Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

searched his camp for Roland, but there was no sign of him.
    Roland wouldn’t be found either, not unless he wanted to be.
    Now they sat around the fire pit on stumps. The remains of the last fire was nothing but black, cold ashes, much the way Aidan felt inside. More fish cops had shown up to take care of his father’s body. Aidan tried to put what they were doing to his father out of his mind. The sound of the zipper, as they sealed Earl into a plastic body bag, caused his stomach to churn.
    He’d killed his father. He was a killer.
    “Harte.” Judd snapped his fingers in front of Aidan’s face, breaking into the horrific replaying of what he’d done. “From the top. Again.”
    Aidan swallowed the bile he’d been fighting since realizing that his own father had been the one causing Sonya all the trouble this summer. “I woke around 1:00 a.m. when I heard what sounded like a gunshot or a firecracker. At first, I thought my da—” he stopped himself and had to swallow. If he kept referring to Earl by Dad, he wouldn’t be able to hold it together. “I thought Earl and Roland had decided to light their fireworks early—”
    “Homemade fireworks, you said?” Judd clarified, looking at his notes. The sun had started to rise, a faint blush in the east, giving enough light for everyone to see too much. “How did your father and uncle know how to make fireworks?”
    “Earl was an explosives expert in Vietnam. What he knew he taught Roland and vice versa.”
    “How did he acquire the necessary ingredients to make fireworks?”
    Aidan shrugged. “You can make a bomb using ordinary household materials.”
    “A bomb?” Judd jumped on the word. “What was it, fireworks or a bomb that your father made?”
    “I didn’t see him make the pipe bombs, but that’s what he was throwing at the Double Dippin’ . I only saw him make the fireworks.” Aidan sighed. Why hadn’t he paid more attention to what was happening in his own camp, rather than being so concerned with what was happening with Sonya? Maybe he would have figured this out sooner, before someone had to die.
    Nikolai raised his hand. “I can verify the fireworks. I witnessed Roland and Earl both working on them last night. I’ve seen them do it year after year. They were planning a late Fourth of July celebration for tonight as the weather was supposed to be nice.” He paused and then his voice got quiet. “We were going to have a bonfire and roast hotdogs.”
    “Okay,” Judd addressed Aidan again, his pencil scratching on his notepad. “Let’s get back to when you realized your father was missing.”
    “When I woke up, Earl was gone, but Roland was still sleeping. I knew that Earl wouldn’t light off the fireworks without Roland. They were a pair when it came to explosives. Turned them into kids.” True juvenile delinquents. “Anyway, I got dressed and went to investigate. One of the skiffs was gone and then a bomb went off near where the Double Dippin’ was anchored.”
    “It was then that you realized your father was after Sonya?”
    Aidan nodded. “I had some suspicions when her window had been knocked out by a rock and it was assumed someone with a slingshot had done it. Earl is—was—real handy with a slingshot.”
    “Why didn’t you come forward then?” Judd asked, his shrewd gaze narrowed.
    “I couldn’t believe it, or see why Earl would do something like that. It didn’t add up.” Now he knew different. Acid burped in his stomach again as he replayed the scene in his head of his father confusing Sonya for Kyra.
    “So you grabbed the other skiff and made your way to the Double Dippin’.” Judd pulled him back from the nightmare. “Then what?”
    “When I got there Sonya and Garrett were already in the water. I don’t know how, but I assumed they jumped overboard to avoid the pipe bomb. Except Sonya would never jump willingly, so Garrett would have had to push her into the ocean.”
    “She must have been terrified.” Nikolai shook his head. “My poor girl.”
    “What was Earl doing?” Judd steered the subject back to where he wanted it.
    “Ranting.” Aidan swallowed hard.
    “What about?”
    Aidan turned to Nikolai. This next part was going to be hard for the man to hear. Hard enough for him to say. “I’m sorry, Nikolai. I didn’t know any of this, I swear.” He turned back to Judd and Skip. “When my dad drank, he’d sometimes confuse Sonya for Kyra. He was calling her Kyra, telling her that he