Down a Dark Road: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Castillo Linda

Author:Castillo, Linda [Castillo, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, thriller, Crime, Suspense, Contemporary, Adult
Amazon: 1250121302
Goodreads: 68690521
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2017-07-11T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

I’m generally pretty adept at keeping a healthy emotional distance from cases that affect me personally. I’ve learned to compartmentalize, cram all those gnarly, self-defeating emotions in a box and deal with them at an appropriate time and in a manner that doesn’t include three glasses of wine or, God forbid, that bottle of vodka we keep in the cabinet above the fridge. According to Tomasetti, it’s all about perspective and moderation—and not necessarily in that order.

My feelings about the death of Joseph King are complex. The sense of loss is surprisingly keen. Some small part of my heart is broken because my childhood friend is dead, five children have been left without a father, and a piece of my past is gone forever. By all indications Joseph’s life was fraught with bad decisions heaped atop poor judgment, and both of those things ultimately played a role in bringing it to a violent and early close.

It’s the lingering sense of injustice that grates on my cop’s sensibilities. The knowledge that the whole truth hasn’t been told, will probably never be known, and the accused isn’t around to set the record straight.

It’s been twenty-four hours since the SWAT sniper took the shot. The children are expected to be reunited with Rebecca and Daniel Beachy sometime today. Once the crime-scene unit was finished at the Beachy house and Joseph’s body was removed by the coroner’s office, half a dozen Amish women descended and cleaned up the mess. That’s the thing about the Amish. When one of their own—or anyone for that matter—gets sick or is hurt and in need, they drop everything and rush in to help.

Joseph’s death hit me harder than I expected. The truth of the matter is I went for years without thinking of him. When I did, it was just in passing or when I was feeling nostalgic or maybe when I drove past that old roadside stand on Hogpath Road. Until yesterday, that was the extent of my recollection. I’d only known him for five years after all. In the scope of a lifetime, a drop in the bucket.

But they were formative years. A period in which every experience is a first and you feel every little thing all the way to your soul. If an Amish girl could have a superhero, a playmate, and a big brother all rolled into one, Joseph King was mine. He was my friend. My coconspirator. My partner in crime. And, later, my first big crush. He was larger than life, and for a short span of time, I worshiped the ground he walked on.

Now, when I think of him, I won’t wonder what he’s done with his life or if he’s happy with the way things turned out. I’ll think of the way he died and the role I played.

In the last twenty-four hours, everything that was said and done inside that house has replayed in my head a hundred times. I see the expression on Joseph’s face when he told me he didn’t kill his wife.

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