“Richard, please. They’re gone. Give us what we need,” Evie said quietly.
He considered her for a long moment, nodded. “Joe and Scott told me different stories regarding the same event, told me consistently the same contradictory stories for two years. Scott believed Joe did something. Joe believed Scott did something. I ended up believing both of them. They were both telling me the truth as they knew it.”
“Did Joe or Scott kill someone?” Evie asked.
“No.”
“No question in your mind?”
“None.”
“Were they worried the other one had?” Gabriel asked, picking up the thread Evie was tugging.
“Yes.”
“Who’s dead?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Do the police know the person is dead or are they just missing?”
“There’s been a funeral.”
“The father thinks his son killed someone, the son thinks his father did. Who did kill the person?” Gabriel asked.
“As far as I know, that question remains open.”
“We’re talking about Frank Ash, aren’t we?” Evie asked.
The doctor merely shook his head. “I can’t answer that.”
Gabriel looked at Evie, got a slight shake of her head in reply to his unspoken question. “I appreciate you telling us what you did in confidence, Richard,” he said to the doctor. “We’ve looked at the Frank Ash murder and believe a family member of one of his victims likely shot him. There are two boys who have admitted to being molested by him after he was released from prison.”
The doctor nodded, looking tired. “Joe wasn’t one of them, based on what he said. He might have been had things turned out differently. He had a close call with Frank Ash, but he wasn’t lying to me about something that crucial. He was younger than Frank Ash would have preferred, given that age-preferential offenders are often rather selective. I believed Joe at the time. Nothing since has changed that assessment.”
“Scott didn’t kill Frank Ash?”
“No.”
“Joe didn’t kill Frank Ash?”
“No.”
“Susan?”
The doctor smiled. “Thank you for that. No, she did not.”
“Did they know anything about who did kill Frank Ash?” Evie asked.
“No. Which is why the son and father were at an impasse, not able to believe each other. Not knowing who killed Frank Ash, just that he was missing, they each believed it of the other. The discovery of Frank Ash’s body was a huge deal that final week. The fact his remains were found behind the truck stop convinced Scott his son wasn’t involved. The fact he had been shot three times surprised them both. No one wanted the results regarding the Frank Ash investigation more than these two. They both thought there would be answers by the time they came to see me the following week. Concrete information about who killed Frank Ash was going to be a breakthrough for their family, would solve the tangle the father and son had gotten themselves into. The plan to go away for a weekend camping trip was a relief valve while they waited for results, for the cops to come up with the one who had done it.”
Evie said, “If no one in the Florist family killed Frank Ash, regardless of what they had suspected of each other over the years, there would be no one associated with Frank Ash who would have reason to take revenge and kill the Florist family.”
The doctor nodded. “Which is why I never contacted the authorities. There is no person out there angry enough over what happened to Frank Ash to take the huge risk of murdering the Florist family. Their involvement existed only in what Joe and Scott thought the other had done. I’m sorry. I’ve basically given you a rabbit trail down a hole that goes nowhere.”
“Nothing in that final Wednesday session raised a concern with you?” Gabriel asked, letting his doubts show. “Scott and Joe were both relieved Frank Ash’s body had been recovered? Both were looking forward to seeing you the following week with whatever the investigation would have found?”
“Scott was visibly relieved,” Richard assured Gabriel. “That the body was found behind the truck stop some distance from their home convinced Scott his son couldn’t have been involved. And that Ash was shot rather wildly three times in the chest, and it appeared to be with a.22, got Joe to agree that such a shooting would be very unlike his dad, who was trained to shoot in tight groupings and only owned large-caliber handguns. Scott expected forensics to run the slugs, match up with a gun, and find another case that would put a name to who had killed Frank Ash. They needed that name.
“Scott was the one to suggest the camping trip. He wanted Joe to be assured his dad wouldn’t be near the autopsy or the recovered bullets, wouldn’t be around to taint the evidence, so his son would believe him when that evidence confirmed it hadn’t been him. It was important for the father and son to start rebuilding trust between them, and that was the point of the camping trip, to start that process in earnest.”
Gabriel was willing to accept that the doctor had talked himself into this version of the final Wednesday session with the Florist family. Gabriel also thought the whole thing was at best a major headache in the making. However this proceeded-figuring out who killed Frank Ash-would now be on the must-solve board. He shot a look at Evie and could tell she agreed they had all they were going to get.
Evie stood and offered her hand. “Richard, I want to thank you for the conversation. It has been helpful, if only to understand what was on their minds that final week.”
He smiled and rose, shook her hand, obviously trying to regroup, no doubt mentally rewinding the tape on all he’d shared. “I do wish you all the best in finding out what happened to the Florist family. Frank Ash is what brought them to my office and why they continued to see me until they disappeared. But I can’t figure out a reason they were killed that could link to Frank Ash. Whatever did happen, it is truly a tragedy.”
“It is that,” Gabriel agreed, shaking the man’s hand. “We both appreciate your time.”
Evie clicked off the recorder and slipped it into her bag with her notepad of questions.
“Do you have a headache?” Gabriel asked, pocketing his wallet after paying the parking fee.
Evie looked over and laughed. “I was about to ask you the same question. Please tell me there are effective pain-killers in our near future.”
“I’m in desperate need of them. Lunch was good, but that spider web of an interview left me spinning like a trapped fly. I’ll find a pharmacy.”
“We passed a 7-Eleven at the first stoplight.”
He nodded and soon pulled in. Evie unfastened her seat belt. “Back soon. Caffeine or decaf for your soda?”
“Make it caffeine-it’s a fairly long drive.”
She returned and generously passed over the first two Tylenol from the bottle before she palmed a couple for herself. “Please protect me from doctors who don’t want to say too much, who know a lot more and are bursting to say what they actually know.”
He laughed because he actually followed her description. He swallowed the two Tylenol with a drink of orange soda. She sipped at a grape one for herself. “Sum it up for me please, Evie.”
“Joe has a bad encounter with Frank Ash, he’s not molested, but it’s too close. His dad learns what happened. Frank Ash goes missing. The son, horrified, thinks the father killed him. The father, knowing he did not, thinks the son did. Classic impasse, each scared witless that the other one is the culprit. Hence the counseling the father seeks for the son, and the son’s willingness to stay mum about that weekly counseling to protect the father.”
Gabriel nodded. “Thanks. If only the doctor had been willing to give us that summary when we sat down with him, we could have enjoyed lunch and pondered the next two obvious questions.”