Page 39 of A Smile Full of Lies (Secrets of Stonewood #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

ROS

I was about to betray Knox. Not because I wanted to, but because it was the only way to save him from himself.

I felt shredded.

Anything I tried to keep secret seemed to spill out, in the worst possible ways, even if the result of that, today, felt mostly good – maybe.

But that just made it all worse. Ever since I’d watched that clip from the USB drive, I’d been tearing myself apart, trying to decide, but now, Knox’s own actions had decided for me.

If he knew what I suspected, if he caught even a hint of it, he’d kill Thayer without thinking twice, and I’d lose him. No way in hell could I let Knox end up in jail for murder, even if Thayer probably deserved what Knox would do to him if he found out the truth before the cops did.

Still, I couldn’t keep it in anymore. Not the fear twisting low in my belly. Not the knowledge crawling under my skin like fire. Not the truth about Thayer that had burrowed its way into my brain and refused to let go.

So, I texted Alyssa Allen – she’d been the cop on the Stonewood Mansion case from the start, so it only seemed fair that she be the one to get this lead, now - and prayed I’d be home in time for whatever Knox had planned for tonight.

Me

I need to talk to you. Not over the phone.

Alyssa

That feels ominous. I’m off in thirty. Meet me at Heather’s Coffee Shop then.

A half hour later, I sat in a quiet corner of the indie coffee shop near downtown Stonewood, Knox’s sweatshirt swallowing me whole, the weight of the USB drive still burning a hole in my pocket. I had my laptop in a tote bag at my feet, and I was bouncing my leg as I waited for Alyssa to join me.

Five minutes later, Alyssa slid into the seat across from me in her Stonewood PD hoodie, all sharp eyes and cop instincts. I pushed a black coffee toward her like a peace offering.

I didn’t even say hello, I just dove in head first and word-vomited at her.

“I think Thayer Williams was there the night Knox’s family was murdered,” I said, voice low and steady. “And I think he’s the reason it happened.”

Alyssa didn’t blink. She didn’t flinch, either.

She just took a slow sip of her coffee and said, “Tell me everything.”

So I did.

I told her about the video — the coveralls, the masked figures, the laugh I knew too well. I told her about Thayer’s stupid-ass HVAC worker group costume with his cousins back in college. About the way the figure turned toward the camera, and tilted his head in that smug, lazy way.

“I’d bet my life that was him,” I whispered.

Alyssa’s eyes sharpened.

“You might have to.”

My breath hitched.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s only one way you can turn that information into an arrest. We need a confession. Something we can use. Something we can record.”

“Are you saying you want me to wear a wire?”

She nodded once.

I stared at her. I hadn’t expected this, hadn’t thought that she’d want to act on this, this fast. Hadn’t thought that she’d want me to do anything more, or… maybe I had, and just hadn’t wanted to think about it too closely. I swallowed hard.

“I do. And you’re gonna get that motherfucker to talk.”

I’d do anything to keep Knox from doing something stupid, and if Alyssa thought I could get a confession out of Thayer? Well… I’d do my damndest to get it. Even if I’d barely seen him in four years. Even if I really never wanted to see him again.

I was going to throw up. Just the idea of seeing Thayer again after avoiding him for the past four years had me breaking out in a cold sweat. Alyssa reached across the table and squeezed my shoulder.

“You sure you want to do this, Ros? We can find some other way to get the truth out of Thayer. We don’t have to make any moves today.”

“No, this is our best option. I can only keep the truth from Knox for so long. Honestly, I can’t believe he hasn’t realized that the guy in the demonic clown mask in the security footage is Thayer.

It has to be cognitive dissonance working in our favor or something.

Whatever it is, it’s a miracle that Knox hasn’t already figured it out, and taken Thayer out for it. ”

Alyssa pressed her lips together and nodded, her expression grim.

“You think he’d kill Thayer instead of coming to the cops?”

“I know he would,” I stared at her, unblinking.

“You remember what he did to the guy who roofied me at that frat party four years ago, right? He would have beaten that guy to death if getting me help hadn’t been such a high priority, and I’m just his neighbor…

just a friend. Imagine how much worse Knox would be if he ever found out who killed his family. ”

“Point taken.” Alyssa grimaced, shaking her head. “So we need to make our move now, before he puts two and two together.”

“Exactly.”

