Chapter 6

"Hey," Audrey greeted as she sat next to Madison on the cracked bench in the park. "Nathan said you stopped by to see me the other night."

"I was going to get cupcakes to apologize to you for how nasty I was after dad's funeral," Madison admitted as she sipped on a ginger ale. Her stomach still a bit upset from the alcohol. "But that didn't go as planned so I got a bottle of vodka I thought we could enjoy but then you and Nathan…so I ended up finishing that myself." She paused at Audrey's expression. "Okay, so I'm not the best at apologies but I am sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for anything. I get it."

Madison took another small sip of her ginger ale, pausing for a moment to make sure it was going to stay down. "No wonder Nate likes you. What are you a saint or something?"

Audrey put her head down, "Far from it." Madison was quiet and Audrey ducked her head to catch her line of sight. "Something on your mind?"

"Don't get me wrong, if this wasn't Haven I would have never been able to make peace with my dad but…" Madison stopped short, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer to the question that had been rolling around in her mind since the dead decided to rise and then vanish again.

"Not everything you wanted to hear?"

"No, it was fine. I just wish I could have spoken to Jay too, you know?" Madison took another sip of her drink to swallow down the emotions that threatened to pour out of her. She wasn't about to admit that she would have apologized to Jason for the accident, for calling him that night that put him in danger. "Any idea why only some of the town's dead came back?"

"Kyle, the troubled man, had to have dug their grave."

"Audrey, can I ask you something?" When she nodded Madison continued. "I know it was years ago and the evidence is probably all lost or tampered with knowing Haven but…is there any way we can find out who caused the storm…" Madison trailed off and her hand went to her scar.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Madison. It's not going to be easy but we can look into it. I'll see what Nathan-"

"No," Madison immediately cut her off. "He can't know we are looking into this. If you agree to help me it has to be just the two of us. Not Nate. Not Duke. Not anyone else. I need to know if the person who caused the storm knew what they were doing."

Audrey watched Madison as she subconsciously rubbed her scar, "You think they did it on purpose?"

"I don't know but I need to find out and I can't have anyone else getting hurt in the process."

Audrey was silent for a moment. "I'll do it. I'll help anyway I can and I won't tell Nathan or Duke but Madison I'm not going to put you in danger either so depending on what we find out there may come a point where I have to tell them something."

"Only as a last resort," Madison agreed.

"Did Jason have any enemies? Anyone that could have held a grudge?"

"No." Madison shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. We did stupid stuff like skip class, medicate, drive with no destination in mind. We used to lift beer or a bottle of whatever we could get our hands on from the convenient store. Egged a few houses on mischief night. It's not like we were murderers or anything."

Audrey raised an eyebrow, "Medicate?"

"Mostly weed, occasionally ecstasy on the weekends if there was a party, and then there was this one time we tried acid."

"On your eighteenth birthday," Audrey remembered from the night of the chief's funeral.

Madison adjusted herself in her seat. "Listen, Audrey. You seem to know my brother pretty well and you knew my dad. I'm not them. I was the black sheep of the family and probably always will be. It's never been a secret that I wasn't thrilled my dad was a cop and then Nate followed in his footsteps. Not everything in life is so black and white…right and wrong…I lived in the gray and pushed the line as far as I could."

"I can see why you are friends with Duke," Audrey commented and Madison rolled her eyes. "What's the deal with you two?"

"I like you, Audrey, I really do, and I think you are great with my brother," Madison got up from the bench and tossed her can into the garbage bin. "But even I don't have an answer to that question."

X-X-X

Madison had promised Nathan she would meet him for lunch in town and waited patiently for him at the café. She ordered a coffee for him and an iced tea for herself letting the waiter know she would wait for Nathan to order any food.

"Sorry I'm late," Nathan apologized as he joined her at the table.

The waiter delivered their drinks and let them know he would give them some time to decide. Madison automatically grabbed his coffee and took a sip. "Give it another minute or two."

Nathan nodded in thanks, pushing it off to the side. "How's the house?"

