How to Kill a Man in Thirty Seconds

Chapter 69: Identity

Once I had reached Apple Valley, I didn't head home. I couldn't bear to see my mother's face knowing what I did.

All these years, I had been digging for the truth, desperately sacrificing everything to find it and now that it was right before my eyes, I wasn't sure if I wanted to look. I was terrified.

I was at a crossroads.

If I went to the cops with the information, perhaps they would do something. But what about mum? I couldn't bear the thought of her finding out about this. She couldn't. She just couldn't. What about Adrian? The guilt would destroy him.

And if Colton Hunt truly was the bastard behind the murder, had it been he that had killed Oliver? Was that why he had left town soon after the funeral? Anger bubbled up in me.

I wanted to sob and scream at how unfair it was all turning out to be. It didn't make sense. How had everything that had happened to my father gotten so irreparably entangled with Adrian?

What were the chances of my father's mistress being Julia Hunt out of all people? Yes, they had grown up in the same town, but how? What were the odds?

Fury and frustration rose within me and I didn't know who or what to direct it towards. Before I knew it, my fingers had pressed in the number of Antonio Garcia, the man who owned the filling station where Adrian and I had first met.

"Hiya, Charley!" the man's cheery voice filled my ears the moment he picked up, and I felt my heart sink further in my chest.

"Antonio, I'm going to ask you something and I want you to be honest. Okay? Years ago, why did you hire me?"

"Oh Chiquita," I heard him murmur solemnly, meaning 'little one' in Spanish.

"Tell me," I insisted, anger and frustration seeping into my voice, "I was a scrawny fifteen-year-old kid. I didn't have the size, nor the qualifications for the job. Why did you hire me?"

There was a prolonged pause.

"It was for old time's sake, Chiquita."

My heart stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Way before I owned the store, kiddo, back when my grandfather was still alive and ran the old place, your father and I used to work in the store."

My eyes shut. No. No. No. A voice in my head was screaming but I knew, with a feeling of impending doom, what was coming.

"Why did you hire Adrian then? He was new to town, knew nobody. Why him?"

There was a pregnant pause as he debated telling me. Finally, Antonio sighed, "For the same reason, sweetheart. His mother used to work here too."

My eyes shut, and yet I could not stop the tears that slipped out. It all made sense now. It made sense how two people with such ill-fated pasts could meet, even against monstrous odds. Antonio's kindness had unwittingly been the carver of this disastrous ending. I gritted my teeth, trying to mask the sob that escaped my throat, even as a ball of emotion climbed up my throat.

"For how long?" I managed, "For how long did they work together?"

Antonio's voice sounded confused, even pained, "A long time, dear. From when he was a teenager... until he left for college."

"Were they friends?" the vicious question slipped out before I could stop it, even as tears brimmed in my eyes. "Or were they something more?"

A shocked pause.