She spread her hands but said nothing.
“Before that we came to your house to find him. But he wasn’t there. You said he’d gone out.”
“That’s right.”
“And he never told you where he was going?”
“No. We didn’t talk much back then.”
“Yet you’d come back home to live.”
“I had nowhere else to go. Look, I was a total druggie back then. You know that and I know that. My mother was dying and needed looking after and I couldn’t even provide that.”
“So your father looked after her?”
Gardiner hesitated.
“Your statement didn’t really say one way or the other,” Decker added helpfully.
“We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I have to give credit where credit is due. My dad really cared about Mom. He did what he could. After he lost his job they had almost no money. And her pain was awful.” She involuntarily shuddered.
“She was hooked up to a drip line that night,” noted Decker. “I remember seeing it.”
“Yeah, well, half the time there were no pain meds in that IV bag. They couldn’t afford them. Fucking insurance companies.” She caught herself, put a hand to her mouth, and added, “Sorry, it’s still kind of a sore subject with me.”
“So your mother had insurance?”
“Until my dad got laid off. Then they couldn’t afford to stay on the insurance. And cancer was a preexisting condition. So they couldn’t get another policy anyway.”
“What did he do?”
“He worked every odd job he could and used the money to get what he could from local doctors.”
“But then he was arrested and held until trial. What then?”
“She suffered incredibly,” said Gardiner, her eyes filling with tears. “My mother was in terrible pain and there was nothing I could do about it.”
“Until she passed away?”
“Yes. Fortunately, she died in her sleep soon after.” She shook her head. “She worked so hard her whole life.”
“What did she do?”
“She was born near Columbus. She was smart but never had a chance to go to college. She worked at OSU. In the cafeteria, when she was in her twenties.”
“I actually played football there.”
“Really?” She looked him over. “I guess you’re plenty big enough. Then she met my dad and they got married. He was working at a manufacturing plant, I think, up near Toledo. They met on a blind date, or so my mom told me. Love at first sight, Meryl and Lisa. Then I came along soon after.” She paused. “They had a nice life. Until I grew up and screwed everything up.”
“With your drug addiction?”
She nodded. “Look, they tried to get me help, but I kept relapsing. Nothing I did seemed to work. I tried, but it was damn hard.”
“It is damn hard, but give yourself some credit. You finally kicked it.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Had your father ever mentioned the Richardses? Or David Katz?”
“No, never. I didn’t even know he knew them.”
“Well, he might not have.”
“Well, then why did he go to that house?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Susan Richards and Rachel Katz also testified that neither of them knew him, and weren’t aware that their husbands did either.”
“So it was a random burglary, then? He just drove around—”
“Walked. He didn’t have a car other than the one that was parked in front of your house all that day and well into the night. We confirmed that with witnesses from your old neighborhood.”
“He could have stolen a car,” she pointed out.
“That’s true. But no car was seen approaching the Richardses’ house that night except for David Katz’s.”
“Wasn’t it raining like crazy that night? How could anyone say for sure they didn’t see a car?”
“Fair point. Talk to me about the discovery of the murder weapon at your parents’ home.”
“What about it?”
“It was found behind a wall panel in your parents’ closet?”
“Okay. So?”
“Did you know about that panel?”
“No. I’d never been in their closet. I never had any reason to.”
“And one of the techs found it?”
“I think so.”
“You were there?”
“I had to be. I couldn’t leave my mother alone.”
“So you were there on the day of the murders and then afterwards?”
“Yes. Again, I couldn’t leave her alone.”
“And you never saw your father after the time of the murders?”
“No. I never left the house. I answered the door when you and your partner showed up that night.”
“That’s right.”
She looked at her watch. “Now, if there’s nothing else?”
“There’s just one thing.”
“Yes?”
“How did the gun get in the closet?”
“What?”
“If your father didn’t come home after the murders, how did the gun he used to kill those people end up behind the panel in the closet?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“Maybe you were asleep? Or...?”
“Or maybe I was stoned out of my mind?” she said, a bitter look on her face.
“When we came to interview you later that night, you were sort of out of it.”
“Then there’s your answer. My father came home, hid the gun, and then left again. And neither my mother nor I saw him.”
“Right, that would explain it. And the stuff he stole never turned up.”
“I don’t know anything about that. You didn’t find it in our house.”
“No, we didn’t. And we looked for it.”
“Okay.” She made a show of looking at her watch again.
“He had five hundred dollars in his pocket. Any idea where that came from?”
“I assumed from him selling the stuff he stole.”
“Right, well, thanks for your time.”
She showed him out. At the door Gardiner said, “I’m not really sure why you’re putting yourself through this, Detective Decker.”
“That thought had crossed my mind.”
Decker walked down the drive and the gates automatically opened as he approached them. When he got to his car, he suddenly looked back at the house in time to see a curtain on one of the front windows flutter closed.
He got into the car thinking that people were interesting. Sometimes they just couldn’t distinguish the truth from bullshit. Sometimes they didn’t want to. It was often easier just to believe a lie.
He drove off with more questions than he’d started the trip with.
And for some reason, that made him happy.
Amos Decker actually smiled as he drove back to Burlington.
He stopped smiling when something rammed into his car on a back road in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 19
Decker had seen the headlights coming up on him but figured the person would slow down and back off.
That was not how it played out. Not even close.
The first strike catapulted his big frame straight ahead. His front and side curtain airbags deployed, and he felt his skin tingle and then burn slightly from the released gases powering the safety devices.
Momentarily disoriented by the collision, Decker looked in the rearview mirror and saw the lights coming at him again. The headlights were set higher than his taillights.
Truck. A big one. He thought he could see the huge metal bumper right before...
The rear of his car was lifted completely off the road with the next impact.
His airbags having already burst open, Decker felt his chest hit the steering column after colliding with the airbag and crushing it. But the air pocket still prevented serious injury.
He cut the wheel to the right, and then the left. The truck mirrored those movements. He could smell gasoline.