The Secrets We Hold by Maci Dillon
ChapterOne
“Son, do you understand the severity of what I’m saying?” The Chief Deputy Sheriff takes a seat and levels me with a stare across the table.
“I’m not your fucking son,” I throw back at him. “That’s what I understand.” I stand to leave, but he’s at my side, pushing me back into my chair.
“Trust me. It’s in your best interest to cooperate, Stone. This is an ongoing murder investigation, and if we don’t get some answers soon, the Feds will be crawling all over our quaint little shore.”
“Murder?” The word tastes gritty on my tongue.
“Fuck,” he hisses. “A twenty-one-year-old vanishes overnight without a trace, and every lead over the past seven days has led us absolutely nowhere.”
“Why would anyone murder Ruby?” She’s young, intelligent, and has a beautiful soul. Ruby doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body. What reason would a person have to harm her?
“Look, Stone, your old man, may he rest in peace, was a good friend of mine. When he enlisted, I promised to look after you and your momma. I vowed to watch over you.” He expels a defeated breath, running his hand through his graying hair. “Yeah, I dropped the ball when your momma needed me the most, and you needed a parent more than ever.”
Pain stabs at my chest. “We never needed you. I took care of her every day until she went into assisted living.”
Sheriff Anderson nods in agreement. “You had to grow up way too fast. It pushed you into the wrong crowd and led you down a questionable road. But I want to help you, Stone. You need to tell me everything.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Anger rises, crushing my chest. The chair falls backward when I push away from the interrogation table with renewed purpose.
He raises his palms in surrender. “We all want the same thing here, Stone… to bring Ruby home. You were the last to see her alive.”
“That’s bullshit! I left her with Annabelle and Jules at the diner. She never came home.”
Frustrated, I pace around the sterile room, pulling at my hair. Ruby moved into our family home after I put my mother into assisted living at the local nursing home. Following the death of my father, my mother suffered multiple mental breakdowns and never recovered.
When we found out she had early-onset dementia, it was somewhat of a relief. I held onto the belief that maybe her pain would end as the memories became less.
“Are you saying the girls know more than they’re letting on?”
My head snaps toward the man I’ve known all my life, but he is suddenly unrecognizable. “Of course fucking not. Jeez…” Annabelle and Ruby grew up next door to each other, and they’re best friends. When Jules moved to Silverbell Shore a few years ago, they became inseparable.
“What made you leave the women at the diner that night?”
Annoyed at his request to go over the details again, I grit my teeth and dispel a deep breath. “Like I told you already, we had dinner at the diner, and the girls wanted to stay to celebrate Annabelle’s offer of an internship at the high school. I kissed her goodnight and…”
My voice shakes as I remember our last kiss, our last goodbye. Dammit, Ruby, what happened to you? “I walked home along the shore, like always. It was a weeknight, and the place was quiet. I had to be at the workshop early the next morning, and the ladies didn’t need the boyfriend hanging around.”
“And you never saw Ruby after that?” He scribbles in his notebook like he’s hearing all of this for the first time.
“Exactly. I went to sleep, and when I woke, her side of the bed was empty. She never came home.”
“Is that unusual?”
“Ha, of course. I thought maybe she’d had a few too many gin and tonics and crashed on the sofa. Sometimes she will fall asleep there reading.”
My eyes drift closed, regret ripping at my insides. Unable to stop fidgeting, I tuck my hands into my pockets and turn my face to the ceiling. God, give me strength. Why does everyone I love leave?
“Ruby wasn’t on the sofa, though, was she? And you went about your day as normal and headed to the garage?”
“Yes,” I grit out. “I checked my phone expecting to see a message from her saying she was crashing at Annabelle’s, which is not an odd assumption, but there was nothing.”
“But you didn’t call or message her at that point?” Again, he scrawls another note across the page.
“It was four-thirty in the morning. If she’d had drinks the night before, I wasn’t going to wake her.” I slam my fists on the table, making the chief jump. “Dammit! I had no reason to worry,” I yell. “Fucking hell, we live in a small sleepy town where the greatest crime ever recorded is not paying your tab at the diner on time.”
He pats me on the shoulder as the door flies open.
“Christ, Dad. What the hell are you doing?”
“Mason, you can’t be in here.”
He’s my best friend and the chief deputy’s son. Despite moving in different circles recently, Mason has always been my rock.
