Page 237 of It Happened on the Lake

Levi scowled. “Do you believe him?”

“Yeah, but I’m his son. So it doesn’t count with the department. I’m stepping back. My partner is going to interview him again. I’m out of it. Dad won’t like it, but that’s too bad. He’ll probably lawyer up, but at least we have an idea of what happened.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. His father hadn’t been perfect, but all his life Rand had believed that Gerald Watkins was a straight arrow, a good, by-the-book cop.

Now he didn’t.

“The case will be reopened? As a homicide?” Levi asked.

“That’s up to the D.A., but I’m not sure. There’s still no body, and the primary suspect is dead. All we’ve got is rumor and innuendo and the words of an ex-cop who was involved. We’ll see.”

Harper had gone quiet, her cheeks pale. “All this time he was dead?” she finally whispered, her throat thick as she got to her feet and let the flakes of the tissue drift to the floor. She rubbed her arms as if she’d experienced a sudden chill. “And we didn’t know.” Her gaze found Levi’s. “We didn’t know,” she repeated, her voice cracking. “It’s . . . it’s just effing unbelievable.”

“I know.” Levi, too, got to his feet to stand near her.

“All the pain, all the worry, all the guilt, all the time wasted.” Her voice cracked. “If we’d only known.”

“But we didn’t. Couldn’t have.” Levi folded her into his arms.

“If I had . . .”

“Shh,” he said, his breath ruffling her hair. “You—we—had to expect that someday we would hear something. It just took a long time.

“Too long. And Dad knew. All along.” Levi’s voice was low and had a slight tremor. He shut his eyes for a second, just holding Harper, sharing their loss, consoling each other. Levi murmured that everything would be okay.

One more lie.

Things would never be okay.

Once again, Rand felt like the odd man out, the proverbial third wheel. He shifted on his feet and looked away, staring out the window and across the narrow portion of the lake to Fox Point.

The five houses along the shoreline were just visible in the shadowy light of dusk. Five homes that had each played a part in the drama that was their lives.

In the reflection he saw Harper drawing away, extricating herself from Levi’s embrace. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and cleared her throat.

As Rand turned, she said, “At least we know what happened, even if we don’t have his body, I guess.”

Rand had little hope Chase Hunt, or what remained of him, would ever be found.

“My old man,” Levi said. “He caused all this. But Mom? She knew and never told anyone? No, that doesn’t make sense. She was always at the police department, insisting they dig further, and if she knew Dad was behind it . . . No, nuh-uh. I remember her making herself a nuisance at the station, and he was angry about it, accused her of not letting him do his job. He even said something to the effect that he more than anyone else wanted the case solved.”

“I don’t think Cynthia really knew what happened to Chase until after your dad died. Maybe he told her before he went out in the boat? Maybe she found some piece of evidence that convinced her, or maybe he told her. We may never find that out for certain.”

“You think that’s what pushed her over the edge? Finding out what he’d done? Do you think she snapped? Just mentally broke down?” Levi asked, his stoicism disintegrating.

“Maybe. Again, we’ll probably never know. But what I do understand is that both your dad and mine didn’t want to sully their reputations. Neither did their wives.”

When Levi’s head snapped up at the mention of more than one wife, Rand nodded.

“Yeah. Barbara knew, too. Or at least suspected. She came back to the house to say goodbye to me before I left for Vietnam. She saw that Dad was gone, the boat out, then learned in the next day or so that Chase was missing. She never said a word.”

Levi said, “So they all kept their mouths shut.”

“And let us believe there was a chance Chase was alive,” Harper added.

“Son of a bitch,” Levi said under his breath. “Son of a goddamned bitch. This is all such bullshit!”

Rand wouldn’t argue that fact, but he wasn’t finished. “There’s something else.”

“Oh great,” Harper said, finally in control of her emotions. “The hits just keep on coming.”

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