Chapter 41

"His truck was found, on the other side of town, upside down in the river two days later by fishermen. He was dead, still strapped in the driver's seat. They tried to say that the car was full of beer cans, but Dani's father didn't drink. Dani's mother didn't start until after her father died. But once she did it made it easier to start up all the rumors and just act like they'd always been the town drunks."

"And how old was Dani then?" Luca's voice cracked as he asked the question.

"I think three or four? Little. Too little." Vos turned away from the forest and threw himself down in a chair, his eyes unfocused as he continued to stare off, lost in his own thoughts. "Clara Beth lost herself in guilt after that. I don't know why she told him. The day she talked to me she was drunk, so it was jumbled. But I think he'd heard a rumor and she was tired of denying it when it was true. And after that she started drinking at night. She lost her job at the bakery pretty quickly because she c