Page 90 of Death on Riddle Road

I turned to her.“That is a brilliant question.”

“Thanks.”Her wide grin settled into seriousness.“What’s the answer?”

“There are a few options, right?Derrick was killed because he killed Jaylynn—”

“Or because he didn’t.”

“Or his murder had nothing to do with Jaylynn’s murder.”

“That narrows it down,” she said, more in sorrow than in sarcasm.“Let’s start with Jaylynn’s murder.Technically, the killer could have been anyone who figured Robbie couldn’t be a witness, so why kill him.Though sparing him does seem to point more to family.”

“His Dorrio grandparents along with Emil.Or Olive and Payloma.And, of course, Derrick.”After a moment’s thought, I added, “Any of them could have gotten her to that isolated spot with a plea for help.And, looking at Derrick’s murder, none of whom has an alibi because it was done in the middle of the night.”

“Technically the early hours of the morning,” Clara murmured.“But they would have to get into the hospice center without being seen.”

“Doesn’t sound like it would be hard.Sally was irked, but not surprised by Beverly being there.Same for Dova and Robbie.Who knows who else got in without being seen.”

After a moment of discontented silence, Clara shifted back to the original murder.“I bet Beverly didn’t like Jaylynn having the upper hand that Robbie gave her.She couldn’t have known Derrick would be charged, marry Dova, and make her guardian.And that Dova cut them off from Robbie.”

“All true.We hold onto that possibility for now.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” Clara confirmed.“It doesn’t hold up.Because if it’s the same murderer, that makes no sense.I could see a motive for Beverly and/or Yale to kill Jaylynn, especially to have more control over Derrick and Robbie.Although that didn’t turn out that way—”

“But what motive would they have for killing their own son?”I picked up her thought.

With little conviction she said, “Unless, they wanted to be done with the damage to the family name.That might work for Emil, too.”

“But why now?”

“They just found out he really killed Jaylynn?”

I tipped my head.

“You’re right, you’re right.They’re far more likely to cover it up.Protect the reputation or the family name or whatever, not truly be...honorable, if you can call it that.And it doesn’t seem like they were close enough to Robbie to worry that it would upend his life.Besides, with Derrick so close to dying anyway, why do it?Why not just wait a few more days?”

Upending Robbie’s life...

“Thinking of his son first,” I murmured, quoting Dova.“It’s an interesting needle to thread, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what Beverly and Yale said was behind Derrick not letting Robbie visit him.On the other hand, he clearly didn’t think of his son before having an affair with Dova.And law enforcement and the jury thought he didn’t think of his son when he shot Jaylynn in front of him.”

“Yet did care enough to not hurt Robbie,” Clara said.“That’s contradictory.”

“That’s a pretty darned low bar — not shooting your own son who’s too young to pose you any threat.So not a sharp contradiction.”

“But then he protected Robbie by not letting him go to the prison when he got old enough to recognize what was going on,” she said.

“Protecting Robbie?Or protecting himself from guilt?Or possibly being confronted by accusations from his son?It was clear Dova was standing by him, but what if Robbie had started to doubt?”

Everyone said Robbie and Dova usually operated as a unit.

But not the morning at the hospice.