Page 38 of Promise Me, Katie (Bennett Sisters #1)

Her name hung suspended in the air, like a bullet traveling in slow motion, as Matthew and Justin sat in silence, each of them waiting for the other to speak.

“Beth Ann Lucas…” Matthew finally murmured to himself, her name sounding more like a question of disbelief than a statement of fact.

“Yep, good old Beth Ann. She was the one with Max that night,” Justin said, likely for both of their sakes since it was still hard for him to wrap his mind around it after all these years.

Eager to explain the evidence in greater detail, Justin pulled the Chandler Fire—Investigation Results folder from his partner’s grip and searched for the exact papers confirming her identity.

Then he showed Matthew that based on fingerprints lifted from various locations inside the house, Beth Ann had been everywhere in the Chandler family home, including the master bedroom.

“Do you think Max was having sex with her in his parents’ bed?”

“That’s what the evidence points to.”

“What was he thinking?” Matthew shook his head in disgust. “That’s something a high school kid does when his parents are out of town.”

“I tried to tell ya he was a bad guy.” Justin shook his head. “But here’s the kicker—”

“Dear God, there’s more?”

“Oh, there’s a lot more. Like the fact that his parents knew about Beth Ann. They even welcomed her into their home a time or two.”

“What?!” Matthew practically shouted. “What kind of messed-up people have their son’s girlfriend over when he’s got a wife and baby at home?”

“Now, just hold on a second.” Justin raised a hand.

“You gotta understand that Gideon and Ruth Chandler really are good people. And whatever horror stories that boy told his folks about his marriage, they obviously bought into it. Then, with Katherine wrapped up in a new baby and tryin’ to figure out how to attend culinary school, she probably wasn’t around much for them to know what was really going on.

Or to defend herself against the lies Max must’ve told his parents about her. ”

“What about after the fire? Didn’t they find out then?”

“Gideon and Ruth returned home from vacation to a burnt-out shell of a home and the loss of a son and grandchild to deal with. They were so devastated. I don’t think they spoke to anyone after that,” Justin said, with pity in his voice.

“Once they got the all-clear from the insurance company, they salvaged what little they could and had what was left of the house demolished. After that, they put the property up for sale and moved to Portland to be closer to their oldest son and his family.”

“And Katherine, what about her?”

“Poor Katherine was going through her own turmoil when all this was happenin’.

By the time she started findin’ things out, she didn’t have the strength to defend herself against all the lies Max must’ve filled his parents’ heads with, let alone care what Gideon and Ruth thought about her.

That girl was so shut down after losing Addison that the entire Bennett family had to get up and walk out of Max’s funeral.

Jerome told me later that they were worried Katherine would go off the deep end in front of everyone. ”

Matthew felt sick. He’d never been the squeamish type. Not even some of the worst parts of the job bothered him like other young officers, but this was almost more than he could handle.

The thought of his sweet Katie going through so much devastating pain made his stomach twist into knots as an unrelenting ache penetrated deep into his soul.

He wished he could go back in time to comfort her.

Hold her. Stand by her. And most of all, protect her from the awful truths that had hurt her.

“You okay, man?” Justin looked genuinely worried as if he’d put too much on Matthew’s shoulders. “You look like you’re gonna toss your cookies.”

“What do you expect me to do with all this?”

Justin shrugged. “Tell Katherine.”

“Oh, hell no!” Matthew bellowed before taking a calming breath. “Sorry, man, but why, after all this time, do you think I should be the one to tell her this? Why can’t you tell her? Or even better, let her dad do it. You said he knows all this stuff, right?”

“He knows most of it, but I’m not sure he agrees Katherine should know any of it.

We’ve had a difference of opinion about that over the years.

Sometimes, our positions on it have changed based on Katherine.

She’s gone through a lot of deep valleys alone.

And there was no way either of us wanted to tell her of our suspicions shortly after the fire.

Then, when all of the investigative findings were in, she was finally startin’ to get a little life back in her eyes.

So, we didn’t have the heart to tell her then either. ”

“And what about now? Where does he stand now?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to talk to Jerome and let him know you’re aware of all this.

But I’m sure he’ll agree that if the time was ever gonna be right, then that time is now.

And trust me when I say I hate to put this on you after everything ya just went through.

But I don’t think she’d take the information very well comin’ from either of us. ”

Matthew’s sigh was heavy and full of apprehension. “Look, I can see this hasn’t been easy for you. But what makes you think, after all this time, it’ll be any easier for Katie to hear? And why would it be better for her to hear it from me?”

“Because she’s obviously in love with you. More importantly, I know you love her. Not to mention, she seems to trust you more than anyone she’s ever trusted before. Maybe even more than her own daddy. And that’s sayin’ somethin’.”

Justin was making a good argument. One Matthew himself couldn’t deny. They had grown to love and trust each other. So much that it was already becoming evident to others.

Maybe it was because intense heartache opened the door to a deeper understanding.

One so deep that it makes a closed-off heart open to possibility.

And if he knew one thing for sure, he knew that by the grace of God, he and Katie’s hearts had opened to each other from the moment they met.

It just took time for circumstances to bring them together.

“Look, there’s not a lot in those folders the Chief doesn’t know about, but one thing he definitely doesn’t know is just how long Beth Ann and Max had been havin’ an affair.

