T.J. opened the file he’d brought with him and had tucked on the floor next to his feet.
“Billie, this is a copy of the police report from the night your son disappeared. It says that you told the officer who interviewed you that you and Jason were arguing and that he stormed out of the house.”
“We weren’t arguing no more by the time he left.”
“But the report indicates that you were.”
“That’s not the way I would have told it. That’s not the way it happened.” Billie shook her head for emphasis. “We weren’t yellin’ no more then. I wouldn’t have said that we were.”
“But you initialed the pages that you’d read it and it was right,” T.J. pointed out to her.
“I didn’t read real good back then. I wouldn’t have known what he had written on that page.” Her cheeks colored slightly at the admission. “He told me he’d written down just what I said, and he just needed me to write my initials, which he told me meant that I had said those words.”
Billie frowned. “Never occurred to me that he woulda wrote down something else.”
“It’s an important detail, Billie. The way it’s written, it sounds as if Jason left the house because you two were arguing. From there, it’s not much of a stretch to think maybe you followed him.”
“All these years, I did think he’d left the house that night because of me.”
“But it sounds to me as if you and he had, well, come to an understanding,” Lorna said.
“I thought we had, but then he left sudden like that.”
“Maybe he saw something or someone outside,” T.J. pointed out. “You said his head was facing the window.”
“You mean, maybe he’d seen someone out there, through the window?”
T.J. nodded. “If he wasn’t cursing at you, he was cursing at someone else.”
“Huh. Wouldn’t that beat all, if it had been someone else he’d been cursing at. Wouldn’t that be something.” She shook her head slowly. “All these years, I thought he’d been cursing at me…”
“You think she was telling the truth?” Regan asked after T.J. and Lorna had filled her in on their interview with Billie. “You think she seemed sincere?”
“Either that, or she is one fine actress.” T.J. settled himself on the top porch step.
“I think she was telling the truth. I think Melinda’s disappearance was a real wake-up call for her. I think she did stop drinking, and I think she would have tried to reconcile with Jason at that point. It all makes perfect sense to me.” Lorna looked at Regan, then T.J. “Is anyone that good an actor?”
“You’d be amazed at how resourceful people can be when they’re trying to save their skins,” T.J. told her. “An accomplished liar could easily have pulled off that kind of performance.”
“The question is, is Billie Eagan an accomplished liar,” Regan interjected. “Do you think Jason really saw someone outside the window that night? Or do you think she’s making that up now, to offer another plausible scenario? If she could convince people that there was someone else there, and Jason ran out to confront that person, it’s just a short step to suggesting that this other person killed him.”
Lorna nodded. “I agree, it’s convenient that she hasn’t told this story to anyone else.”
“We don’t know that she didn’t,” T.J. reminded her. “Billie said that this is the story she gave the cop who interviewed her after Jason disappeared. She says he wrote it down wrong, and because her reading skills were so poor, she didn’t realize that he hadn’t gotten it right.”
“That happens more often than you’d believe,” Regan said. “I’ve found that in my own research, for my books, that sometimes the cop taking down the information uses words that intimate something other than what was intended. Or sometimes the cop doesn’t take real good notes, he’ll think he’ll remember something, but forgets it and writes down his impressions rather than what the person really said. And if, like Billie, the witness or suspect doesn’t read well, he or she could sign something as being correct when it’s not a true account of what happened.”
T.J. shuffled through his files, then, finding the one he was looking for, opened it and took out a sheet of paper.
“The cop who signed this report was a Duncan Parks.” He looked at Lorna. “Do you know if he’s still around?”
“I have no idea. Chief Walker would know, but I’d prefer to keep my face out of his for a few days. I’ve pissed him off enough for one week.” She tapped her fingers on the side of her chair. “Fritz might know, though.”
“Fritz, who is on the list of witnesses we wanted to talk to?” T.J. asked.
Lorna nodded.
“This gives us a real good excuse to pay him a visit,” he told her. “Know where we can find him?”
“I know where to start.”
“Let’s do it.”
“I’ll stay here and wait for Mitch,” Regan said. “He told me he’d be here around dinnertime.” She smiled. “Typical Mitch.”
“We should think about dinner,” Lorna said as she stood.
“Pizza would be good,” Regan suggested. “Got beer?”
“Got a state store about three miles down the road,” Lorna told her.
“Excellent. I’ll just sit here with my book while you two fetch food and drink.”
“Any preferences?” T.J. asked.
“Nope. As long as the pizza’s hot and the beer’s cold, I’m a happy woman.” She leaned back in the rocker and opened her book. “I’m starting to feel a little like I’m on vacation here, and I like it. At least, till Mitch arrives and shakes things up, as he usually does. So you two just go on and see what you can pry out of Fritz, and I’ll stay right here and enjoy what’s left of the afternoon.”
13
“Fritz, I really appreciate you making time to see us on such short notice,” Lorna said as Fritz led them into his living room.
“Hey, I’m just glad you were able to catch me before I left town,” he told his visitors. “Is it okay if we talk in here, or would you rather go out to the sunporch?”
“I’d love the sunporch,” Lorna replied. “I’ll bet there’s a beautiful view of the garden from there.”
“The best.” He winked and gestured them to follow him through the house to the back. “Some areas are starting to fade out now, sadly. The daylilies, for example, peaked a few weeks ago. July was spectacular, and we did have fabulous roses this year, if I do say so myself.”
“You mentioned leaving town,” T.J. said. “Vacation?”
“Just a mini. I don’t have time to take a full week off right now-the store is always so busy in the summer, you know, with all those people using Callen Road as their shortcut out to I-95. From there it’s just a short hop to the Delaware beaches.”