I don’t think. He had more control than others of his kind. He prided himself in that.”
“Not all serial killers lack control or feel a compulsion to constantly seek out victims,” said Kingsley. “Some are opportunistic killers. I suspect your grandfather is one of those.” Kingsley looked Everett in the eyes. “You can go for years without killing, can’t you? You’re like the smoker who can just stop and not look back and not obsess about having another cigarette.”
“But I’ll bet Everett couldn’t resist the possibility of killing Ellie Rose,” said Diane. “It was an opportunity presented to him, so he brought the hatchet. It’s not that easy for a fourteen-year-old, like you were, to strangle someone. He knew there was a possibility she was still alive. And the pull of nostalgia was just too great, even for a man of his control.”
“Are you serious?” said Tyler. He briefly took his eyes off his grandfather, and Everett started to reach for his ankle gun. “Watch it, old man. Is this true?” he asked him.
Everett straightened up. “Rubbish. Fantasy.”
“Not according to your sister, Maybelle,” said Diane.
Everett looked sharply at Diane, his eyes wide with surprise. He paused for many long moments, staring at Diane.
“Mags has to be a hundred and ten by now,” he whispered.
“Not quite a hundred. Ninety-seven, I believe,” said Diane.
“Senile,” said Everett. Some of his smugness came back into his face.
“Actually, quite lucid,” said Diane. “Creepy as hell, but her story is consistent with what we found in the well.”
The smug look was short-lived. His mouth turned down into a frown.
“You know,” said Diane, “I’ll bet when you had your fingerprints taken at the time you were bonded for your business, you worried. You worried if they were on the items you dropped in the well when your father was coming to take your sister away. It was a long shot that they would ever be found, but it had to give you pause. And then came Dr. Marcella Payden, archaeologist and curious homeowner. She was looking for the artist who had created the broken pottery that she discovered in the fire pit in her yard and painted the portraits she found hidden in the walls. What if Marcella found your sister, Maybelle, and she told about the well? There goes your reputation. And here your son is about to run for U.S. congressman. You couldn’t do anything when your father sold the property—you couldn’t tell him it should stay in the family because of what was in the well, but you could do something now to keep the current owner quiet. Had you planned to try and buy it back? Maybe clean out the well?”
Everett said nothing. He stared at Diane so hard, she thought he was trying to will her to shut up.
“What well? What’s this about?” said Tyler.
“It’s about why you are innocent,” said Diane.
That kept his attention on her story. Tyler was looking for a way out. When he first came into the room, he didn’t think there was a way out without more murder, and his having to leave behind everything he knew. He had hope now, and Diane was counting on his hope to get them out of this alive.
“At first I wondered about Mary Lassiter,” said Diane. “How did she figure in this? Of course, when we found out that she worked at the historical society where Marcella Payden was asking questions about who lived in the house in Pigeon Ridge, I realized that Mary Lassiter was your age. You both were contemporaries in Rosewood. Marcella sparked a memory in Mary Lassiter. She knew something about an artist who disappeared when she was a girl. The artist had a brother, Everett. She remembered you. She probably looked you up on the Internet. People do that a lot these days, trying to get in touch with people they used to know. For her it was probably a lark, maybe a chance for a little romance late in life. She didn’t know you would consider her to be a loose end to be tied up, along with Marcella Payden. That’s why Mary Lassiter’s purse was stolen when she was killed. You wanted her cell phone, but didn’t want the police to focus on the phone. You didn’t want them looking at her call records. But Sheriff Braden is very thorough, and he’ll check the call records as well as the Internet history records where she worked at the historical society.” Diane paused a