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“It’s important to me,” he said, an urgency in his voice, “that you believe me.”
“I believe that you had nothing to do with Lucy’s murder,” she allowed. “I believe you want to solve her case because you feel a personal obligation to her. I believe you will get this done.”
He nodded. “Thank you. I want to find the truth more than you can know.”
She was familiar with that place too. More than she would like to be. “I interviewed two of Ian Johnson’s friends from thirteen years ago.”
He looked surprised. “Wright and Clinton?”
“You talked to them?” Finley doubted they had gotten the same responses.
“They’re on my list, but they’ve avoided me so far. They were both interviewed—along with another guy, Aaron something—after Ian was reported missing. Cagle was pushing Metro, and they were trying to connect the dots to anything and everything. At that time, all three claimed not to know Lucy. They insisted Ian didn’t know her either.”
Finley lifted her eyebrows. “You will find it interesting that both Clinton and Wright were more than happy to talk today about Ian’s infatuation with Lucy. You should follow up with them. See if they give you the same story they gave me.”
“Which was,” Houser prompted.
“Ray basically bullied his little brother. Made it obvious in word and deed that he didn’t want him around. Both Clinton and Wright insisted that Ian wouldn’t hurt a fly. Both seemed to think Ian and Lucy were involved on some level right up to her murder.”
Houser turned back to the case board. “I wonder why Louise didn’t personally question any of Ian’s friends. Or any member of the Johnson family for that matter. If Metro questioned his abrupt disappearance after Lucy’s murder, why wouldn’t she follow up? She was too good at digging into cases and had far too many resources to miss something like that.”
“Then again,” Finley countered, “we figured it out because someone wanted us to.” She thought of what Bauer had said. “The handbag and other items were found, and those things led us to the Johnsons, and suddenly all these unexpected pieces start falling into place.”
Houser’s eyes narrowed. “You think someone planted them to lead us there.”
“The PI, Bauer, sure seems to think so.” She walked closer to the case board. “Makes sense, if you think about it. All this time there has been nothing, and suddenly we’re being spoon-fed this connection to the Johnsons.”
“I don’t like it,” Houser confessed. “But you’re right, it makes a sort of twisted sense.”
“Ray Johnson gave me the names of Ian’s friends, and they told me a story that fit the narrative except for the answers I prompted with a narrative of my own. His ex-wife did the same. He had to know I’d be questioning her.” She met Houser’s gaze. “Did you talk to her yet?”
“Like Ian’s friends, she’s avoiding me.”
Funny, Finley mused. It was almost as if Ray Johnson wanted her to know this version of the truth. But no one else. She had a bad feeling where that might be going.
“Fin?”
She blinked. “Sorry, I was thinking ...”
“Do you think any of this is leading us to the actual truth?”
Did she? “Who knows? But truth or fiction, it all leads to the same place—the Johnsons. The old man is dying. Ray is poised to inherit everything—as long as Ian doesn’t reappear and demand his share. Or unless he ends up out of the picture and the ex-wife and kids get everything.”
Houser nodded, his face grim. “I can see where you’re going, but I need more than conjecture to make a case related to Ian or Ray’s ex-wife or some business competitor. Fact is, I’m hanging on by the skin of my teeth with Lucy’s case. Any minute now I may be ordered to stop wasting resources if I don’t come up with something.”
Finley considered the case board and all it contained, as well as what it didn’t. “It all just stops without finding any definitive answers. Why simply fade away before finding the truth? Why didn’t Louise hang on? And where the hell did she go?”
These were the big questions in Finley’s mind. It was also the part that made the least sense.
“Maybe she couldn’t get past the new loss when her husband died. It pushed her over the edge.”
Possibly. Cagle had disappeared just over three weeks after his death. “But there’s a difference between losing a spouse and losing a child,” Finley contrasted for the sake of argument. “There’s also a difference between a natural death and a murder. I don’t get why she let the murder of her only child go without a more extended fight—no matter that her husband had a heart attack and died. It doesn’t fit with what we know about her.”
“Maybe she let it all go,” Houser suggested. “She may have gone somewhere private and checked out.”
Also a possibility. Finley had certainly considered that route several times. She searched the images and notes on the board again.Why did you stop looking?
“I had a phone conversation with your father.”
