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“Crazy?” Cleo asked.
“Yeah, she wanted to leave with me. Take off and go live with my parents too. Like we’d just be some kind of a couple. I couldn’t do that. My parents shipped me away for having cigarettes in my car. How do you think they would react to me sleeping with a married woman in a church? It just wouldn’t work. I was a kid. No plan of what to do with my life. But Mariena was desperate. I think her husband leaving her there broke her spirit.”
“And so you fought?” Nick asked, trying to lead him to something.
“Not really,” he put a hand to his temple as if he were trying to force the memory to stay there. “She yelled. Got really mad and said if I left, I’d be killing her. She’d never be the same, and it would be my fault. She called me a murderer and told me her blood would be on my hands. It scared the hell out of me. I hadn’t done anything like that before, and then all of a sudden, this woman who was being so nice to me just lost it. I couldn’t afford to have her going around town and telling everyone what happened. If my great aunt found out, she’d tell my parents.”
“So you just bailed after that?”
“I did,” Clark said regretfully. “And I felt terrible leaving her there. She was so broken and sad. But she had kids. You can’t just walk out on your kids.”
“It still bothers you?” Cleo asked, trying to make the questions sound formal and relevant instead of just her curiosity.
“It bothered me for a long time. It’s why I didn’t go back home. I couldn’t face my parents. I moved around a ton for years and years. Just grabbing the best job I could. Visiting home sparingly. Eventually, I stopped worrying about that and had plenty of real life problems to deal with. Like I said, I’ve got a couple of marriages behind me. No matter how my parents tried to get me to turn out good, I didn’t.”
“Nothing else happened up in Canada?” Nick asked, boring holes into Clark with a demanding stare.
“Nothing else happened for the rest of my life. Nothing anyone could say I did that was illegal. I grew up with very strict parents and expectations of myself. I might not be sitting in a church every Sunday, but I don’t do anything illegal. There might be a library book I forgot to return, and I’ve definitely rolled through a couple of stop signs, but whatever is being said about me out there, it’s not true. I’ll testify to that under oath.”
“Did you ever go back or see the woman again?” Cleo asked. “Did you spend more time in Canada?”
“I never went back, but I did call over to her house once, maybe ten years later. I just wanted to know how things turned out for her and say that I was sorry for what happened.”
“And what did she say?” Cleo pressed, handing him a tissue to wipe the sweat off his brow. He took it and dabbed his head and then wiped at his mouth.
“Nothing. One of her kids picked up, and it freaked me out, so I just pretended I had the wrong number. I didn’t want to mess with her life any more than I had. I think I really made things worse for her.” He held his face in his hands and sniffled. “This can’t be about that, right? I mean, that’s years ago, and nothing else really happened after I left.”
“Maybe the information is wrong,” Cleo said, looking over at Nick. “Informants bungle it sometimes. If you’re clean, you’re clean.”
“I am,” Clark said, holding up both hands. “You can dig into anything you want in my life. I have nothing to hide. I really feel bad about how all of that went down and I tried to live my life right after that.”
“I hear you Clark,” Nick said, drawing in a deep breath. She couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or relieved. “My lawyer here will validate your statements and get you off the hook with the chatter going on in the streets about you. It must be a mix-up.”
“Phew,” Clark said, brushing his hand across his forehead. “That scared the hell out of me. I’m mostly just getting by. I couldn’t afford to get in any trouble right now.”
“We’re sorry to have bothered you,” Cleo said, tipping her head as he started to walk away.
“I hope you don’t get in any trouble either,” he called to Nick. “Good luck, brother.”
It took a lot of willpower to sit quietly in the car until they pulled out of sight. He broke the silence first. “He’s credible.”
“I agree. His story fits and his reactions in general lead me to believe he’s just a normal guy. I didn’t see any red flags.”
“And that’s good,” Nick said, tentatively. “Right?”
“It’s certainly better than finding out he killed someone. It sounds like Mariena was just recounting how they left things. That woman is truly a complex creature.”
“That’s a generous assessment.”
“I got the most important thing though,” Cleo said gesturing to her purse. “I put the tissue back in a bag.”
“With his DNA?” Nick asked, looking thoroughly impressed. “How did you manage that?”
“I’m slick.”
“Damn right you are.”
“I’ll write up a report about what we learned, and have Brian validate a few more things about Clark. The DNA can confirm that he’s Ronnie’s father.”
