribs. But the head injury was the worst of it. Emma needed a specialist, so she got transferred to Denver. Mariana went with her.”
He kicked a small stone down the slope. They watched it fall, coming to a rest halfway down before he spoke again.
“She didn’t come back here. Mariana gave up her lease, using her savings and some donations to stay on in Denver until Emma was well enough to be left alone. I thought she was going to come back, maybe find a new place since their old place was occupied, but she moved one town over instead.”