Page 68 of A Sea of Unspoken Things
Amelia stood, one hand resting on her belt. “I’m just asking for more information so that we can start to figure out what the hell is going on here.”
If I was honest, I would tell her that it did seem as if Johnny had tried to conceal the backpack. If he hadn’t, why not leave it out somewhere in the cabin? It hadn’t just been tossed into the closet; it had been placed up in the cubby. But that didn’t mean he was hiding it. It could just mean that he was keeping it safe.
“It was in the closet, like I said. I was looking for something and ran across it.”
“What were you looking for?”
“A warmer coat. I didn’t bring much with me,” I explained, not missing a beat. Amelia already didn’t believe me. I wasn’t going to give her more ammunition by trying to explain that I thought my brother’s spirit was communicating with me from beyond the grave.
“Do you think it’s possible that Johnny hurt Autumn?” She asked the question point-blank.
“No.” The answer was a knee-jerk reaction.
I waited for the complete and utter certainty to hit me with the words. The overwhelming conviction that it was true. But it didn’t come.
She locked the evidence in one of the cabinets behind her. “I’ll try to get in touch with Autumn’s mom. See when the last time she heard from her was.”
“All right.” Micah nodded.
“And if you could both stay available and in town, that would be very helpful. I’m going to have more questions. And I’ll request access to anything else you’ve found, James. Johnny’s records, accounts, everything.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
Micah’s hand found my back and he guided me to the door. But before we even made it outside, Amelia stopped us.
“I want you both to know,” she said, looking between us, “I’ve spent a lot of time on this town’s history since Johnny’s death. I’ve spent alot of time onhishistory. It goes without saying that the last time Johnny was implicated in the events surrounding someone’s death, that due diligence wasn’t done by the person who held this office.”
Micah’s hand tensed on my back.
“But I have every intention of getting to the bottom of what happened here.”
The insinuation was clear. Amelia had done her homework not just on Johnny but on all of us. And she wasn’t going to leave any stone unturned. Not like Timothy Branson had done.
The sky was still pitch-black when we made it outside, and there were still at least a couple of hours until dawn. But there was no way Iwas going to sleep tonight.
We walked to Micah’s truck in silence and got in. The engine rumbled, warming up as we sat there, staring out the windshield without saying a word. What had just happened? What wasaboutto happen?
“We’ll grab Smoke and your stuff and you can stay at my place tonight,” he said, not really asking.
He pulled onto the road, turning the truck around, and the headlights washed over the icy street. For once, I didn’t argue with him. The idea of sleeping in the cabin with all of Johnny’s buried secrets made me tremble. I didn’t want to know what else I’d find there, and honestly, I was done looking.
Twenty-Three
I stood in the middle of the living room, watching the officers go through Johnny’s desk.
It had taken two days for Autumn Fischer to be officially declared a missing person, and her face was already hanging in the windows of the shops that lined Main Street.
Interviews with town residents had determined that the last time she was seen was at an end-of-summer party with friends on August 18, the night before she was scheduled to take the bus to San Francisco.
It didn’t take long for Amelia to obtain a warrant for the search of Johnny’s home after the state police arrived in Six Rivers. Now, they moved through the small cabin wordlessly, stepping over the mess I’d left behind when I tore the place apart. The idea of people poking into Johnny’s life made me nervous. It went against every instinct I’d ever had when it came to my brother.
The news about Autumn had engulfed the entire town, and I could only imagine the rumors that had started, especially if there’d been talk about Johnny and Autumn before. I imagined people recountingtheir suspicions, dredging up what they’d been happy to overlook before all this started.
Amelia’s number one priority was to establish a timeline for everyone the night Autumn was last seen. Including Johnny. But it became clear very quickly that he had no alibi. Not one he could give, anyway, because he wasn’t here to offer any kind of explanation for how all this looked. And there was no denying that it looked bad.
Micah stood at my side as we watched the officers move through the cabin. We had barely spoken since leaving Amelia’s office, the accusations we’d both made like a ricocheting bullet. I’d blamed him. For all of this. And Micah had finally put words to what I’d never been able to admit—that when I left, I’d been running. And I hadn’t just left Johnny, I’d abandonedhim,too.
Standing in the middle of the house I grew up in, it all felt irrevocably true. I could sense Johnny everywhere, as if he was being stirred up like dust as the officers rooted around the place, and it put me on edge. It was as if I was just waiting to see him appear in that hallway or beyond the kitchen window. Like he was seconds from coming back to life.