The Truth About Rachel by Deanna Sletten (free books to read .TXT) 📗

I miss that? I don’t remember reading it. I do remember the scratches on Keith’s face in the transcripts, but since there was no testing of skin or blood, not much was said.”

“Your Aunt Gladys told me the scratches were important evidence, though. She said it was one of the reasons she thought he was guilty,” Rachel said.

“I’m going to have to re-read those transcripts.”

He turned his car again, and they were in Rachel’s old neighborhood.

“Why are we here?” she asked, feeling uncomfortable being at her old house.

He parked on the opposite side of the street. “I just thought you might like to see the house after all these years. It’s odd because it looks like nothing has changed.”

“I know. I drove by earlier.” She turned to him. “How do you know nothing has changed?”

“I lived right down the street. I walked past here as a kid all the time.”

Rachel frowned. She didn’t remember Avery from school or living in her neighborhood. Although, she never played with the neighborhood kids except for her best friend, Amy. And they always played at the park. “It looks even sadder than when I lived here.” She sighed.

“Yeah. It’s good to see that some of these homes have been remodeled, but this one does look unkempt. I guess since it’s only your mother living here, she couldn’t keep it up very well.”

“She never cared how it looked even when I was little,” Rachel said. “Wait. How did you know she lives here alone?”

He looked confused. “Everyone knows your father left after Keith was convicted.”

“Well, I didn’t know that until Jeremy told me today,” Rachel said resentfully.

“Sorry. I thought you knew. But then, I should have realized you wouldn’t have known.”

From inside the house, Rachel saw a shadow moving behind the window in the living room. She gasped. It had to be her mother. “Can we keep going? I’m not ready to face her yet.”

“Sure. Of Course.” Avery drove off slowly to the end of the block. He stopped again, this time in front of a larger split-level home. It looked like it had been taken care of with fresh paint and nice landscaping.

“Was this your house?” she asked gently.

He nodded. “Yes. At least until I was eight. After my mom was killed, my father couldn’t even look at the place. We moved across town into a newer neighborhood, and then we moved to southern California when I was a teenager. That’s why I went to college down there.”

“Your poor dad,” Rachel said sadly. “That must have been awful for him. Was it just the two of you?”

“No. I have an older sister, Cameron. She was ten at the time.” He looked over at Rachel. “She was the one who found my mother.”

“Oh, my God! How horrible!”

“It was. I was with her. She walked into the house first and saw mom, and instinctively knew to shield me from seeing her. She dragged me out of the house and to the neighbor’s to call the police.” He hung his head. “I had no idea what had happened, and for days, no one told me anything. All I knew was that my mom was gone, and we were living with Aunt Gladys for a while.”

Rachel looked at Avery curiously. “You lived with Gladys after the murders, yet she was still chosen for Keith’s jury? Doesn’t that seem a little odd?”

“All of this is odd,” Avery said angrily. “Three women killed in their own homes. A little girl murdered. Everyone in town thinking it was a sixteen-year-old boy who committed the murders. Evidence not being tested. A bloody fingerprint not being checked against anyone in town. It’s all off.”

Rachel reached out her hand and placed it tenderly on Avery’s arm. “It’s all strange, I agree. You know what I found odd too? Keith’s trial was less than six months after he was arrested. By today’s standards, that’s fast. Why did they rush it?”

Avery’s brows rose. “Didn’t you notice who the prosecuting attorney was?”

“No. I guess I skipped over names. I didn’t think they were as important as the evidence.”

“Oh, the names are important. The prosecutor was Robert Mitchell,” Avery said.

Rachel frowned as the name sank in. “No.”

Avery nodded. “Yes. As in Jeremy Mitchell’s father.”

Chapter Nine

Rachel returned to her motel room that afternoon to try to get some work done, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her conversation with Avery. Jeremy’s father had been the one to prosecute Keith’s case. And Jeremy had been the prime witness. It all seemed a little too tidy to her.

As she tried to focus on her work at the round table by the window, Rachel kept moving the curtain aside to see if that dark, four-door car was out there. It hadn’t been there since her first night in town, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t watching her. But each time she peered out past the parking lot, there were no occupied cars parked on the street. She should be relieved, but Rachel still had the eerie feeling that someone was watching her.

Finally, absorbed in creating cover concepts for her customer, Rachel lost track of time. When her phone rang, she shook the cobwebs from her mind and noticed the time. It was already six o’clock.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Rachel. It’s Avery. Do you want to grab a bite to eat?”

Rachel frowned. She didn’t remember giving Avery her phone number. “Sure. I’m getting hungry. But how did you get my number?”

“Sorry.” He sounded sheepish. “I called Gladys and begged her for it. Since we saw her together this morning, she thought it would be safe to give it to me.”

“Oh.” Rachel was relieved. At least he got it in a way that made sense. “I can meet you somewhere.”

“Why don’t I pick you up? We can go to the bar downtown or a chain restaurant out near the highway. Your choice.”

“The bar downtown is fine,” she said.

“Great. I’ll be right over.”

Rachel clicked off her phone and headed into the bathroom. When she