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I glance up and Sam kisses my forehead.
“Yeah. I keep going over everything trying to make sense of it. I can’t stop thinking about what Detective Garrison said. He is completely convinced Reggie Merriweather made a false confession. He’s adamant aboutit.”
“But you don’t think so,” Samobserves.
“I mean, I don’t know enough about it to have a concrete opinion,” Isay.
“That’s never really stopped youbefore.”
I shrug. “I don’t buy it. I think the idea that this man was just roaming around without being noticed and happened on a body ten years after it was hidden, after no one else was able to find it despite many searches of the area, is too far-fetched. I just can’t see that happening. But I also don’t understand why Detective Garrison would be so determined about it. Enough that he was willing to compromise the investigation because ofit.”
“He knows this area better than we do,” Sam offers. “And he was talking about Merriweather like he had experience with him. He might know a lot more about him than he told us, and it gives him reason to believe what he does. You know some people give confessions about things they didn’t do. They’ve been put up to it or they have somehow become delusional and convinced they didit.”
“I know,” I say. “And that’s why it’s not just the confession itself that bothers me. That happens. People like the attention or they are suffering some kind of mental illness and actually think they did it. They might even be influenced by the police into confessing. I’ve seenit.”
“And Garrison did mention that he was dealing with some kind of mental issue,” Samadds.
“Well, he said he was half-cracked. I’m not going to jump out on a limb and call that a diagnosis. Maybe he was just eccentric or didn’t spend as much time around other people and that got him the reputation of being crazy. From what I’ve seen about how willing people around here are to jump on the bandwagon and believe wild stories and speculation, I wouldn’t put it pastthem.
“But, again, it’s not just the false confession that is tripping me up about this. He was able to lead investigators to Mary Ellen’s body. A body that was concealed in a completely hidden location no one should have been able to randomly stumble on. It wasn’t like it was out in the open or even buried. He didn’t give any sort of explanation as to what he was doing when he just happened on the body. Or why would have gone straight to making a false confession when he found her.
“I understand he said he felt so bad for Mary Ellen’s family, especially with so many tragedies that happened to them over such a short time, and that he thought it would make them feel better to have some sort of conclusion, but why would that be his first instinct? If we are going to go ahead and suspend our disbelief here and say he did just stumble on this body while he was out wandering around the campground, why wouldn’t he immediately go for help? He knew they were investigating thecamp.”
“But they weren’t,” Sam points out. “Remember? Maude told you that. They stopped really focusing on the case. After a while, they didn’t even mention it anymore. Volunteers were the ones going out and doing the searching. It was just understood that there wasn’t any evidence or anything for them to go on, so the case was basically at a standstill. I mean, it was ten yearslater.”
“So he just says,‘Hey, I think I‘ll go ahead and take the rap for this. Doesn‘t matter since I’m going to be dead soonanyway?’”
“Imean…”
“It doesn’t make sense. Just because the case wasn’t progressing doesn’t mean that his first reaction would be to go ahead and take the blame for something he didn’t do. I understand him wanting to help bring closure to Mary Ellen’s family. That just isn’t the way to go aboutit.”
“What about evidence, though?” Sam wonders. “They interviewed him right after the massacre. He didn’t say anything suspicious. He didn’t act suspiciously. There was nothing in his house that gave any indication he had anything to do withit.”
“They interviewed him two days later. He’s not going to be walking around covered in blood, still wearing a mask two days later. And it would be simple enough to get rid of any evidence. He lives out beyond the camp, right?” Iask.
“Yeah.”
“Alright. Well, that’s a fairly rural area. And I would say it’s not uncommon for people living in rural areas to have burn pits in their yards. They burn leaves and yard debris. Get rid of their trash. Even just sit around them. You’ve told me about summers at your grandparents’ house when all the aunts, uncles, and cousins would get together for cookouts. There was a firepit in the yard. Wasn’t there?” Iask.
“There was,” he nods. “My grandfather liked to roast hotdogs.”
“Exactly. And that wasn’t unusual. It still isn’t. So, it would seem that twenty years ago, it may have been even more popular. There was as much to do back then as there is now. Especially if you are a recluse who isn’t interested in heading into town for a night out. He could have easily taken any bloody clothes and the mask he was wearing, tossed them into the fire pit, and burned them beyond recognition,” I reason. “Because he wasn’t considered suspicious at the time, there would have been no reason to inspect the fire pit extensively. They might have taken a cursory glance at it, but it would have been full of ashes and embers, just like any fire pit, and unless they saw the hatchet lying there, it probably wouldn’t have raised any concerns.”
“You are putting a lot of thought into trying to solve a case that has already been solved,” hesays.
“It’s not that I’m trying to solve it,” I say. “It’s that it’s impossible to divide the two cases completely. There’s a difference between depending too much on the details of a previous case to investigate a new one, and recognizing the obvious connections between cases and leveraging those to find answers. In this situation, we can’t use the first massacre as a framework for the investigation of this one, but we have to use the details surrounding it to give more context. And whether Reginald Merriweather was guilty of those crimes is a critical detail. If he wasn’t responsible, just like Garrison said, the one who was is still out there and could very well be behind these killings. And if he is, the fact that he’s dead means he couldn’t have had anything to do with it, which means we have to find out why someone would want to follow in hisfootsteps.”
Sam rubs his eyes. “Just when I think we’re making progress the whole thing opens up wider than ever,” he groans. “Come on. We need to get some sleep. It’s late and you’ve already gotten yourself neck-deep in this case.” He runs his hand comfortingly along myback.
“You’re right,” I say. “It is late and we need to hit the road early in themorning.”
“To go back to Cherry Hill?” Samasks.
“To go back to Camp Hollow,” I say.
“Why do you want to go back there?” heasks.
“To do exactly what Garrison recommended. We’re going to go to the boathouse and see where the body was forourselves.”
