“Did you find your father?” Mattie asked.
“No, but I changed my name legally to Ramon Vasquez, believing that was my real name and my parents might search for me someday. Eventually I moved to Denver and worked there for a few years. Then I moved to Willow Springs.”
“Is that where you reunited with Adrienne?” Stella asked.
“Yes.”
“How did that happen?”
“I worked for Jack Kelly. He knew that my name had once been Roger Howard and that I grew up in Hightower. When Adrienne came in as a customer, he asked her if she was local. After she told him she’d grown up in Hightower, he asked her if we could possibly be related. He put us in touch.”
Stella nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“It seemed like a miracle that we found each other.” Vasquez’s face turned despondent and his eyes grew damp. “She was happy to see me again, too.”
Stella took a plastic sheet that contained the photo of Adrienne and Vasquez from the folder she’d prepared. “When was this picture taken?”
He picked up the photo and stared at it. “Where did you get this?”
“Adrienne’s photo album.”
“Can I have a copy of it?”
“We’ll see. When was it taken?”
“In April, right before she left Willow Springs. We went on a picnic and saw the ruins at Mesa Verde. We asked another tourist to take it for us.” Vasquez appeared to be lost in the memory.
“And Adrienne left Willow Springs shortly after that picture was taken?” Stella asked. “Why?”
He shrugged, still looking at the picture as if he couldn’t take his eyes off it. “She’d broken up with a guy there, a realtor. She was unhappy and decided a change would do her good. But I didn’t find this out until we talked again in June, so I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on at the time.”
“Were you afraid she’d become a victim of foul play?”
“Nah. She packed her things, took her car. I found out she’d given notice to her landlord. I figured she’d decided to move away and start over.”
“So you traced Adrienne to Timber Creek,” Stella said. “What happened then?”
“I wrote her a letter, asking her if we could see each other.” He shifted in his seat.
Stella slipped another plastic sheet out of her folder, this one containing the letter. “Is this the letter you sent?”
His face flushed and he hung his head. “Oh God . . .”
Mattie and Stella both waited, observing Vasquez’s response.
Finally, he raised his head, looking from Stella to Mattie. His face had lost its redness, leaving it pinched with sorrow. “This is what I meant when I said I lost my way.”
“Explain it to me, Mr. Vasquez,” Stella said in a quiet voice.
He raised a hand slightly in a gesture of helplessness. “What’s to explain? It’s pretty clear. I fell in love with her, and I asked her to marry me. This was before I knew we were half siblings. I still thought we had no blood relationship.”
“That must have been hard when you found out.”
“I was devastated.”
“How did you find out?”
“Like I said, Adrienne told me.”
“How did she know?”
“She discovered it when she was about to leave home. She searched for her birth certificate so that she could take it with her. She found my original birth certificate, the one that was issued before David Howard adopted me. When you’re adopted, they reissue a birth certificate with your new name and parents. According to Adrienne, my original birth certificate listed Velda Jane Miller as my birth mother—Miller being Velda Howard’s maiden name. She realized that we shared a birth mother. The line for my father’s name had been left blank.”
“Why didn’t she tell you all this when you were first reunited?” Mattie asked.
“I asked her that very question. She said she didn’t want to bring me any pain or reopen old wounds. She hated that I had no biological father listed on the document. Thought it would hurt my feelings.” He bowed his head, shaking it sadly. “If only she’d known the pain she could’ve spared me by telling me then.”
“What was your original birth name?” Mattie asked.
Ramon gave a shrug of resignation. “That’s the crazy part. Velda named me Ramon Miller. So I was right about Ramon being my birth name, but I still don’t know why David chose the name Vasquez to tease me with. I should ask her . . . if I can ever stomach seeing her again.”
“When did you see Adrienne last?” Stella asked.
“On June tenth.” He locked eyes with Stella. “She called me as soon as she received this letter and arranged for us to meet. That’s when she broke the news to me.”
“I would have been pretty mad if someone had withheld such important information from me,” Stella said.
He shrugged. “Adrienne thought she was doing the right thing.”
“So you saw her on June tenth. Did you continue to communicate with each other?”
“We talked on the phone once in a while.”
“Were you aware that she’d developed a new relationship here in Timber Creek?”
Vasquez raised his brows and touched his jaw. “That cop that hit me?”
Mattie felt certain that Vasquez must have known Adrienne was involved with someone else. “What did you know about her beginning a new relationship?”
“She said she had a boyfriend. I didn’t know who it was.”
“How did you feel about her having a boyfriend?” Stella asked.
“It hurt. But I knew it was for the best. I worked at being happy for her.”
“And you? Have you moved on?”
“The best I can.” He stared at Stella, daring her to pursue it further.
She did. “Where were you last week on Wednesday and Thursday?”
“I was home.”
She waited, but when he didn’t offer anything else, she continued. “Working?”
“No.”
“Were you with someone who can confirm your whereabouts?”
“No.”
“Give me more details, Mr. Vasquez. I need a picture of what you were doing on those two days last week.”
He paused. “I was home, taking some time off. Alone.”
“Can you prove you were there? Can anyone vouch that they saw you?”
He hunched forward, shoulders rounded. “I holed up last week and didn’t go out much.”
“Were you using that crack pipe we found?” Mattie asked.
He looked from Stella to Mattie. “It’s a relic from my past. A friend gave it to me. It has nothing to do with anything.”
“You wrote this letter a few short months ago. Not long after, your world turned upside down. You were aware that Adrienne was moving on. You say that you were moving on, too, but I don’t believe you,” Stella said.
He clamped his lips shut.
“You’ve been very forthcoming, Mr. Vasquez,” Stella said. “Now you need to think hard and tell me what you can prove about where you were and what you were doing last week.”
“Am I a suspect?” Vasquez said, acting incredulous.
“I think you know more than you’re saying.”
“You think I know more than you do? I can’t believe that.”
“What do you know about your sister’s death?” Stella asked.
“Nothing!” He squirmed in his chair.
“Can you prove where you were last Wednesday?”
“I can’t.”
“Have you ever gone hunting up in the mountains, Mr. Vasquez?” Stella asked, going a different direction.
Mattie kept her eyes on Vasquez.
“Of course. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Rifle or bow hunting?”
“Both.”
“Did you know that your sister liked to hike?” Stella asked.