Chapter 5 - WHAT BROCK CHOSE TO BELIEVE
Two days later, Cassidy gave her statement to a detective who had no personal connection to Trent or Brock.
Frank waited down the hall.
When Cassidy finished, she asked Frank to come inside.
She looked drained.
But clearer.
“Trent called Brock around eight,” she said.
She remembered Trent stepping onto the back porch with his phone.
When Brock arrived, Trent met him outside.
By the time Brock entered the house, Trent had already constructed a story.
Cassidy had been drinking.
Cassidy was overwhelmed.
Cassidy had threatened to take Lydia and drive away.
Cassidy was “having one of her episodes.”
None of that was true.
Cassidy told Brock she wanted Trent to leave.
Brock did not order Trent out.
He did not call another unit.
He did not create a domestic-disturbance report.
Instead, he told them both to cool down.
“Why?” Frank asked.
Cassidy gave him a long look.
“Because Trent and Brock have known each other since high school.”
Frank knew that.
What he had not known was how often Trent had used it.
Rodeo committee fundraisers.
Fishing weekends.
Contracting work on Brock’s garage.
Nothing inherently wrong.
Enough familiarity, however, to change the way one man heard another.
“Brock left,” Cassidy said. “Trent stood at the window until the cruiser turned onto the county road.”
Then Trent smiled.
Cassidy still remembered the exact sentence.
“See? Even Brock knows how you get.”
Frank looked down.
That phrase had appeared before.
Trent had used it with him too.
Last Christmas.
When Cassidy locked herself in the guest bathroom after an argument.
Frank had accepted Trent’s explanation.
Cassidy had been anxious.
Cassidy had overreacted.
Cassidy needed space.
Frank felt suddenly sick.
Trent had not just been lying differently to different people.
May you like
He had been telling everyone the same lie.
And making sure they repeated it back to Cassidy.
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