The Police Chief's Lady. Jacqueline Diamond

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СКАЧАТЬ a chart. “I’ve diagrammed his property and re-created the movements of everyone at the farm that night—Mrs. Anglin, the hired man, that transient who was supposedly sleeping in the barn—and, of course, Chris and me.”

      Ethan resisted the urge to dismiss the matter. The editor had invested too much work and too much emotion to let go that easily. “I reviewed the case at your request last year, as you’ll recall. I can’t say the police did as thorough a job as they might have, but they had an eyewitness.”

      “Chris.” Barry’s voice rang with resentment. “He’s the one who put me in prison.”

      “He testified to the same thing you did—that you smacked Mr. Anglin with a shovel,” Ethan noted.

      “No, he didn’t!” the editor replied. “He said I was yelling and flailing around, so he couldn’t be sure the shovel didn’t connect more than once.”

      Ethan saw no point in debating. Better to go right to the point. “Are you telling me you’ve identified another suspect?”

      “Yes, I have.”

      That startled him. “Who? The transient?” He’d been ruled out because Chris had testified to seeing him some distance away as the two boys fled.

      “Let me explain first so you’ll understand.” Barry selected a paper bearing a shaky signature. “I had to track Lou Bates—the transient—all the way to New Orleans, but I managed to interview him. I found the hired hand in Oklahoma six months ago.”

      Barry had attended a newspaper conference in Louisiana the previous month, Ethan recalled. He supposed the Oklahoma trip had involved work, as well. “So that’s why you’ve been traveling so much.”

      Barry forged ahead. “They both said the same thing. They spotted two figures running, and then a few minutes later they saw one of them sneak back.”

      Ethan weighed the implications. “At the trial, the transient said he might have seen you head back.”

      “And the DA implied that if I didn’t strike Norbert more than once the first time, I returned to finish the job,” Barry added. “But both told me they only made those statements because the police asked leading questions. They really didn’t think the man moved like me, only they were afraid to contradict the authorities.”

      “After so many years, they probably don’t remember what happened.” Ethan had to play skeptic, no matter how much he sympathized with Barry. “Besides, Chris said he couldn’t find you afterward.”

      “We split up while we were running, and I laid low for a while in case Anglin came after me. I was pretty scared.”

      Ethan could envision a number of possibilities, including the witnesses conspiring to lie for some reason of their own. Since neither had profited from the farmer’s death and they’d had no criminal histories, however, such speculation couldn’t clear Barry. “You said you have a suspect.”

      “It’s Chris. He must have done it.” The paper rattled in Barry’s hand. “He was the one who’d had an argument with the farmer the week before. That was why we were picking on him.”

      “What did they quarrel about?” Ethan didn’t recall the subject appearing in the trial documents. Probably it hadn’t been relevant to the DA’s case, and Barry’s lawyer hadn’t introduced it, either.

      “The old coot accused him of flirting with his wife. Which is ridiculous, considering she was twenty years older than we were, but he embarrassed Chris in front of other people.” Barry moved restlessly around the room.

      “That explains the prank, but it’s hardly a motive for him to go back and kill the guy, then pin it on you,” Ethan observed.

      “I don’t think he intended to frame me,” Barry conceded. “We focused on the fact that Anglin tried to stab us. But he also threatened to bring charges.”

      “I’m sure he did.”

      “It bothered me, but it must have upset Chris a lot more. I mean, he was planning to be a doctor. They’re held to high standards.” Barry pushed a wing of overgrown hair off his forehead. “An arrest record would have hurt his chances of getting into medical school. So I guess he wanted to shut Anglin up permanently.”

      “Didn’t you have the same concern?” Ethan asked. “Or aren’t journalists held to high standards?”

      The editor paused in front of his computer screen, glanced at a couple of flashing instant messages and then clicked them shut. “Being an ex-con has shut off certain avenues, but it doesn’t stop me from running the Gazette, because I inherited it. Chris wasn’t going to inherit a medical practice.”

      “So he might have had a motive and opportunity,” Ethan said. “That isn’t evidence, Barry.”

      “You could reopen the case and dig some up.” The editor’s movements grew more agitated. “How do you think it makes me feel that he’s gone on with his life, while mine has been torn apart? My dad never got over it. He died of a heart attack while I was in prison.”

      “While Chris went on to become a pediatrician.” Ethan knew all about that, because McRay had applied for a position at the clinic. “But he left town. He must have felt bad.”

      “Of course! He was ashamed to face me and my family,” Barry said. “Chief, he got away with murder. The evidence has to be there. The witnesses are still alive. Why not give it a chance?”

      “Barry, this case is fifteen years old,” Ethan told him regretfully. “What you’ve found isn’t even close to enough evidence to persuade the DA to file charges. I’d be wasting the town’s resources to reopen the case. I respect the work you’ve done, but the truth is likely to stay buried. You’re only hurting yourself with this obsession.”

      “I’m going to clear my name. Whether you help me or not. It’ll make a terrific story when I run it. Maybe I’ll even get a chance at the big time, after all. Chris threw my whole life off track. I only went along that night to do him a favor. He has to pay for what he did.”

      “Make sure you stay on the right side of the law.”

      “I’m not stupid. The last thing I’d risk is being charged with another crime.”

      “Please keep me informed of what you find.” Ethan wished he didn’t have to leave it at that. However, he couldn’t get involved in a personal vendetta.

      Unfortunately, he could tell from Barry’s narrowed eyes that the man wasn’t likely to give up. And that he now considered Ethan an obstacle, if not an outright antagonist.

      FOR A WHILE after Ethan went upstairs, the conversation centered on police matters. Jenni was puzzled to learn that someone had been stealing family portraits.

      “Just the pictures?” she asked. “Nothing else?”

      “Not that anyone has mentioned,” Gwen told her. “Except the frames, of course.”

      “It might be just the first step,” Rosie warned. “This man could be studying his victims and planning to murder them in their sleep.”

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