Jasmine Cresswell - Suspect

“That’s what Tricia’s basing her identification on?” Liam was torn between laughter and exasperation. “The way this man walked? She saw him at a distance, from the side at best and possibly even from behind, and now she’s positive it was Dad?”

“Apparently. That and the fact she insists the man saw her and recognized her. According to Tricia, he dodged into the store in order to avoid her.”

“She’s paranoid. Not to mention delusional.”

“Very possibly. But she’s already called the police in Miami to tell them they’ve made a mistake in assuming that Dad was murdered. Cousin Tricia has informed them he’s alive and they need to refocus their investigation.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “And what did the cops have to say?”

“Nothing that satisfied Tricia.” Megan groaned. “They thanked her for letting them know what she thought she’d seen and said they would investigate her claim as time and manpower permitted. In other words, they totally blew her off.”

“Are you surprised? My sympathies are with the cops on this one. They’d never get any work done on the real cases if they allowed themselves to get distracted by reports like Tricia’s.”

Megan hesitated for a moment. “You don’t think we ought to follow up with a private detective?”

Liam leaned against the wall outside his office, wanting to finish the call before he went inside. “Follow up what? How? There’s nothing to follow up.”

“That’s true, I guess.”

“You sound uncertain.”

“I am. Tricia may be nuts—”

“Tricia is nuts.”

“Okay, I’ll grant you that much. But there are problems with the official police account of what happened the night Dad disappeared. The cops in Miami have closed the investigation, except for a half-hearted effort to track down Julio Castellano. But as I already told you, when Adam and I were in Belize, we met Castellano and spent quite a bit of time with him. He swore he wasn’t the killer.”

“I know. And you told me you and Adam are both inclined to believe him.”

“We’d be dead if not for Castellano,” Megan pointed out. “He put himself significantly at risk for our sakes, which makes it hard to see him as a brutal killer. And if he didn’t kill Dad, who did?”

“Well, if Tricia saw him in Houston, apparently nobody! Did she have any suggestions as to why Dad hasn’t let anyone know he’s still alive?”

“She suggested he might have amnesia.”

“If he has amnesia, why would he have run when she called his name?”

“You’re right. Her story is incoherent.” Megan hesitated for a moment. “Unless Dad deliberately chose to disappear.”

Liam’s stomach lurched, then quickly righted itself. “Why would Dad walk away from every penny he possesses? Does that seem likely to you? Or even remotely credible?”

“No,” Megan conceded. “But we have to face the fact that the cops in Miami have no idea what really happened the night Dad died.”

Now it was Liam’s turn to hesitate. He was much less convinced than his sister that Julio Castellano was as innocent as he had claimed, despite the fact that the guy had definitely helped to rescue Megan and Adam from the dangers they faced in Belize.

“We talked about this when you first got back from Belize,” he said in the end. “I agree the cops might have screwed up on the details of what happened the night Dad died, but their basic outline seems to be correct—”

“Sure. Apart from the minor detail that they have the wrong name pinned on the hit man.”

“In a sense, that is a detail. From what you told me about your trip to Belize, it seems that Uncle Ted knew plenty of people who wouldn’t have hesitated to kill Dad for quite a small sum of money. If not Julio Castellano, then take your pick of a dozen or so other smugglers and thieves hanging out in Las Criandas.”

Liam found it depressing to think about his Uncle Ted, a maternal uncle with as few ethical scruples as his father. Poor Sophie was certainly inheriting a package of unpleasant genes from the Raven side of her family, he reflected grimly. For her sake, he hoped to God that the scientists who claimed nurture was more important than nature were correct.

“The cops in Miami aren’t going to rethink their entire investigation without a stronger inducement than a vague sighting by a woman who didn’t know him all that well,” he said, forcing his thoughts away from his daughter. “It’s convenient for them to have Julio Castellano as the chief suspect. Who could be better to accuse of murder than a man who’s already been convicted and imprisoned for a previous killing?”

“Maybe a private investigator would find something powerful enough to turn the cops’ attention in new directions,” Megan suggested.

“But what could an investigator find? And how would he find it? Tricia hasn’t given us anything new to work with. She didn’t give you an address or a car registration for this guy she spotted. She didn’t even get a make or model of the car he was driving. All she gave us was the way he walks! Where the hell is that going to lead us? Nowhere.”

“You’re right.” Megan sounded wistful.

“You don’t sound entirely convinced.”

“No, I am. Of course, you’re right…”

“Look, if you want us to hire a detective to reexamine the events surrounding Dad’s disappearance, we should go for it. Except…what exactly are you going to instruct the guy to do? Even if we sent him to Belize, there’s nobody to question. Uncle Ted is dead. We haven’t a clue where to find Julio at this point—”

“I know. Tricia didn’t provide any new information we can follow up on and there are no other leads. Rationally, I knew that even before I called you.”

“There’s a melancholy note in your voice. What’s that all about, Meg?”

She hesitated for a moment. “I guess I realized when I was talking to Tricia that I haven’t quite accepted the finality of Dad’s death. He left so many issues unresolved that part of me feels mad at him for being at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where I can’t demand answers. I wanted Tricia to be right. I wanted Dad still to be alive. After a while, it eats at you to be angry with a dead person.”

“You’re right. But for my sake, I hope he’s not alive,” Liam said coolly. “Because if he ever did come back, I’d be tempted to kill him, and I have no desire to spend the rest of my life in prison.”

Megan gave a wry laugh. “I think you’d have to stand in line. Ellie and Avery would both want to take the first shots.” She paused for a moment. “Tricia told me the cops in Miami have received four hundred and twenty-seven reports from people claiming to have seen our father. Isn’t that astonishing?”

“Not really. Police reports are generated in direct proportion to the amount of media attention. For a couple of weeks after Dad died, there was coast-to-coast, wall-to-wall TV coverage. The four hundred reports don’t mean anyone’s seen him, or even that they’ve seen a man who looks like him. It just means lots of lonely people like to feel connected to a celebrity murder.”

“It totally amazes me how much media attention our family is still attracting. I caught a snippet on the news just last night. They were doing a special report on the increase in cases of bigamy and polygamy, and they dragged out all the facts of Dad’s situation again.”

Liam had a suspicion it would be a while before the Ravens and the Fairfaxes could sink back into welcome obscurity. In life, Ron Raven had been rich and successful; in death, he was mysterious. The combination was irresistible to news outlets and his two families were suffering all the notoriety that really ought to have been Ron’s.