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“Until recently, it was hidden,” is the only answer he’ll give us. “‘CK and I met at the lake tonight. I’m going to tell him about the baby,’” he quotes.
Tension fills me. “I had nothing to do with her. I didn’t even talk to her, never mind get her pregnant. What I do know is that Clyde used to take girls up to the mineral springs on the Bar 9.”
“How do you know this?”
I take Zee’s truth and bend it: “I saw him there. In fact, I saw them together after the fire.”
“Cole was a grade below Marcy.”
“He wasn’t here that year, was he? He was playing in Winnipeg. Callan was too young, I was in university, and Cody had graduated and was in Saskatoon after enlisting. None of us dated Marcy, dammit.
“You know I wasn’t behind the hit-and-run. My prints weren’t?—”
“Prints can be wiped away and youdidpay off the blackmail demand. Plus, Susanne could be lying on your behalf?—”
Outraged, I snap, “I’d never get anyone to lie for me. Certainly not my wife. You’re only doubting her word because she’s a McAllister.”
“My client has already explained to you, sergeant, that he paid the blackmail demand as an act of kindness for a neighbor in acute financial distress.”
“And because she was threatening Susanne,” Terry says pointedly. “If Marcy was pregnant and Clyde was the father then you’d have another child to split your inheritance with.”
“You’re clutching at straws. That’s not how the Korhonen inheritance works. The eldest inherits the ranch. I wouldn’t have to share anything with him or her.”
“There’d be a trust fund?—”
I scoff. “And? Not like we can’t afford it. Anyway, why do you keep asking me where he is? You’re the cops. Shouldn’t you know better than me?”
“He’s more slippery than an eel.”
“That’s doing a disservice to an eel.” I grunt. “Are you finally bringing him in for questioning?”
“And to take his fingerprints. If you do hear from him, remember to keep in touch.”
“Did you have to drag me out of bed forthis?” I snipe once the recording’s off.
He prods the diary. “She was pregnant, Colt. That puts a whole other slant on things. Especially when Lydia believed you were the baby’s father.”
“But I wasn’t, dammit,” I snarl.
“Why didn’t you mention seeing Marcy with your father during the original investigation?”
“I didn’t think it was pertinent.”
“We decide that. Not you,” Terry snaps. “You’d better not be withholding any information from me, Colton. I’m catching heat from all quarters here. Don’t add to my burden or I’ll bring you in with cuffs next time.”
“I’m not withholding anything. I don’t have anythingtowithhold. I came to you about the poison pen letters. I put the suspicion on me when I didn’t have to do that. I had no reason to kill Lydia. I wasn’t the father of Marcy’s baby.
“That year, I was too busy on suicide watch with Callan and not failing my classes that fucking anything in a skirt was the least of my worries, dammit.
“Lydia was wrong to suspect me. The CK in that diary will be my father. You and I both know what he’s like. She was just hoping that Marcy wasn’t sleeping with someone thirty years her senior.”
“I need to bring him in.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. He isn’t answering my calls either.”
Terry squints at me. “If he contacts?—”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll let you know.” Then, a thought occurs to me. “Cody said Clyde had been to visit him in the hospital.”