Page 36 of I’ll Be Watching You

The house was quiet, save for the sound of a basketball game in the back of the house.

“Thank you,” Jack said. “Where’s Mickey and the kids?”

“You arrived during the lull before the storm,” Otto said with a wide grin. “She’s making the rounds picking up the boys from four different practice fields. We have about forty minutes of peace. Can I get you a beer?”

“No, thanks,” he said. “I’m working tonight.”

Otto motioned for Jack to follow him to the family room. The large screen TV showed the Phoenix Suns playing the Boston Celtics. He enjoyed basketball, but he hadn’t followed the Suns much this year after they had imploded the last couple seasons.

Jack nodded to the screen that showed the Suns down by five. “How’s the team doing?”

“Holding their own. We might squeak this one out, but damn, the Celtics are looking good again this year. That we’re within five points at the end of the third quarter is a good thing, but I don’t see playoffs in our future.”

“Kids doing good? Mickey?”

“All is good in the Otter house,” Otto said, picking up the remote and muting the game. “But you’re not here to catch up. You want info about the double homicide. Tell me why.”

He motioned for Jack to sit, which he did.

“The female victim, Liz Swanson, was on her way to meet Margo when she and her husband were killed. She had information that may have helped our dad.”

“Your dad’s appealing? He confessed, right?”

Jack nodded. “It’s complicated. He confessed under duress. The killer threatened his family, and Dad felt it was his only option.”

“He knows who did it?”

Otto sounded skeptical, and Jack didn’t blame him. Jack would be skeptical as well.

“No. The threat was anonymous, but very real. I can’t tell you everything, and even if I did, it’s only a few pieces of a puzzle. Liz’s phone records will confirm that she called Margo Monday night. They talked for about seven or eight minutes and agreed to meet Tuesday morning in Peoria. Liz claimed that she learned something at the VA that may help our dad. It’s a long shot, but it involves missing medical records for one of my dad’s patients.” Jack paused. “Margo never believed that he killed Devin Klein and has kept feelers out.”

“I’m aware. What about you?”

Jack hesitated. “I didn’t know what to think, to be honest. I kept going back to why would he confess to a crime he didn’t commit? Why go to prison for fifteen years if he was innocent? So I thought maybe they argued, or it was an accident, or . . . I don’t know. I could never picture my dad shooting anyone, and if he had, I thought he would have confessed on the spot, so the whole thing really twisted me up. And I was going through a divorce back then, so my mind wasn’t fully on anything.”

“Now? You believe he’s innocent?”

Jack nodded. “I know more about what happened then. I can’t say I would have done the same thing, but if someone threatened Austin, I don’t know what I might have done. I don’t expect you to believe it.”

“I can’t say one way or the other. I’ve talked to Margo about it, used to see a lot more of her when she was dating Rick. She never wavered, so I never brought it up after the first time when I played devil’s advocate and thought she was going to toss her beer in my face.”

Jack almost smiled. He could picture it.

“Liz called Margo, and less than twelve hours later she was murdered. I need to know what the police know. My dad was transferred early this morning from Eyman to Florence, Colorado. They put him in Supermax. We weren’t told, his lawyer wasn’t told, and the order is sealed. Something very strange is going on, and I’m worried that he’s in danger. We know most of the guards at Eyman and the warden is a good guy. His cellmate committed fraud, not murder. Now Dad’s in prison with mass murderers and gangbangers. He shouldn’t be there.”

Otto’s dark face was unreadable. Then he jerked his head over to the bar in the corner. “There’s an envelope there for you. Everything I could dig up on the case. They don’t have much.”

Jack walked over to the bar and opened the manila envelope. Inside was a copy of the Peoria police report. He skimmed it.

At 0648 yesterday morning, a 911 call came in from the Swanson house. A teenager who identified himself as Brian Swanson said he heard a crash out front. He looked out the window and saw his parents’ car had hit a parked vehicle across the street, and they weren’t getting out. He ran outside and saw that they had been shot, then called 911. After, two other 911 calls came in from neighbors.

“No one heard a gunshot,” Jack said.

“No one said they heard a gunshot,” Otto corrected.

“None of the follow-up interviews indicate anyone heard anything except the collision.”

“Silencer, you’re thinking,” Otto said. “Possible. Autopsies were today, but the report hasn’t been filed yet. According to the first responders and then the detective in follow-up, the killer shot through the passenger-side window, which was rolled down. Two bullets in each victim. The car was already in Reverse and by the time it hit the parked vehicle and anyone looked outside, he was gone.”