“You’re questioning Stone again?” Mason is dressed in a suit, his new attire since landing a part-time internship at the local law offices after completing his first year at law school. He glances between the two of us.
“Do you need a lawyer, Stone?”
“Fuck no,” I spit out. “I was just leaving.”
Grabbing my jacket, I march past my friend and make my way out of the station. “Stone,” Mason calls behind me.
It’s not until I step out onto the street that I take a breath and release all the pent-up anger and frustration of the past hour.
Mason stops at my side. “Let’s go for a beer and talk about it.”
“I’m over fucking talking. They don’t have a single lead, Mason. A woman doesn’t just vanish into thin air.”
“So we work together and do our own investigating.”
This causes me to laugh. “You’re a fucking private eye now too?”
“Fuck you. I’m just trying to help.”
Sighing, I run a hand through my hair. “I know. I’m sorry.” Jerking my thumb over my shoulder, I say, “It’s your dad. With no leads, they’re trying to pin it on me.” Looking Mason in the eyes, I state, “I didn’t have anything to do with Ruby’s disappearance.”
“I know that. Annabelle is beside herself with worry. The town’s talking and people are scared… what, with a possible murderer among us.” He shakes his head, and I dwell on the thought.
“There’s no evidence of foul play,” I mutter, walking in the bar’s direction. “I need a beer. You’re buying, lawman.”
That night, over Budweisers and nachos, we go over every detail we can remember from the night Ruby disappeared. Annabelle, Jules, and Ruby left the diner together around ten o’clock. First, they walked by Jules’ house, then Annabelle’s. Our house is only another street over, less than a five-minute walk. Somewhere between Annabelle’s home and ours, my Ruby disappeared.
“You can see why you’re the prime suspect, right?”
“Fuck you, Mason. You’re the shittiest best friend and a terrible fucking investigator,” I slur as we leave the bar.
“I can’t be good at everything, bro.”
* * *
Two weeks later,it’s as if our little township has forgotten we are missing one of our own. My days are busy working on motorcycles at the auto repair shop, a passion I thank my father for every day. When he was home between deployments, we would spend our weekends in the shed doing up old bikes. After school, my dream was to enlist and follow in his footsteps. The desire grew even after he never returned home from his last assignment.
Ruby kept me here in Silverbell. She would have supported me, but I didn’t want to leave her. Not yet.
Now she’s gone, we are no closer to finding out what happened to her.
My nights are sleepless. I spend them retracing her last-known steps from the diner to our home, hoping for a breakthrough. Was there an unfamiliar face in town that day? Or any hint of discontent during her conversations with Annabelle and Jules that evening?
Nothing.
“Stone, we need to talk.” My head snaps up, and I hit it on the bike hoisted above me.
“Chief, did you find something?”
My boss, Julian, joins us. “How can I help you, Chief Deputy Anderson?”
He’s been busting my balls lately. About my work ethic, lack of concentration, and hell, the town’s rumors aren’t helping. I’m trying to get myself back on the straight and narrow, and half of Silverbell is set in their belief I’m to blame for Ruby’s disappearance. Her parents are talking about leaving, unable to bear living in a town that took their daughter.
“Nothing concrete, but we need you to come into the station for further questioning.”
“Are you kidding?”
Chief Deputy Sheriff, Deputy Patterson, and Officer Whelan, the rookie, stand at the entrance, hands on their holstered weapons. The chief shifts uncomfortably. “You can come willingly, or we’ll need to cuff you. It’s your choice.”
“Cuff me? What the fuck is going on?”
Officer Whelan steps toward me, and Julian nods in my direction. “Stone, do what they ask. Go sort this shit out.”
“This is bullshit. I’m not riding in the back of a police car like a fucking criminal.”
“Stone…” the chief answers, “… please, son. You can call a lawyer from the station.”
Blood drains from my face.
What the fuck is happening?
“I don’t need a fucking lawyer. I haven’t done anything wrong. My girlfriend is missing, and instead of getting off your asses and investigating, it’s easier to pin it on the orphaned badass in town, right? That’s what this is. It’s fucking harassment.”
Minutes later, I’m cuffed and in the back of the cop car driving through the streets where I grew up. The place where I lost my father, said goodbye to my mother and fell in love with the good girl. Now, I’m all alone, facing an unknown reality.
To top it all off, I received an acceptance letter today to begin my pre-enlistment process for the Navy. Now I risk losing that too.
Screw you, Silverbell Shore.