Page 36 of All the Missing Pieces

His eyes narrowed on me. “So what?”

The short answer was understandable. As far as I could tell from my research, Grady had been questioned at least half a dozen times by the sheriff’s department and state police. That made a person defensive.

My hope was that he would lose the defensiveness around me. I didn’t carry a badge or have the ability to lock him up, and maybe with time, he would tell me some detail he hadn’t shared with the cops. Because sometimes a detail, no matter how tiny, could break a case wide-open.

I kept my posture easy, relaxed. “I just meant that you likely saw things others might have missed. Saw things the players and coaches might’ve missed because they were on the inside. A bird’s-eye view is often the most powerful.”

Grady kept on walking but didn’t speak right away. He led me to a place where the woods met the park’s grass. “Was working this section while they practiced that day. The girl was the star. That was easy to see. No one on that team held a candle to her. There were a few who were bitter about it.”

“Do you know the names of the kids who might’ve been jealous?” I asked, wondering if Grady would list the same two names Coach Kerr had.

He shook his head. “Brunette girl with glasses. Another blond with a skirt so short I sure as hell wouldn’t have let my daughter out in it.”

So, not the same names. I needed a team photo, maybe a yearbook. Schools had gotten tighter about what they put online, and I hadn’t found much through the Shady Cove High School website or local papers. But there might’ve been a feature on the team that would give me something.

“But I don’t blame ’em for being jealous,” Grady went on. “That coach did a piss-poor job of pretending she wasn’t his number-one focus.”

“What kind of focus?” I asked, trying to keep any opinion out of my tone.

Grady scoffed. “Greedy. Could’ve been he thought she was headed to Wimbledon, and he was gonna ride those coattails. Could’ve been something else…”

He let thatsomething elsehang in the air. We both knew what thatsomething elsecould be. Something darker.

I didn’t go there. Not when the coach had been cleared by camera footage, and there were plenty of other persons of interest. “When you left that evening, was the team still practicing?”

“Yeah. They weren’t gonna call it quits for at least another half hour.”

“And did you know that Emerson often kept practicing after her teammates left?”

Grady’s hands fisted at his sides. “I seen her a time or two on my way home after a beer at The Barrel.”

“And did you go get a beer that night?” I prodded.

“Yeah. Had a beer with a bud and then headed home.”

Except there was an hour window between when his friend said he left The Whiskey Barrel and when Grady’s wife said he arrived home.

“It took you a while to get there.” It wasn’t a question, but I still let it hang.

Grady’s amber eyes melted into a gold color, hot with anger. “I told the cops. Sometimes I need a drive to clear my head after a long day.”

“Did anyone see you on that drive?” I asked, keeping my voice calm.

“If I’d known the pigs had it out for me, I’d have installed a goddamned dashcam. But I didn’t know, did I?” he snapped.

“Your wife said it was typical for you to get home late, but your friend, Wallace, said you usually hung at the bar longer. Why was that night different?”

Grady’s hands fisted and flexed over and over. “What’re you getting at? Thought this was a chance to clear my name.”

I’d never once said that. I didn’t have the facts to know if Grady’s name needed to be cleared. “I said this was a chance to tell your story.”

“You wanna know my story, bitch? This is my fuckin’ story. I worked minimum wage for half my life. Bleeding for this town. And how do they repay me? Cops puttin’ me in the back of a goddamned squad car in front of my kids.”

He spat on the ground. “And they just kept on comin’. Time after time. My boss tells me he thinks it would be best if I quit so he didn’t have to fire my ass. Didn’t have a choice because I couldn’t risk one more black mark on my record.”

My heart hammered against my ribs as my free hand dropped, preparing to reach for my Taser if I needed to. That delicate balance of how long I could wait to find out if Grady was simply furious or if there was violence in him too.

Grady prowled toward me one step and then another, like a panther poised to attack. “Now I see you. You think you’re gonna come in here and pin this all on me? Not gonna happen.” His hand lashed out. “You don’t wanna know what happens to nosy little bitches?—”

---