Dying Echo A Grim Reaper Mystery - By Judy Clemens Page 0,21
so raw it makes even me feel like weeping. It’s so astounding I needed to record it.”
She didn’t stop glaring.
Don caught her expression. “Um, Casey? You okay?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, leaning against Ricky’s hair.
“The other question,” Death said, coming in for a close-up, “is this. Does he really think he could have prevented what happened? Or is he simply angry that she didn’t let him help? Does he know there were big things she wasn’t telling him?”
Good questions, Casey thought. But ones that really didn’t need to be answered. Either way, her brother was screwed up for life.
“Ricky,” she said. “One more thing.”
He sat up, his face red from crying.
“You know your Colorado U T-shirt, the one with the stain from where I busted your lip?”
“Yeah. Haven’t thought about that shirt for ages.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“Not for sure. It’s probably in my dresser somewhere, buried under all the other shirts. Why?”
“The police found it in your house. It had Alicia’s blood on it.”
He stared at her, as if he couldn’t comprehend what she was saying. “But…how? I never wore that around her. I never—” He looked at Don. “They think I was wearing it when she died. They think I wore it when I killed her.”
Don nodded. “I didn’t know about it until this morning. They hadn’t told me.”
“I don’t know how it got blood on it, I don’t know how—”
“Of course you don’t.” Casey patted his knee. “But don’t you worry, Ricky. I’m going to find out.”
How she was going to find out was a mystery.
But she didn’t say that part out loud.
Chapter Ten
Getting out of the prison was a lot quicker than getting in. Death still chose to go elsewhere as they waited, saying the inmates were much more interesting than security checks could ever be. Casey believed that.
It was wrenching leaving Ricky in that awful place. The smells, the sounds, the angry people. Not anywhere she ever imagined her little brother would end up. But she assured him—and herself, in the process—that she would get him out quickly. She wasn’t sure she actually believed herself, but she talked a good talk.
“So,” Don said once they were back on the road. “I’m not sure we got anything good from him.”
“Of course we did.”
“Really? Enlighten me, please.”
“Alicia obviously didn’t share about her past. And when she spoke in her sleep she was worried about somebody finding her. The woman was in hiding. That proves it.”
“You think?”
“Have they found out anything more about her, or are we still going with the lies she told on her job application and rental agreement?”
“I haven’t heard anything new.”
“We don’t even know that Alicia McManus was her real name.”
“Nice,” Death said, giving a thumbs up. “Way to sneak that information into the conversation.”
“Right,” Don said. “You mentioned that back at the police station when Watts was telling you everything we don’t know about her. It would make sense if it wasn’t her name, since they can’t find a record of her anywhere. But how would we go about finding her real one? Ricky obviously doesn’t know it.”
“Hmm,” Death said. “This could be tricky.”
Casey had no idea how to get Don to discover Alicia’s real name of ‘Elizabeth Mann’ without actually saying it.
Death jumped in. “What if you suggest something close to Alicia?”
“Could it be a name sort of like Alicia?” she said to Don. “That might have the same nickname?”
“Could be. I’ve heard that people will do that, or use the same initials. So that could be Alice, I suppose, although there aren’t a whole lot of women her age named that these days. Or Allison, maybe? Or some other form of Alicia, even. Lisa. Or just Ali.”
Casey felt like thudding her head with her hand.
“And that doesn’t help with the last name,” Don said. “There are thousands of surnames that start with M.”
“Could we go with the same idea as the first name? That it would be something close?”
“McMillan? McCarthy? McArthur? I’ll suggest the idea to Watts. Maybe he can get someone on it. I’ll tell them to start with the initials being the same.”
Casey groaned. This was impossible.
“So where to?” Don said. “I don’t suppose you’ll come to my house for supper?”
“I’d like to, but I kind of promised Mom I’d come back after seeing Ricky.”
“Of course. I’ll drop you off there.”
Death’s tongue clicked. “Did you just lie to your lawyer?”
Ignoring Death, Casey convinced Don to drive to his office, where she grabbed her duffel bag,