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I wanted him to hear for himself that Ethan Howard wasn’t nefarious. In fact, he had been kind and a little protective. I thought slightly paternal if I analyzed our conversation. There was something comforting in his Texas drawl. This was my opportunity to relive it and see if my gut instincts about him were right.
AJ pivoted. The phone call ended. “The first team arrived at the scene. There are no explosives in either of our vehicles.”
“Oh, that’s good news. What was it then?”
“The cables were sliced under the hood. The New Orleans unit has taken the cars in as evidence.”
“But no,” I protested. “I just bought that car. They can’t have it.” I didn’t trust anyone else to take care of it.
“You’ll get it back. It might take some time.”
“And the barn?” I asked.
He shook his head, walking toward the bed. “That’s going to take longer. They will analyze for prints and DNA. They’ll do the same thing inside the house, canvassing that wall. They are going to remove it and take it to the office.”
“Take the wall apart?” I was surprised.
“They want everything.”
I looked at the USB port. That meant they were going to confiscate my recordings as well. It was time I make the backups.
“I’ve queued up the interview with Ethan. Are you ready?”
AJ flicked the bourbon in his glass. “Yes.”
“All right. This is from Saturday evening. I went back for another visit. He didn’t want to talk to me the first time I knocked on his door, and I usually give everyone two tries before I give up.” I wondered how much of this AJ already knew from observing me. “He seemed more open to it and eventually let me inside to talk. He even agreed to let me use our conversation in the podcast. I was kind of surprised.”
“Then let’s hear what he had to say.” AJ’s brows knitted together.
I unplugged the headset in order for the sound to play through the speakers. I hit play.
“Thanks for talking to me about my mom.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “That’s on now?”
“Yes. We’re recording. You’re still ok with this, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Ok. Great. I’m recording, so we can get started with the interview.”
“All right. What do you want to ask me, darlin’?”
“First, I’d like to know what made you change your mind about talking to me. You didn’t seem happy when I showed up this morning. I was wondering if that was because of my mom. Is there a history you share with her that is uncomfortable? Something I should know about it?”
“No. No, not really. I don’t always like to talk about that time in my life. You know college is a beast for a young buck. But after you left I looked for one of my old photo albums. I got to thinking about what you said. I did find a picture of Penny Neworth.”
“You did?”
“Hold on, it’s on the dining room table. I’ll get it.”
There were footsteps that faded then grew louder again.
“Here it is. It was a group picture the RA took at the end of fall semester. That’s her in the back row.”
“But you can’t see her face. It’s so blurry.”
“Sorry. It was 1990. It was taken regular film. There was no such thing as a digital camera. And it’s been under plastic for twenty-eight years. But that was her, the one smiling.”
