such an expensive piece of jewelry to a burglary?”
“Arrogance?” Dale suggested. “Is that gold chain really worth that much? If so, someone will definitely be missing their expensive bauble sooner rather than later. In fact, what do you wanna bet me that we get a call first thing tomorrow morning reporting that it was stolen?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” Lando stated. “This could be the break we’ve been looking for. Even if Jocelyn makes the claim for insurance purposes, we should be able to poke a hole in the lie.”
“What did you think about Laura Leigh’s theory on who committed the murders?” Gemma asked Lando.
“It’s not that valuable as evidence because she’s not around anymore. She can’t testify against anyone. It’s hearsay. The only value it provides is a window into how Jocelyn felt about her sister back in 2000. That’s the pot of gold, especially if you put yourself in Jocelyn’s shoes at the time. Because you have a college student who wants to get her grubby hands on the money mommy and daddy left her, she’s too greedy to wait until she turns twenty-one.”
Eating her fill of cookies and coffee, Gemma pushed her plate away. “So we’re back to Jocelyn talking a friend, a lover, a roommate, twisting somebody’s arm, into killing her sister and her family to get at the trust.”
“Not sure we ever left that theory. It’s still viable and the best motive we have right now.”
“Okay, then maybe she dangles some kind of incentive. Sex. A chunk of money. A portion of the trust. Something large enough, important enough, that a killer at heart finds irresistible, enthralled with the idea, and unable to walk away.”
“Yeah, but we have to figure out how to prove it.”
“Look, it’s obvious ot me that Eric Williams played a part in it,” Dale said. “Then she marries the guy to keep him from ratting her out down the road. Spouses can’t testify against each other. Reasonable. Seems simple enough to me.”
Gemma nodded. “Then she decides to kill him off in the woods, making it look like a hunting accident, no one the wiser. I mean, here we are, twenty years later, and nobody questioned the coroner’s report on Eric Williams. Jocelyn strikes again, she scores, she wins again.”
“Try getting a jury to believe any of that when the defendant has hired the best top gun lawyer in the state, the best money can buy,” Lando pointed out. He held up both hands. “Just projecting what will happen if we get sloppy. No, before that happens, we need solid, concrete, indisputable evidence we can take to a grand jury.”
Dale huffed out a breath. “Good luck with that. We’re no closer to solving this than we were the night Ben died.”
Gemma laid a hand over Lando’s. “You know who else we should talk to about that night, the night the Copelands died?”
“Who?”
“Derrick Ross.”
Lando’s brow furrowed. “Why Derrick?”
“Because Derrick knew Laura Leigh. He even knew Jocelyn. Might’ve been years earlier, but it warrants a face to face talk.”
“I’m not sure I see the connection there, other than the obvious high school classmate’s reunion down-by-the-river thing. But now that you mentioned him, I can certainly buy into interviewing Derrick for one simple reason.”
“What’s that?”
“Derrick wasn’t at home the night Laura Leigh died in that car crash.”
“So?”
“It’s an unanswered loose end. I don’t like leaving loose ends.”
18
Monday morning dawned with springlike blue skies and warm temperatures. First thing Lando did was send off the plaster casts and the baggie with the necklace to the crime lab for testing. If they could get DNA off the gold chain and match up the shoe prints, it would go a long way to solving who came into their house last night.
As if Dale could predict the future, he came strolling into Lando’s office with a big smile on his face. He slapped down a piece of paper on the boss’s desk. “Told you Jocelyn would report the gold chain stolen. Payce took her incident report at eight o’clock sharp this morning. She claims it must’ve been stolen sometime over the winter. Claims that the last time she checked was several months back when the gold chain was safely put away in a jewelry box on her dresser. She’s already suggesting that the hired help must’ve stolen it. This Jocelyn thinks she’s a very clever woman.”
Lando bounded out of his chair and walked to the windows. “She thinks she has all this figured out, that she’s a step ahead