Chapter 36 - Aiden
After a couple nights under the stars, I’m ready to face the world again. I’ve heard the birds chirping, and heard the crickets at night. Last night there was an owl nearby, and I fell asleep to the sounds of the wind in the trees.
I realize now that the hotel isn’t the problem. The hotel might be huge, and ugly, and bring in lots of tourists that don’t respect the area – but it will also bring trade and breathe life back into our dying town. The hotel could be a good thing.
The problem is the McCoys. Their opportunistic, vulture-like attitude to business has always been a cancer on this town. If I can’t stop the hotel, then at least I can take back my father’s businesses.
I’ve finally allowed myself to think about the past. Even though it hurts as much as ever, it doesn’t seem as hopeless as before.
Ten years ago, Mara McCoy and I were dating. The whole town knew that we’d get married one day. My father’s business was booming. He ran a small transportation business, Clarke Transportation, with a fleet of a dozen trucks that ran routes throughout the area. The three of us brothers were set to inherit it.
Our two families were inseparable, and we’d gone down to the creek for a summer picnic. That day, Mara fell into Lang Creek and my father jumped in to save her. He was in the icy water for a little too long, spent a little too much time fishing her out. With his typical stubbornness, he refused to go to the doctor. It wasn’t until the pneumonia was too far gone that he finally went to the hospital.
That’s when I learned his health insurance wouldn’t cover his care. He stayed in hospital until we were completely broke. The McCoys offered to buy up the business to fund his hospital care. It wasn’t until he died that we realized what we’d done. They’d taken advantage of three teenage boys to acquire the most profitable trucking company for a hundred miles. They renamed it ‘McCoy Trucking’ and paraded the business in front of us until the three of us fled town. Dominic and I to the mountains, and Ethan away to school. The ultimate shame was having to go back and work for the people that betrayed us.
They preyed on three teenage boys. Dominic had power of attorney over Dad, but he wasn’t capable of making that kind of decision. There was no lawyer, no advice, just a hastily drawn-up contract by the McCoys.
It’s not about the hotel. It was never about the hotel. I’m not mad about Maddy, or her involvement in the hotel construction. When I pack up my truck and head back to town, my heart feels light again. I drive for miles, humming to myself until I get radio signal, and then listening to the radio until I get phone signal. Once my phone gets back into range, it starts buzzing and buzzing and buzzing with missed calls and text messages. I frown, glancing over at it as I drive.
I pick it up and scroll through the missed calls. Bill, my brothers, even Karen McCoy. No call from Maddy, or anyone else from the company. My heart starts to beat a little bit harder as my phone starts to ring.
“Bill,” I say, putting the phone to my ear as I drive down the deserted highway.
“Aiden, where the fuck have you been!”
“I’ve been up past Wolf Mountain for three days. I told Ethan I was leaving to clear my head. Why? What’s going on? I’ve got thousands of missed calls.”
“The hotel,” Bills says. “Aiden, someone’s burned the hotel down.”
I almost drop the phone in shock. My mouth hangs open and it takes all my concentration to keep my vehicle on the road.
“Aiden? Aiden are you there?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m here,” I answer. “What… What do you mean?”
“I mean someone took a match and lit the fucking thing up like a Christmas tree. There’s nothing left.”
I blow out the air from my lungs and shake my head. “I’ll be back in town in six hours, Bill, I’ll come straight in.”
“Any idea who could have done it?” he asks.
I think to the look in Ethan’s eye when I left, and all the talk between him and Dominic about burning the place down. They wouldn’t actually do it, would they? Ethan is a straight shooter. He wouldn’t commit a crime like that. Dominic, maybe…
“No,” I lie. “No idea. I’ve been out here for days,” I say.
“Alright. I’ll see you when you get in.”
I hang up the phone and toss it into the cup holder beside me. I grip the steering wheel with both hands as my eyes get wider and I shake my head.
“Ethan, Dominic, what have you done?” I breathe. “What the fuck have you done?”
I keep repeating it to myself like a mantra. I flick the radio off and drive in silence until the road gets familiar and I finally pull into Lang Creek.
When I get to the police station, Sheriff Whittaker comes out to greet me. He extends his hand and pumps my arm up and down.
“Aiden, thanks for coming in.”
“So it was arson?”
“Forensics are still investigating, but we’ve pretty much narrowed down the point of ignition to two sources.” He looks around and lowers his voice. “If it’s not arson, then I’m a fucking lady in a tutu.”
I blow the air out of my nose and shake my head.
Bill chews his lip and wrings his hands together. “I hate to ask you this, Aiden, but I’m going to have to ask you to make a statement. We’re asking everyone in town to make one, just to get ahead of the investigation.”
My eyes widen. “You don’t think that I…”
“No!” he exclaims. “No, no I don’t think it was you. We just need to know your movements from Thursday morning to Friday evening.” He looks around again and grins at me. “If you ask me, whoever did it is a fucking national hero.”
I nod, but my face stays steady. I think back to Thursday, from the morning when Maddy confronted me to going to Ethan’s house to taking off on my own. When the fire was started, I was on my own in the mountains. I don’t have an alibi, and even though Bill is saying he’s glad the place burned down, I know how these investigations go.
It’ll be a witch hunt. Who better to blame than the poster boy who opposed the construction of the hotel? I also happen to be the guy who conveniently decided to go camping on his own when the whole thing happened? I nod to Bill and follow him into the police station. My heart sinks with every step, and I try not to think about the fact that out of all those missed calls on my phone – not a single one of them was from Maddy.