Dying Echo A Grim Reaper Mystery - By Judy Clemens Page 0,78
clenched her fists, then opened them as she breathed out a steady breath. “It wasn’t cut and dried. They needed each other. What it really boiled down to was taking Elizabeth away from Cyrus, and no one was prepared to make that choice. Not even his brother. So don’t judge us. It’s a small town and we take care of each other. Or at least we try.”
“Who exactly is she trying to convince?” Death said.
“So again,” Casey said, “back to the whole no suspects thing. You’re saying no one in town would want him dead, but at the same time you’re questioning what he was into. Makes sense to me that it could have been people from that part of his life.”
“We checked it out, but as I said, we had no hard evidence of anything he was doing, and nobody was seen here that day. No one knew the names of people he was associated with—including these men—and Elizabeth wasn’t around to ask. Nothing in Cyrus’ car gave us any names, and forensics turned up nothing but locals. That’s why I was interested to hear that Wayne was talking about the men.”
“He didn’t give us names, and he only mentioned them because we found this photo in the middle of Betsy’s stack of mementos. All he said was that Elizabeth didn’t like them, which I would assume he’d have told you folks back when this all happened.”
Kay flipped through some pages. Each time she turned one over, Death snapped a picture.
“Just because Elizabeth didn’t like them didn’t mean they were killers,” Kay said.
“True. But it could have been a clue.”
Kay’s nostrils flared, but she kept looking through the pages. “We aren’t complete idiots, you know. The papers aren’t always right.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Is there any chance Elizabeth contacted anyone over the years and they didn’t tell?”
“Can’t imagine who that would have been. Betsy would have been the one, and if not her, Wayne. Either one of them would have told someone.”
“Unless they had something to do with it all, and they didn’t want Elizabeth to bring it all back up again.”
“Her cousin and her boyfriend? Please.”
“Betsy says he wasn’t her boyfriend.”
“Maybe not officially. But they were together all the time. He spent a lot of time in that car.”
“So his fingerprints would have been all over, and no one would have questioned it.”
Kay stopped with the pages and looked up. “You think Wayne Greer killed Cyrus?”
“It could explain a lot.”
“Like?”
“Like why Elizabeth was at the crime scene but didn’t get killed. Why she ran away and didn’t tell. Why he’s only now telling about these men.”
“But what reason would Wayne have had to murder his girlfriend’s—or even just a good friend’s—father? And why on earth would Elizabeth let him get away with it?”
“She’s too close to it,” Death said. “She can’t see the forest for the very prominent trees.”
“I think everyone in this town is overlooking what could be a huge issue,” Casey said.
“And I suppose you are going to enlighten us?”
“What if something really did switch off in Cyrus Mann’s mind? What if he really had gone over to the dark side one way or another? Maybe Elizabeth was ready to take charge of her own life.”
“By killing her own father?”
“No, I don’t see that. What I do see is her talking to her boyfriend about it. He could see how it would bother her, living in a car, or seeing her father fall apart. You called him a hormonal teenager. You don’t think he’d do whatever he could to protect her? Or at least get in her pants?”
Death tsked. “We’re getting a little crude, aren’t we?”
Casey leaned forward. “It could have been an accident. Did Cyrus own a gun?”
“No.”
“You sound very certain.”
“I am. When he died he had no guns registered to his name. And no unregistered ones in his car.”
“So being a completely sane and law-abiding citizen there would be no way for him to have one that was off the record.”
“You think he had a gun?”
Casey threw up her hands. “How do I know? I’m just throwing out possibilities which apparently you people were afraid to look at all those years ago. Or too blind to look at.”
Kay stood up so suddenly her chair tipped backward and fell onto the floor with a crack. “I think we’ve talked enough for today.”
“Thank God.” Casey stood, too.
“You think you’re leaving?”
“I know I’m leaving. Unless you’re going to arrest me.”