Part 14 (1/2)

”Well, that's nice to hear. Thank you,” I said, pleasantly surprised. ”But that club is not what you wanted to talk to me about, is it?”

”No,” he said, dropping his eyes to the floor, obviously not ready to share his thoughts.

”Why don't you tell me?”

”You've got to understand that what I'm about to say is very hard for me. I don't like betraying my friend. But I think I'd better go with what's right, and this feels right to me.” He glanced up, his expression anguished. ”I trust you, Tamara. I'm going to take your advice on whatever you say I should do.”

”Then you've got to tell me.”

”This is hard for me.”

”It's about Drew Sampson, isn't it?” I asked, my eyes not leaving his.

”Yeah. I just don't know what to think about what happened this afternoon. Annette, well-” He shook his head.

I gave him a moment. ”Do you think he had something to do with his wife's death?”

”I don't know what to think. To tell the truth, he didn't seem as upset about Annette's death as he should have been, and that bothers me. He lived with that woman for years before Celia, she bore him a son, and for that alone he should have shown more feeling, but there was nothing.”

”What did he say happened?”

”He told me that the boy came back home, to Annette's house, when he found out that his friend Pikhad been stabbed to death. Drew Junior was scared out of his wits, and Annette was scared, too. She called Drew that night, and he came by to take his boy to his place. They agreed it would be safer for him there. That was late on Wednesday.”

So her son was the one who came into the room when Annette called me Wednesday night. But had he been the only person there?

”So what happened then?”

”Drew said his son was with him until he found the body Friday, which was when he called the cops. They went to pick up the boy's clothes. You know the rest.”

”So was his son with him the whole time? Did he leave him alone at any point?”

”I don't know.”

”Do you know what happened to my brother?” I said after a moment, going in another direction.

Concern for me came into his eyes. ”Yeah. I heard when it happened, but I didn't know how to reach you or I would have. It was a real tragedy. He was a good brother.”

”My good brother.” good brother.”

”It happened a long time ago.”

”Yeah, and that's why I'm bringing it up now. I'm worried about the Sampson kid. Suicide is a terrible legacy for a child. A lot of studies show that if a parent commits suicide, the child is at high risk, too. She didn't seem depressed when I saw her, and she was a smart woman. I don't think Annette would have put her child at risk like that.”

”Liquor can change a mood quickly.”

”Yes, that's true,” I said, conceding that.

”So you don't think she killed herself like the cops say?” He looked worried, and I found that puzzling.

”I think somebody else did it, and the same person must have killed Celia, too, because they had the gun. It was a .22, the same caliber weapon as the one that killed Celia.”

'And you think it would be better for Drew Junior to think that his father killed his mother and her lover? That he's a murderer?” He looked at me in disbelief, and I thought hard about what I was going to say before I answered him.

”I think that he has to know the truth, whatever that is. Once a person knows the truth he can learn to deal with it. Lies are what destroy a child, especially a lie like that.”

Larry sat for a while, sipping his tea and gazing out my dirty office window. I didn't rush him. I was pretty sure what he had to say, and the fact that he was here showed me he had decided to level with me. Finally he put the mug down and cleared his throat.

”You know we all came up together, me, Drew, Clayton. I can't think of any other men, not any that I had as much feeling for, that I loved as much as I loved the two of them. I would have done anything for Clay and I'd do anything for Drew if it came to that.”

”I remember the three of you as teenagers,” I said, wondering when he was going to tell me what I wanted to hear.

”It just about killed me when Clay died as sudden as he did. We'd had a lot of fun together. He was wild as h.e.l.l.”

”So I've heard.”

”I didn't mention this before, but Clay was the one who put me back in touch with Celia after all these years. He ran into her through Drew. She had contacted Drew looking for a handout, long before she knew his wife, I might add. He gave it to her because Drew can be a very generous dude. Most folks don't know that about him. When Clay died, all I had left was Drew.”

”So you felt you had to lie for him about where he was the morning Celia was murdered,” I said, eagerly leaping ahead to the point I was sure he was trying to make.

He gave me an odd glance that I wasn't sure how to interpret.

”Most of what I told you was true,” he said. ”We did get stinking drunk, and I did fall out on his couch. I was still sick about my wife leaving me and about the general state of my life. Clayton, my other best friend, had died in August and it was New Year's Eve, five months to the day of his death. I had been depressed as h.e.l.l at the thought of being alone on New Year's Eve, so we decided to spend it together. I left early the next morning.”

”How early?”

'Around five, maybe six. I'd promised my daughter I'd take her to dinner on New Year's Day, and I wanted to get an early start so I'd be there on time. I just stretched the truth a little, Tamara. I was was with my daughter on New Year's Day when Celia was killed.” with my daughter on New Year's Day when Celia was killed.”

”No, Larry, Celia was killed around eight o'clock in the morning, so you were on the road when Celia was killed, not with your daughter. Why did you lie to me?”

”Because Drew asked me to say I was with him when she was killed.”

”You think he killed her, don't you?” I looked him straight in the eye, but despite what most people believe, looking a liar in the eye won't get you anything but a lie told without blinking.

”I don't want to believe it, but maybe he did.”

”I'll tell you what you can believe in, Larry,” I said after a moment. He had focused his eyes on my window, looking hard at something I couldn't see. When his gaze met mine, I could see there were tears in his eyes. I wasn't sure who he was crying for-Celia, Drew, or himself.

”You can believe in the truth, Larry. The truth always beats out a lie. It's the only thing you can build on. You told me what you know and now I want you to tell the police, because if you gave Drew Sampson an alibi and he killed Celia Jones, then he probably killed his wife, too. And if you don't come clean about what you know, you are as guilty as he is.

”If he's a killer, you could very well be putting your life in danger, and my life, too, for that matter. You don't know what is truly in somebody's heart. You think you know, but you never do, which is why folks are always surprised when the beast living in somebody's soul rears up and bites them on the a.s.s.”

He smiled at that, and I offered him some more tea, which he drank without comment until I broke the silence. ”Drew Sampson is taking his kid and heading out of the country, isn't he?”

”That's what he told me when I talked to him earlier.”

”When did he say he was going?”