Dying Echo A Grim Reaper Mystery - By Judy Clemens Page 0,84

put us all in danger; her, too. She hadn’t meant to talk to me, at all, but maybe it was meant to be, for her to have contact with at least one person in her family. She made me swear I wouldn’t tell, and she looked so scared I promised.”

“You’re not supposed to keep secrets from us.” Betsy broke away from Scott. “We’re supposed to be the ones you tell everything to.”

Casey held in a laugh. What teenager told his parents everything? She certainly hadn’t. “Was that it, Billy?”

He turned toward her quickly, glad for the reprieve. “She grabbed me, gave me a big hug, told me again to be happy and love my family, and then she left. I mean, she looked around some more, like she was all worried about somebody seeing us, then practically ran away.” His lips trembled again. “And now she’s dead, and it’s all my fault.” He curled over, like he was trying to protect himself.

“Come here, Billy.” Eric pulled out one of the chairs at the table. “Sit down, bud, before you keel over.” He led the boy to a chair, where Billy sat down and put his hands on the side of his face, hiding himself from the rest of the room.

Eric sat next to him, a hand on his back. “It’s not your fault. She’s the one who came here. You didn’t ask her to.”

He shook his head, still looking at the floor. “No, it’s not because she came here. It’s because of me. If it hadn’t been for me she’d be fine.”

“Billy,” Eric said. “Tell us what happened.”

Billy shuddered, but didn’t take his hands away from his face. “It was last week sometime. This guy found me at school. They called me to the office and said he wanted to talk to me.”

“At school?” For the first time, Scott sounded alarmed. “Who was he?”

“He said he was a cop and he was there about Aunt Lizzie. That he had some information that there were people after her, and he was wondering if I could help by telling him where she might have kept her things before she died. I told him that anything she had was my mom’s now, but he said there must have been somewhere else.”

“What day was this?” Casey regretted the sharpness of her voice, but this was a whole new ballgame.

“I don’t know. Monday, maybe. Yeah, just this past Monday, because it was the start of the week and I was tired.”

So he had come after Elizabeth was already dead.

“Did he give you his name?”

“I guess. He showed me a badge, but I don’t remember. I didn’t want to tell him about her being here, so I said Aunt Lizzie had disappeared before I was born, so why would he come to me for information, but he didn’t go for it. He said he knew I’d had contact with her just the week before, and that she was in danger, and he wanted to help her. The only way he could was by finding something she’d lost. I asked him what it was, but he said I didn’t need to know. I’m not sure how I was supposed to help him find it if he wouldn’t tell me.”

All of the adults started to speak, but Eric held up his hand and leaned toward Billy, speaking calmly. “How did they know you’d seen her?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they saw us?”

“Did you tell anybody?”

“She told me not to—”

“Billy, it’s important. Really important. We’re not going to be angry. It’s not your fault, okay? Elizabeth’s death is not your fault.” He paused, then asked again. “You didn’t tell him about seeing her? Or anything she said?”

His whole body shook with his response. “I didn’t tell him anything. I said I didn’t know her. That I’d never known her. He said he’d be back to talk to me if he couldn’t find out from someone else. That maybe I’d know something, even if I thought I didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Betsy demanded. “If cops come talk to you, you need to tell us!” She turned to Scott. “Why didn’t the school at least call us? They should inform parents if cops pull our children out of class!”

“The guy told me not to tell anyone,” Billy said. “He said it would just worry you, and if I hadn’t really seen Aunt Lizzie, then there was nothing to worry about. Maybe he told the