AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cyrus let out a long breath. “Man, you sound just like your sister, throwing out all these crazy theories. Again, I’m asking you, do you hear yourself? I’m a police officer. The law is the law. It’s not my job to go around doing all kinds of vigilante shit. I don’t know what you’re trying to do right now, but if you think I killed Sharon Eddy or Keri Cryer, you’re nuts.”
Noah asked, “You really don’t care why Vance gave that statement in Piper’s shooting, or that he might have lied?”
“I did. For a while. Like I told you, I damn near got myself fired over it. Now? What difference does it make? What’s done is done. Doesn’t much matter how it happened. At the end of the day, my daughter is dead, and Mathias Tobin is free.”
“That’s it?” said Josie.
Cyrus shook his head. He lifted a hand and shoved it through his thick hair. In that moment, he looked haggard. “I’m tired,” he muttered. “You have any idea what it’s like taking care of someone who needs twenty-four-hour care, all while working a full-time job? Sure I had home health nurses, but that don’t take away the stress of watching your child go through something like that. I just lost her a few weeks ago. I’m exhausted, and you all are not helping.”
“I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through,” Noah said, “and for your loss. I’m sorry we have to be here asking these questions, but you’ve got to understand that we’ve got a job to do. Mathias was your son-in-law. Did you—”
Cyrus held up a hand to silence him. “I don’t want to get into this. I tried to accept him. I did my best, but it’s like you said. He was older and he’d had allegations against him even if none of them stuck.”
“Each time he walked away with no charges,” Noah said. “That didn’t drive you crazy?”
“Of course it did,” Cyrus said. “It still does. But I told you. I’m tired. I’m not sure I’ve got any fight left in me. What’s the point now? Piper’s gone.”
Josie’s scalp tingled. She resisted the urge to touch her stitches, instead maintaining her focus on Cyrus. “Do you ever think that maybe if Dr. Feist had ruled Jana Melburn’s death a homicide, things would have turned out differently?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “Even though we didn’t have much evidence, if she’d just ruled the manner of death a homicide, we would have at least had the green light to keep investigating, maybe ask the public for tips. We did what we could in terms of looking for the mystery person Mathias claims she was going to meet, but then Anya ruled it an accident. It was an open and closed case. She fell, she died. We couldn’t keep devoting resources to it. But a homicide? Even a cold one would warrant some manpower, some digging.”
Josie said, “Dr. Feist failed you.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Noah said, “Jana’s injuries were severe. You didn’t think that the homicide determination was appropriate based on those alone?”
“Personally? Yeah, of course I did. My gut told me she was murdered but we couldn’t prove it. Besides that, I’m not a medical examiner.”
“No, you’re not,” Josie agreed. “But you said yourself that Anya’s determination of the manner of death could have made a big difference. Maybe, given more time and resources, you could have found evidence that Mathias killed Jana. Maybe he would have been put away before he ever met Piper. Maybe you were bitter and angry with Anya.”
“I don’t deal in maybes,” Cyrus said. “Only what’s in front of me.”
“You don’t blame Anya at all for Mathias Tobin going free ten years ago?” Noah asked.
“I think a lot of people are to blame for that, myself included. I told you, there was no proof that he did it.”
“But you personally must have a lot more anger toward Anya than other people might,” Josie said. “You had a sexual relationship with her.”
He held both hands up, palms facing Josie. “Hey, come on now. That’s ancient history. I know you’ve got murders to solve, but you can just leave our private relationship out of it. That’s got nothing to do with anything.”
“You sure about that?” Josie said. “Were you in love with her?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“Let’s say you were in love with her,” Josie said. “Then one day, she disappeared. No goodbye. No call or text or even a note. She was just gone. That had to hurt.”
He swallowed again. “Anya did what she had to do. That’s what I always figured. I never had any hard feelings about how things ended.”
The Chief edged his way in between Josie and Noah, shooting an incredulous look at Cyrus. “Really?”
Cyrus’s gaze swept downward, lingering on his desk. “I knew it wasn’t serious.”
Josie said, “But even if it wasn’t, that was a shitty way for her to end things, and here you are ten years later burying your daughter with the knowledge that this woman you’d been in a relationship with, who didn’t care enough about you or respect you enough to at least tell you she was leaving, potentially could have stopped Mathias Tobin, or at the very least, set into motion a series of events that could have put him away before he married Piper.”
Cyrus didn’t look up from his desk.
Noah said, “You two had an intimate relationship and you were also involved in her case against her husband. You were familiar with the brand. You saw first-hand what Vance did to her, and I’m guessing you also witnessed the psychological damage—the terror—he left her with. You would know how seeing that brand on another woman would affect her.”
