Page 58 of Death on Riddle Road

The defense case was nobody saw Derrick pull the trigger, the weapon wasn’t found, and, yeah, okay, he’d been having an affair with Dova, but other than that little detail he was a devoted father and husband.

Emil, as Derrick’s alibi witness, had not covered himself in glory.

He’d started off strong under the direct questioning of the defense attorney, including having kept a paper receipt for the dinner he testified to sharing with Derrick the night of the murder.But even the transcript caught his defensiveness and snideness with the prosecutor, who’d prodded just enough to bring it out, while also driving home that the timeline would have allowed Derrick to commit the crime after dinner.

“What about Emil testifying that Derrick told him two nights before the murder that he’d decided to try to make his marriage work?Do you find that suspicious?”Clara sat straighter.“The same applies to Emil.He would have had time to be the killer.”

“Why would he kill Jaylynn?Unless you think he’d do it as a favor to Derrick or trying to make him look better?Family name and all that.”

“No.”She slumped and took the last slice of brownie.“Go out on a limb for someone else?No.I doubt anybody believed him anyway.I wouldn’t believe him if he said New Year’s Eve was December thirty-first.Oh—Look at the time.I have to go.Be ready for an early start tomorrow.”

I groaned.

She didn’t relent.“We have a lot to figure out.”

I could admit that now.Come morning, probably not.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Incoming messages withattachments dinged at me in quick succession.From Kit.

I’d wanted to talk to her anyway, so I called.

“I found footage from the trial that I’ve sent you and Clara,” she said without a greeting.

“That’s great.We read the transcript.Really appreciate that.Being out all day talking to people, we haven’t had much time to do other kinds of research.It’ll be interesting to see these same people back then.Jaylynn’s sister said Derrick was hot in high school, but not by the trial.On the other hand, she clearly wasn’t a fan.”

“Perhaps not a fan, but accurate.He’d gained weight and it made his cheeks puff out.Not in a cute chipmunk way, either, but in a way that squeezed his eyes and mouth smaller.”

“Kit—” I didn’t finish my remonstration.

“Wait.You’ll see.Besides, he’s not as interesting as the others around him.”

“Do you mean his family?Or Jaylynn’s?Hard to decide which was less likable — not that likability should count in an investigation, I know.”

“You met both families?”

“Yeah.”I gave her a rundown of the encounters, concluding with, “Long day.”

She grunted with minimal sympathy.“Meeting them in person gave you a better gauge than video from more than a decade ago will.Still, probably not completely useless.”

“Not useless at all.”

“Humph.What about the second wife?”

“Dova?Yeah, we talked to her, too.Yesterday and today.She’s devoted to Robbie and vice versa.”

Another grunt, even more neutral.Yet I had the feeling there was something behind it.

This feeling tossed me into a Kit conundrum.

If she’d wanted to tell me outright, she would have.That meant that my asking directly what she was thinking wouldn’t get a straight answer.On the other hand, not asking wouldn’t get me any answer.

I kept talking while I cast about for an approach.“I think Clara wanted to like her for her devoted mom-ness, because Clara’s sort of taken Mamie under her wing and that brings Robbie along as a package deal.And with Dova devoted to him...”

“Uh-huh.The halo by association effect.Opposite of guilt by association.”

“Exactly.So, Clara extended the halo by association to Dova, but she said something kept bothering her, though she couldn’t pin it down.I told her it was Dova’s mouth.She pulled back her lips—”