At a certain point, he quit askin’ to see the files, so I didn’t push him into readin’ ‘em. But when Katherine opened The Copperwall and hired Beth Ann, well, at that point, I needed to know everything about Beth Ann before exposing her connection to Max and everything that happened before the night of the fire.”

“But the Chief does know she was there?” Matthew may have been asking something that had already been explained, but at this point, his mind was spinning with details.

“Yeah, he knows that much. But he stopped askin’ to read the files before I found out how long they’d been foolin’ around. I tried to tell him once, but he said he couldn’t hear any more. Oh, and he also doesn’t know that Gideon and Ruth had welcomed Beth Ann into their home.”

Matthew took the witness folder and read through a few paragraphs of information before the disgusted expression returned to his face.

“Let me guess… you just got to the part that says how long Max and Beth Ann were together.”

“That’s got to be before Addison was born.”

Justin nodded. “Maybe even before they got married, but I can’t be sure because Beth Ann is so much younger.

Then again, who knows with that guy? He wasn’t exactly discriminating about who he got himself mixed up with.

From what I found out, he’d been messin’ around with a lot of women.

Most were just one-night stands, but with Beth Ann, he kept comin’ back for more.

My guess is because of her age and trusting nature.

Scum like him prey on young girls like that. ”

“You mean girls like Katie.”

“Yep.”

“You know, she’s going think everything was a lie. Her marriage. Her vows. Any measure of happiness she may have felt will feel like it was built on a foundation of lies.”

“I think she pretty much has the gist of that already,” Justin said. “But you’re probably right. To know it for certain is even worse. That’s another reason why you should be the one to tell her.”

Matthew couldn’t listen to another word. He was frustrated and felt out of control. His heart hurt for Katie so much that he felt this situation was way worse than when he found out about Julia’s affair.

Closing the file folder, Matthew lined it up with the others on his lap and fastened his seat belt. He wasn’t sure what Justin meant about why he needed to be the one to tell Katie because there were already so many things rolling around in his head. Things he needed to process in silence.

“I can’t talk about this anymore. I need time to think.”

“I understand. Take all the time you need,” Justin said as he buckled up, started the cruiser, and returned the vehicle to the road with a quick U-turn in the direction they’d come. Both of them sat in silence, staring out the windshield while they processed everything that had been said.

Before long, Justin twisted the knob on the police radio, reconnecting them to dispatch, and then turned on some music. He let it play low enough to hear but not high enough to disturb Matthew’s thoughts.

When Matthew finally spoke, he asked, “What did you mean about the other reason why I should be the one to tell her?”

“What’s that?” Justin turned down the radio as Matthew tried to remember his exact words.

“I said because of the affair, Katie would feel like any happiness she had was built on lies. Then you said that was another reason why I should be the one to tell her.”

“Oh, yeah… that.”

“Well, what did you mean?”

“I meant that you know from personal experience how that feels.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Hang on,” Justin sighed. Reaching under his seat, he pulled out a large manila envelope and dropped it on the stack of file folders in Matthew’s lap. The front of the envelope had more of Justin’s handwriting on it.

Vehicular Fatalities—Julia Brandon & Grant Adams

“How much do you know?” Matthew demanded, ripping the seal open before Justin could stop him from pulling out the documents inside.

“How much do you know? That’s the real question,” Justin said. “I don’t wanna put too much more on the pile.”

“Too late.” Matthew sneered, pushing away Justin’s hand. “Too late for you to put too much on me and too late because I already know all about Julia and her boyfriend.”

Justin’s eyes bugged out.

Then Matthew sighed, knowing he would have to tell Justin everything he’d already told Katie.

He didn’t relish the idea of confessing what he was about to, but knew he needed to.

In the end, when his confessions were over, Matthew felt better than when he’d unloaded the burden of Julia’s secrets the first time.

“Dang, man, I am truly sorry. I wasn’t sure how much you knew, but I knew you probably suspected at least somethin’ was going on.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, because every time someone said Julia’s name or asked about her, your whole demeanor would change.

Like you’d been hurt somehow. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was just your run-of-mill marital problems or somethin’ more.

Then, when the accident happened, a lot of questions got answered that night. ”

“Does the Chief know about Julia and Grant?”

“Yep.”

“Damn.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. No one else does.

And since there was drinkin’ involved and neither of them was wearin’ a seat belt, there was no reason to put the details of the affair in the station file for now.

We’re all good if it makes it into the file one day.

I’ll just slip the rest of it in there after everything else is scanned and put into the digital record. ”

“So then no one will ever see it?”

“Not unless the case gets reopened. But why would it?”

“Thank you,” Matthew said.

“No problem, man. Just doin’ my job.”

As they drove along, Matthew started to wonder about this partner of his. On the outside, he seemed like a small-town guy with a heart of gold. But there was more to Justin Macomb than meets the eye.

“You got anything else hiding in here I should know about? CIA Secrets? The truth about Bigfoot?”

“Nope, that’s it.”

“No hidden gadgets? Rocket launchers in the headlights? Flame thrower in the tailpipe?”

“Maybe…” Justin smirked.

“Small-town secret agent, huh?”

“It pays the bills.”