Heather’s Coffee Shop hummed with the noise of the afternoon crowd, the clatter of mugs and low chatter of the other patrons a fragile barrier against the panic rising in my chest. The air smelled like burnt espresso and pastries, but it did nothing to settle the nausea roiling in my gut.

Alyssa leaned forward, her posture tense even in civilian clothes — a black sweater with her Stonewood PD hoodie unzipped over it and jeans that didn’t hide the gun at her hip.

Her dark, inscrutable eyes were sharp as she scanned the room.

She’d been the rookie who found the Knox family’s bodies four years ago.

Now, she was risking everything to help me close the cold case before Knox turned it into his own bloody vendetta.

“We can wire you up,” she said, voice low and urgent.

“You initiate contact, play the ex who might just miss Thayer’s toxic ass, then get him to confess to the murders.

Get him to tell you who his accomplices were, anything you can get.

Your recognition of Thayer’s laugh and movements in that footage despite the demonic clown mask is a start, but we need him confessing to the crime on tape .

The department would never back this play, though, so what we’re doing is off the books, to keep Knox from doing something that might send him to prison.

If it blows up, I’m fired, or worse. But if Knox catches on first, he’ll take matters into his own hands and become a vigilante. ”

My hands trembled around my mug.

“And if he smells something off with me?”

“We move fast,” Alyssa said. “Recon today, op tonight. No time for him to notice you’re acting weird.”

I nodded, but my gut twisted.

“If we do that, we need to move even faster than you’d like, because Knox is planning some kind of romantic evening for us tonight.

I don’t know exactly when he’s expecting me to be back at the house, but I know we need to get this done and over with as fast as possible, so I can go home to him before he suspects anything is off. ”

I closed my eyes, remembering how tender Knox was with me after our conversation earlier today, after Nox Obscura threw me under the bus and I was forced to admit my true feelings for the boy next door who I’d been doing my best to resist since we were eighteen years old.

If he knew what I’d recognized in that footage, he’d slaughter Thayer before the cops could make a single move.

I couldn’t risk letting that kind of darkness take him from me, especially not now…

not when I’d finally accepted how much I’ve always cared about him.

“First, we do some digging,” Alyssa said, standing. “We’ll go to my place. Let’s see what Thayer’s been up to these past four years.”

We left the coffee shop, the cool November air biting as we drove to Alyssa’s modest house on the edge of town — a cozy bungalow with a white picket fence that didn’t quite match up with her badass I-will-kick-the-shit-out-of-you-with-a-smile-on-my-face vibe.

Inside, it smelled like lavender and takeout, files scattered on her kitchen table like battle plans.

She booted up her laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard almost inhumanly fast as she accessed restricted databases, her badge a key to secrets the rest of us could only guess at.

“Thayer Williams,” she muttered, scrolling through the data on her screen.

“Let’s see… in and out of inpatient mental health facilities.

Depression, paranoia, a couple psych holds.

His family has done a good job of burying it deep enough that the public would never know he’s had mental health issues.

They’ve done private clinics, NDAs, the works.

In a small town like Stonewood, Alabama, the Baldwin County gossip mill runs hot, but they’ve kept it quiet.

Paid off staff, maybe. He’s not locked up at the moment.

He was discharged last month from an inpatient facility in Mobile. ”

My skin crawled and I swallowed hard.

“He’s mentally unstable?”

Alyssa nodded grimly.

“Fragile is the word I’d use. It could make him talk easier, or it might make him snap. You’re going to have to play your hand carefully.”

We pored over the records, but all we could find was a screenshot of a post that had been made in a group on social media, mentioning Thayer Williams having an outburst of temper in public, but the post had since been deleted.

His family’s money had cushioned the falls, but the cracks showed.

No arrests, just quiet institutionalizations.

It painted a picture of a man unraveling. But why?

Thayer was handsome and charming, aside from the fact that he had a tendency to stick his dick in everything that moved, regardless of his relationship status.

His family was wealthy. When we were dating, I met his mom and she pretty much thought Thayer hung the moon.

His dad seemed a little stiffer, a little more distant, but stoicism wasn’t uncommon in our parents’ generation.

So… what was it that was making him come unglued?

“We’ve got a profile,” Alyssa said, closing the laptop. “Now we should do a little recon. His apartment’s on the rich side of town.”