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He screwed up his eyes then, andAmber could see the tears in the corners of his eyes.
“You loved her?” Amber asked.
“About as much as it’s possible forone person to love another, but the timing was never right, you know? We werein the same unit, and then we had all the same problems… maybe things wouldhave been different if we’d been together. Maybe she’d still be alive.”
“Where were you last night?” Simonasked.
It was probably the most specificthey could be about the time of death at the moment, at least until the coronergot back to them with more details.
“I was here. Why? What are youasking?”
“All night?” Simon asked.
“Yes, all night. Are you trying tosay that I had something to do with Roz’s death? Because if so-”
“We’re just trying to get to thetruth, Euan,” Amber said, in the most calming tone she could manage. Would theyhave to take this man in after all? His alibi was… well, it wasn’t an alibi,not really. And this was obviously a man who was anything but stable, one whoselife had been touched by astrology.
It was easy to see a scenario wherehe was the killer, feeling guilty for having lived simply by the chance ordestiny of the stars, and so offering up others who believed in them so muchthat they were the archetypes of their star signs.
The only problem with that theorywas that Amber didn’t believe it. She could see the pain on Euan’s face atRosalind’s loss. She could see how much he cared about her.
Still, she had to ask the obviousquestion.
“Euan, what were your dog tagsdoing at the scene of Roz’s murder?”
Euan stared at her in surprisethen. Was it a surprise at being caught out, or was it something else? Amberdidn’t know yet. All she could do was wait and see how he reacted.
“She… she still wore them?” Euansaid at last.
“Rosalind wore your dog tags,rather than her own?” Simon asked.
Euan nodded. “I gave them to her. Agift. She’d saved my life, and it was like… like I was giving her the person Iused to be, you know? We swapped.”
Amber could certainly hear theintensity of the feeling there. But, if this was true, then it meant that thedog tags weren’t a clue pointing to Euan. They’d simply fallen off Roz’s neckwhile the killer had been dragging her into position to kill her.
It meant that their best piece ofevidence pointing at Euan was gone, and he didn’t even have a connection to theother victims that Amber knew about.
“You swapped dog tags?” she said.
Euan shook his head, though. “Notexactly. I gave her my tags. She gave me…”
He reached into his shirt, and whenhe pulled out a pendant in the shape of the symbol for Taurus, Amber thoughtthat her heart might stop. Another of the pendants? That was three now,one with each of the victims. That couldn’t be a coincidence. It simplycouldn’t.
Amber looked over to Simon, and sawthe same surprise on his face. He’d obviously recognized the significance ofthe pendant too.
“Euan, do you know where Roz gotthat pendant?” Amber asked.
Euan shook his head, though. “Ithink she got it after she came back. Something to do with feeling blessed forhaving listened to the stars. I guess she hoped some of that might rub off onme.”
“Thank you, Euan,” Amber said. Sheput a card down on the table. “If you think of anything else that might beuseful, call me, okay?”
“We’re leaving?” Simon asked asthey left the kitchen. “He attacked me.”
“And if you want to haul him in forattacking a federal agent, fine, but you know he’s not the killer, Simon,”Amber said. “I don’t think he even knew Roz was dead until we told him.”
She heard Simon sigh. “All right. Iguess not. At least our next step is obvious enough.”
Amber nodded. “We need to find outmore about those pendants.”
