He dropped his chin and shook his head in amusement as huffed laughter floated past his curled lips. “I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel like we’re kids sharing ghost stories at summer camp.”
It started to feel like this story had begun when we were kids, and if he didn’t hurry it along, I’d need a walker to get off this dock.
“Anyway, back to what I was saying…” He grabbed another beer for himself and passed me a wine cooler. “One theory is that the dam truly opened by accident or oversight, and the authorities—probably shitting themselves—went to the Bennetts for help covering it up. Because money solves everything. It makes the world go ’round.”
My mouth opened and closed a few times, the words becoming stuck in transit from my brain to my tongue. I hated questioning everything he said, and I knew if I kept it up, he’d stop talking. But if there was one thing I couldn’t stand listening to, it would be derogatory comments or opinions based solely on the representation, or appearance, of a person. And I had to speak up. “I’m sorry, Drew, but I have to cut in here.”
He humorously rolled his eyes, but he did give me a chance to speak my mind.
“I can assume that you’ve never met these people, right?” When he nodded, no longer finding my interruption entertaining, I continued. “I get that your grandmother knew them and, based on her relationship with them—and the fact that you clearly despise this family—I take it she didn’t have a favorable opinion of them, either. Am I still on the right track here?”
“Yes,” he said, dragging it out until it sounded more like a snake’s hiss than a word.
“But so far, all I’ve heard about is how evil they are because they have money. I don’t understand what being rich has to do with anything. If you were loaded, wouldn’t you use it to your advantage? I don’t find it fair to attack a person’s credibility—or the reputation of an entire family—based on their social standing any more than, say, on what color bedsheets they slept on.”
A part of me regretted what I said, even though I believed he needed to hear it. Hell, a lot of people probably needed to be reminded that a person’s character isn’t defined by physical or materialistic things, but rather their actions. However, the way he regarded me, silently staring right through me, left me wishing I’d kept my opinion to myself.
“Maybe that’s because you won’t let me finish.” Thankfully, there was a hint of humor in his tone—it sounded more like a tractor dragging laughter over a gravel road, throaty and barely audible, but it was definitely there.
I rolled my wrist, gesturing for him to continue.
“The other theory is that the Bennetts were responsible for the dam opening early. My grandmother was convinced something happened, though she was never sure of what, and they covered it up by flooding the town a day early.”
“Are you saying your grandmother believed the Bennetts were responsible for the disappearance of this other family?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what she thought.”
“But why? I don’t even know who went missing, let alone why these people would have anything to do with it. I need a motive, Drew,” I demanded comically, showing just how into this I was. “I can’t get behind any conspiracy without at least a motive.”
“Okay, I’m going to do my best at painting the entire picture for you, but to do that, you’re not allowed to interrupt. Got it?” He pierced me with his stare until I nodded my agreement. Then he waggled his brows and smiled, as if he’d just won some sort of game. “So I told you the Bennetts owned the majority of the land in and around Chogan, but what I didn’t tell you was that another family, the Crowes, were the ones who worked the land.”
I had to concentrate extra hard to keep from asking the question that burned my tongue.
“Needless to say, the two families hated each other. Their feud went back generations, likely to the beginning of Chogan. Who knows? Anyway, it was very much a privileged-versus-pauper sort of thing, and without one family packing up and moving, there would’ve never been an end to it. The Bennetts would always own and run the town, and the Crowes would always work themselves to death on the land. So really, the flood was a blessing for one of them.”
My drink grew warm in my hand, because I was so enthralled with his tale that I couldn’t do anything other than sit there and absorb every word he uttered. This could very well be an episode of Law and Order.
“In fact, the Crowes were the ones who coined the saying, if you love it, a Bennett will take it. Because that’s how they saw it happen time and time again. From what my grandmother said, it all started when the Bennetts somehow forced the Crowes to sell them their farmland. It happened long before my grandmother’s time, so she was never sure of the details, but apparently, there was some legal battle over the property, and in the end…well, I’m sure you can guess who won. Anyway, they could continue to live there and profit off the land, but they were no longer the owners.”
Evidently, I’d grown very invested in this story. Every muscle in my body coiled tight with the intense anger that I felt on behalf of people I’d never met, and I became convinced that it wouldn’t go away unless this family was given a happily ever after.
Except this was true crime.
Which meant that was highly unlikely.
“Rumor had it that one of the Crowe boys and the Bennett grandson had gotten into an altercation the night before the flood, during the final Chogan Fourth of July celebration. All over a girl. My grandmother was never able to get the specifics because, clearly, they all went missing less than twenty-four hours later—and she wasn’t there. But from what she gathered, it was all because Bennett’s girlfriend had left him for the Crowe boy.”
I could no longer keep my thoughts to myself. Like a rush of air, my words spewed from my mouth. “You think an entire family went missing, five people, all over a girl? What kind of animals were these people?”
Drew shrugged and offered me the last piece of chocolate, except I was too deep in this mystery to eat anything. So he tossed it into his mouth, and then made me regret my decision by taking his time chewing the treat. If I’d just taken it, he could’ve been carrying on with his story by now.
Finally, he finished swallowing the dessert, took a swig of beer to wash it down, and then leaned forward. That one move told me that what came next would be worth the wait, and as if being pulled by a string, I automatically leaned toward him as well.
“It’s really not that hard of a concept to grasp, considering they were used to getting everything they wanted. Losing something, especially to a Crowe, wouldn’t have been tolerated. But even so, Grans always believed that whatever happened, it was between the two boys.”
“How old were these kids?”
“Early twenties. So really, they weren’t boys, per se, but they certainly weren’t adults.”
“Well, that changes the picture in my mind somewhat. I imagined they were teenagers; then you called them boys, and I got even more confused. Still, I can’t understand how two guys arguing over the same girl could cause an entire family to disappear.”
He leaned closer, his fingertips dancing along my knees while his eyes held me hostage, threatening to pull me into their burning depths. “I don’t have all the details, and most of what I do know is speculative, but Grans believed it enough to dedicate her entire life to this place.”