"Weird," Madison admitted, not bothering to look up from the menu. "I think we should sell it."

He was surprised by the statement to say the least, "Where are you going to live?"

"I'll find an apartment or something." She shrugged, flipping to the next page of the menu.

"Mads, what's really going on?"

"Nothing. Forget I brought it up."

Nathan used his finger to push down the menu so he could catch Madison's line of sight. "If it's too much for you, you can always stay at my place. I'm usually at Audrey's anyways."

"Speaking of," Madison easily changed the subject, not in the mood for a therapy session with her brother. "What's the deal with you two?"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "She's my partner." He was hoping he would get to see how Madison was handling being back in Haven but as always she turned the tables on him.

"You sleep with all your partners? Because wasn't there a brief time there that Stan was your partner?" She teased, setting the menu down on the table. She leaned closer to him so that no one else could hear her, "Is there something you need to tell me, Nate?"

"You're hilarious," he answered in the most monotone voice Madison had ever heard and she busted out laughing at her own joke.

The waiter came over to take their order and while Nathan knew Madison was trying to put on a brave face he could see the pain swimming behind her eyes. He hated to admit it but maybe it was better if she went back to New York; away from the memories and away from the troubles.

X-X-X

Madison took a deep breath and walked through the door of the Haven Herald, plastering an easy smile on her face. The Teagues could sense a lie a mile away and the last thing she needed was them getting in her way.

"Maddie," Dave greeted as she pushed the small gate open to join them at their desks. "What brings you here, darling?"

Vince didn't seem to be around and she thought this might be easier than she had intended. Dave had always been easier to lie to than his brother. "It's been so long since I've been in here thought I would come for a visit." The lie that came out was so smooth she almost believed it herself. "Have to say, it hasn't really changed much."

"Why fix something that wasn't broken in the first place, right?"

Madison sat down in one of the wooden chairs and mentally prepared herself. "Is Vince here? I feel bad for brushing you guys off earlier."

"Don't you worry about a thing. We understand," Dave assured her, motioning out the window with a nod of his head, "He went to the diner to pick up our lunch."

Madison kept up light conversation with Dave who was eating up every word as she scanned the office to see if anything really had been moved since she had last been in there. Her eyes landed briefly on the file cabinet she knew they kept all the old newspaper articles in right in the same place it had always been.

"I really should be going," Madison stood up from her chair.

Dave frowned, setting his cup of tea back on the saucer. "Vince should be back any minute if you want to wait."

"No, I'll be back," she promised.

X-X-X

"It's all in the tumblers," Madison mumbled as she worked on the lock of the Haven Herald. It had been years since she picked a lock but the Teagues hadn't changed theirs and it was easier this time.

She got a bit nostalgic breaking into the Herald but pushed the memories aside. Sticking the small flashlight between her teeth she made a beeline to the file cabinet but found it to be locked.

"Jesus Christ," she mumbled, pulling out her lock pick again. "It's like they don't trust anyone."

Finally getting the cabinet open she stuck the flashlight between her teeth as she thumbed through the articles searching for anything from the time around the accident. She paused at Jason's obituary shaking her head as it stated he was taken from Haven too soon by an unfortunate storm. She set it aside and flipped through a few more files but there was nothing else there. She was about to give up for the night when an article caught her eye. It was barely an article at all, more like a paragraph because they needed something to fill the space but it talked about another car accident on Route 27 the same day just about five miles down the road. There were no names listed or model of the car but this proved her theory.

There was someone else on the road with them that night.

X-X-X

"Crocker," Madison called out, boarding the Cape Rouge.

She ran a tired hand across her face trying to wake herself up. It had been quite some time she had used any recreational drugs but the thought became more appealing whether it would be to help her to sleep without nightmares or to keep her awake so she didn't have to sleep at all.

"Just in case no one has told you recently," Duke came up from below deck, drying his hands on a dish towel. "You look like shit."

Madison stuck her tongue out like a petulant child, "You know how to make all the girls go weak at the knees."

"Don't forget it," Duke winked, tossing the towel to the side.

