“How do you know it was white?”
After she explained in detail what had really taken place the night she was abducted, Gran said, “We’ll have to remember to tell Chief Stacy about that.”
Addy smiled for the first time since Noah walked into the restaurant last evening. “Yes, we will.”
* * *
Tsunami was an upscale restaurant that served lunch and dinner and didn’t open until eleven. Noah had been banking on Clyde Kingsdale having to get to the restaurant early to prepare for the lunch rush. Clyde was the manager, after all. But Addy’s ex strolled in right at eleven, looking a little rough around the edges.
Thanks to the hostess, a girl wearing a name tag that said Becka, Noah had been allowed to wait inside. When Clyde walked past the register, she pointed and mouthed, “That’s him,” but she didn’t stop her manager or introduce them. Noah got the feeling she knew Clyde wouldn’t want to be interrupted regardless of his reason for coming. Since Clyde’s parents owned the restaurant, maybe he didn’t have to worry about being fired so he was just putting in time.
Noah followed him halfway across the dining area before Clyde noticed he had company.
“Whoa, who are you?” he said, looking over his shoulder when he heard Noah behind him.
“Noah Rackham.”
Addy’s ex halted in his tracks and they sized each other up. Clyde wasn’t quite as tall as Noah, but Noah could see that he was handsome.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“How do you even know who I am?” Noah replied.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m not kidding. You told Addy I’d tried to call you, but I have no idea how you realized I was from Whiskey Creek. To my knowledge, we’ve never met.”
Glancing toward the kitchen as if it offered refuge, he sighed. They could hear voices calling out about getting this item or that item ready. The restaurant was open but there were, as yet, no customers. “I’d heard your name before, okay?”
“From where?” Noah asked.
When someone rushed out of the kitchen and nearly collided with them, Clyde pulled him off to one side. “From Addy, of course.”
“Because she once had a crush on me? That was years and years ago. We never even dated, so it seems unlikely that she would’ve talked about me very much.”
“Let’s just say you left an impression. And your twin left an even greater one.” He checked his watch. “That’s all you’ll get from me.”
Addy’s ex knew the whole story; Noah could tell. That made the rape, and what happened afterward, all too real.
“She told you she caused my brother’s death.”
Clyde’s eyes widened. He started to say something, then, smoothing his goatee with a thumb and one finger, changed his mind. “If you already know, why are you here?”
Because he’d needed some kind of confirmation. He didn’t want to think his brother could hurt any woman in that way, especially an innocent sixteen-year-old. Especially Addy. And he certainly didn’t want to believe she’d caused the cave-in that took Cody’s life.
But Clyde, someone who wasn’t remotely connected to Whiskey Creek and all the loyalties and prejudices that existed there, obviously had a clear understanding of Addy’s past.
His brother had helped gang-rape a girl on the night of his death.... “I guess I’m having a hard time coming to terms with it. She told me quite a story.”
“Yeah, well, whatever she told you, you can bet it was that bad and worse, because she probably modified the truth to protect your feelings. What those bastards did to her messed her up for years. It cost thousands of dollars in therapy, and it ruined our marriage.”
Noah dropped his head in his hand. “I was hoping you were going to say something else.”
“You’d rather believe she’s lying?” he challenged.
That was a good question, but there wasn’t a good answer. He couldn’t win either way. “Cody wasn’t just my brother...”
“I know. He was your twin. Why do you think she gave him the time of day to begin with?”
“Because he reminded her of me?”
“That’s the version I’ve always heard.”
“God.” He still wanted to see Adelaide, to touch her. That hadn’t changed, even now. She seemed so...good, so down to earth. He couldn’t really believe she’d lie about something that could destroy so many lives.
But taking her side would pit him against his family, several of his old friends and those in the community who supported them. And he’d only known her, in any significant way, for a couple of weeks.
“Did she tell you someone kidnapped her from her bed and dragged her back to the mine after she returned home? That he threatened her with a knife?”
Clyde shook his head. “Is that why she finally decided to tell the truth?”
Noah remembered the look on her face when he’d confronted her at Just Like Mom’s last night. “I think after everything that’s happened since she’s been home, she just reached her breaking point.”
“I begged her to come forward years ago,” he said, “but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Why not?”
“She had a lot of reasons. But part of it was that she didn’t want you and your family to have to know what your brother did and what she’d done as a result.”
“She was worried about us?”
“She once told me you were the only man she ever wanted with her whole heart.” He laughed but there was no humor in it. “You asked me a second ago why I remembered your name. Now you know.”
29
When Noah returned to town, he told himself to drive right by Milly’s. He had no business siding with Addy, a woman he’d known for such a short amount of time. He owed his family more loyalty, especially because Adelaide could’ve lied to her ex-husband. Kevin, Derek—they were all denying what she said. And his parents were supporting them wholeheartedly. He’d received several calls on his way home, enough to know where everyone stood. He’d even received a call from Shania Carpenter.
But it didn’t matter. He couldn’t escape the fact that he believed Addy, couldn’t add to what she’d been through by calling her a liar. Now he understood why she wouldn’t say exactly what had happened the night she was abducted, why she’d told him they couldn’t see each other, why she got threatening notes while dating him, even why she’d reacted to Kevin Colbert as she had at Black Gold Coffee.