The heavy rain that had been falling for the last few hours continued to beat against the large bay window as Olivia Stone sat in the plush recliner, watching the droplets run down the glass. It had been raining on and off all week and while the annoyingly cheerful weather girl on channel 4 had promised clear skies for the weekend, it was already Friday night and it hardly seemed likely that they were in store for anything but more of the same.
Originally, the forty-two-year-old blonde had intended to spend the night in front of the television with a fire going in the hearth and a glass of her favorite wine. TCM was running one of her favorite old movies tonight and with her daughter having left to go back to college early, Olivia had been looking forward to a quiet evening alone. It had been a busy week at the local hospital where she worked as a pediatric nurse and she was looking forward to a quiet night.
However, when she had settled down in front of the television and turned on the remote, all she found was a blank screen. Calling the cable company, she'd gotten a recording that said they were having technical difficulties and service would be restored as soon as possible. Evidently, the storm had knocked out the cable connection somewhere along the line.
She'd read a book for a while but eventually decided she really wasn't in the mood. Picking up the phone, she started to dial her best friend, Mindy's number, thinking that if nothing else, they could spend an hour or two trading the latest gossip. Mindy always had the best dirt on who was doing what with whom. Unfortunately, all she got was an answering machine and the recollection that Mindy had mentioned the possibility that she and her husband, Tom, might be going away for the weekend.
The thought of Mindy and Tom frolicking the night away at some bed and breakfast reminded Olivia that intimate companionship was something she greatly missed in the two years since her divorce. Since becoming single again, she'd dated on and off, but in a town the size of Westington, her options had turned out to be quite limited.
Not everyone really knew each other, but it was a good bet that everyone had a friend of a friend who knew someone who knew you. As a result, a fair number of the men she'd met in the last year knew, or knew someone who'd known Carl Stone. And if they did, they certainly knew he'd moved upstate after a really nasty divorce, the central issue of which had been that he'd been screwing his twenty-eight-year-old assistant every chance he could. Half of those who knew looked on her as someone desperate to land a new husband and the others saw her as a lonely divorcee who was an easy lay. As if there was no middle ground.
With Mindy unavailable, Olivia briefly considered trying Sally Parks, another of her friends. Sally was going through a divorce and the two shared common ground. However, at the last moment, the blonde remembered that Sally was on her "men, who needs them" kick again and Olivia really wasn't in the mood for that tonight either. So it was just a glass of wine and watching the raindrops fall. An early bed seemed her best option, hoping tomorrow really did bring out the sun.
Olivia had just shut down the fireplace when the telephone rang. Putting down her still half-full glass of wine, she picked it up and heard an almost hysterical young woman on the other end. At first, she thought it was her daughter and her heart skipped a beat. Then she realized that the voice wasn't Carol's but was nevertheless familiar.
"Mrs. Stone, is Carol home?" the crying girl managed to control herself long enough to ask.
"Kathleen, Kathleen Freeman?" Olivia asked as she finally placed the voice and the girl acknowledged her identity. "Oh Kathleen, I'm sorry but Carol left early this morning to go back to school. She wanted to stop and visit her father on the way."
Despite the animosity between the two of them, Olivia and Carl had gone out of their way not to let it destroy each other's relationship with their only child.
"Oh God," Kathleen said, reverting back to a tearful voice, "I was hoping she was home. I don't know who else to call."
"Kathleen, what's wrong?" Olivia asked, her concern genuine. She had known the twenty-year-old since her daughter had met her back in their first year of high school.
"I've had an accident," the girl managed to say. "I smashed up my car."
"Are you alright?" Olivia quickly asked. "Is anyone else hurt?"
"I'm just shaken up a little," Kathleen replied. "There was no one else in the car. I skidded off the road and hit a tree."
"Thank God," Olivia said.
"But the police are here and they keep asking me how many drinks I've had," the girl said as she began crying again. "I swear, I only had a few beers, I'm not drunk."
"Where are you?" Olivia asked.
"I'm out on Route 6, just past Miller's Crossing."
Olivia quickly did the math and figured she could be there in just over ten minutes, even in the rain. She told Kathleen not to worry and that she'd be right there.
Grabbing her raincoat and the car keys, Olivia started up her old Escort and heading down to the interchange that would put her on Route 6. She was glad she had only the half glass of wine because with the roads this wet, and visibility limited, it definitely wasn't a night to be driving impaired.
-=-=-=-=
It would've been hard to miss the accident site, even on a night like this. The flashing lights of the police cruiser and a tow truck were visible far down the road. Covering herself with an umbrella, Olivia got out and quickly found Kathleen.
"Kathleen, are you okay?" she asked again, looking over the girl for any sign of injury.
"I'm fine," Kathleen answered, her voice shaky and unconvincing.
"What happened?"
"I thought I saw someone or something in the road and tried to slow down," she explained. "Then I started skidding and couldn't stop."
"Then it wasn't your fault," Olivia said.
"I don't think the police believe me," Kathleen said. "Once they found out I was coming back from Gilhooley's, all they kept asking was how much I'd had to drink and when I told them they acted like they didn't believe me."
Gilhooley's was a rather secluded bar and grill just outside of town. It was the sort of place people went to either drink in private or not be seen for other reasons. Carl, Olivia had later learned, was a frequent patron.
"Kathleen, how many drinks did you have?" Olivia asked, "And I need you to tell me the truth, I can't help you otherwise."
"Only two, I swear," Kathleen answered. "I went there to meet someone and it didn't really go well. That's why I left after only two drinks."
Olivia's gut reaction was that Kathleen was telling the truth. Whether she could convince the on site officers of that was another thing. Working at the hospital, she had met just about every one wearing a badge in the county at one time or another. Hopefully the two that belonged to the cruiser over there were some of the more reasonable ones.
Leaving Kathleen sitting inside the small kiosk that served as a waiting station for the county bus line, Olivia headed over to the closest figure in blue. The young man, who she guessed couldn't be much older than Kathleen, told him that she would have to talk to his partner, who at the moment was engaged in conversation with the tow truck driver. She had to wait a few minutes until he was finished.
"Oh shit!" Olivia said under her breath when the senior officer turned around and headed back toward her. "Over fifty cops in this town and it would have to be him."