Madison went to smile but swayed on her feet before dropping to the ground. Duke caught her just in time before she hit her head on a crate that was nearby. "Maddie!" Duke held on to the back of her head with one hand and rubbed a thumb across her cheek with the other. "Hey, hey, c'mon." She started to stir, blinking a few times before finally focusing on Duke. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she put her hand out and he helped her to stand, keeping a hand on her elbow just in case she wasn't steady. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Duke tried to read her face to figure out what was going on but she had gotten better at hiding her true feelings from him; something that frustrated him to no end.

Madison ran a tired hand over her face, "Just a lot going on right now."

"When's the last time you slept?" Duke questioned, moving the pair over to a chair that he sat her down in before pulling over a barrel to sit next to her.

Madison shook her head, ignoring his question. "I'm thinking of heading back to New York."

"To get your stuff?" When she didn't answer, he loudly sighed. "You're leaving. Again."

A tear slipped down her cheek and she angrily wiped it away, "I don't want to but it seems crying is all I can do since I have been back in Haven and I hate feeling this helpless. I'm not sure how much more binge drinking nights my liver can handle and Mrs. Clark had me served with a restraining order this morning."

"What?" Duke was purely shocked. Sure, Mrs. Clark had a hard time coping after Jason's death but Duke still helped her whenever she needed something and not once did she mention anything about Madison. "Does Nathan know?"

"I didn't tell him so unless something comes across his desk I doubt it. There's nothing he can do."

All that Duke needed to hear was that she didn't want to leave Haven and he was going to do all he could to make sure that she stayed. "He's the chief now there has to be something."

"She has every right to be upset."

He could see her going back to that awful night of the storm. He grabbed Madison's face in his hands, "You did not cause the accident."

"Maybe not but I survived."

Duke was about to try and comfort her when they heard Audrey calling out his name before climbing aboard.

"Oh good, you're here," Audrey smiled at Madison, "I wanted to talk to you. Is everything okay?"

Madison wiped her face and sighed, "Yeah, what's going on?"

"Well," Audrey motioned to the manila folder in her hand, "You are definitely a little more than the black sheep you led me to believe."

"Meaning?"

Audrey opened the file and started to read from the list, "You stole more than just a couple bottles of liquor from the convenient store."

Madison couldn't help but smirk as she shared a look with Duke, "I'm not a thief. I'm just really good at acquiring things that aren't mine."

"And before you left you were dealing drugs," Audrey kept reading from the list, glancing up to the pair for confirmation.

"Nope, delivering packages. I was like the post man except I didn't have off on Sundays."

Madison sat on the end of her bed; her window cracked to let the smoke out as she exhaled. Her dad would have her ass if he caught her smoking in the house, again. Hypocritical is what he was though because he smoked in the house all the time. She heard someone on the stairs and snubbed out her cigarette on the windowsill before tossing the butt into an old soda bottle that was filled halfway with water. She tucked it back in the bottom drawer of her desk and sprayed her perfume, falling back on the bed just as there was a knock on her door.

Nathan waited just a second before opening the door. Whatever he had initially come into her room for was easily forgotten as a scowl spread across his face. "Smells like an ashtray in here."

"What do you want, Nate?"

The disgust was clear on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned in the doorway. "For you to tell me that it wasn't you that broke into the water plant after hours last night."

"Fine, it wasn't me."

"Mads, we have an eyewitness and the person they saw matches your description."

"You said you wanted me to say it wasn't me so I did." She rolled over on her stomach, resting her head on her hands. "You're still in the academy, Nate. You can't do shit."

"I can tell the chief."

"As your boss or as our dad?"

"Does it matter? What were you doing there?"

"Someone needed a package delivered."

"What was in the package?"

"Didn't ask."

"Who did you deliver it for?"

"Yeah, I'm not telling you that. You want to get me in trouble to further your career then go right ahead but I got paid to do a job and I did it."

"What was in the packages?" Audrey questioned, tucking the folder under her arm.

Madison couldn't help but meet Duke's eye, "rule number one..."

"Never look inside," Duke finished with a smirk.