Page 127 of Roses Are Dead
“He helped, I guess. He…” John made a noise that wasn’t natural. “Carl convinced Rose to videotape it.”
Everything I knew about Carl tracked with that. “Lemme guess, he got to see it first.”
John rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t bet against you on that.”
He shook his head and continued.
“The evidence went to court. But since it wasn’t clear that Rose didn’t instigate it, the deacon got probation.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. How old was she?”
There was fear in John’s eyes. He studied my clenched fists. Eventually, he found his balls and stumbled on. “Twelve. Because of that, Carl and Rose got—I wouldn’t say, ‘close’ because it was really twisted. But they were as thick as thieves for a while. And, uh… within a year they’d gathered enough additional evidence and ammunition to quite literally bury her abuser.”
“Literally?” I scoffed at his word choice.
“The church building had to be put on hold because the issue with the trust was exposed. Her parents were exposed. The entire church board was exposed. That’s when the former leaders stepped down and Carl’s parents took over almost exclusively. They were fired up, using the leverage they had against the deacon and his faction of the board to approve the change in leadership. And it still didn’t help Rose at all.”
“Was that while Rose fostered with them?”
John searched his memories. “It was about that time. Her parents were brought up on charges for fraud. She was going to be a ward of the state, but… the judge thought she’d have a more consistent childhood with Beth’s family. And she probably could have, if it weren’t for Carl. He talked her into luring that asshole to the construction site. I think they killed him.”
“I heard it was an accident.”
John fired back the rebuttal evident in his scowl. “Carl was involved. I highly doubt it was an accident.”
“How old was she then?”
“Almost fourteen.”
Forget my gut. My heart hurt for her. “Is that when she went into the foster system?”
“Yeah. The investigation into the death prompted it. Apparently, Beth told her to tell the court adjudicator everything. I don’t think she did, because Carl walked away Scott-free, and Beth’s parents didn’t get any blowback.”
“And the church?”
John’s shoulders lifted as if he was going to shrug but knew that wasn’t the right response. “They had to find another building site. The congregation didn’t want their building on a spot where two people died.”
“Two?”
John held up a finger. “I forgot that part. Her grandmother was found dead there. Everyone thought it was natural causes at the time. They’d even planned a garden for her in memory.”
“But with the deacon obviously murdered, that put a big question mark on things, didn’t it.” Good riddance to bad news, I thought.
“Well, I wouldn’t say it was obvious murder, but there were enough questions to get the courts looking at Rose’s life with a sharper lens.”
“What happened to the land?”
“Rose sold it to the church when she turned eighteen and used the money for therapy and college.”
“And Beth?”
“She stood by her the whole time, even through her first bout with cancer.”
No wonder Rose put herself in this situation.
“Bear?” John broke my train of thoughts.
“What?”
