“What was your relationship with Eli?”
“
“Sorry, I misspoke. What is your relationship with Eli?”
“I love my father very much,” Rachel said. “We’ve always maintained a close relationship, even after his incarceration. Rarely do I go a week without visiting him.”
“I understand you are his favorite.”
“Not even close, Detective. I was the baby, the only girl, so I was his little darling. His pet.” She smiled. “You know, I was what you might call a redemption baby.”
“What does that mean?” Dantzler asked.
“Eli was a man of God, but he was also a man. A flawed man in many respects. About three years prior to my arrival, he had an affair. As you can imagine, when my mother found out about his indiscretions, she was angry, hurt, and embarrassed. She threatened to leave and take the boys with her. Given Eli’s reputation and the reverence his congregation had for him, a divorce would have been devastating. He would have been ruined. So he pleaded with my mother to forgive him and take him back. She loved the man, so that’s what she did.”
Rachel laughed, as though she had just recalled some private and humorous moment.
“Some babies are accidents, some born out of wedlock. Me, I was born because a sinful man was trying to redeem himself.” She shook her head. “Eli loves me very much, but I am nowhere close to being his favorite.”
“Isaac?”
“He wishes. No, Detective, Tommy is Eli’s favorite. Always has been, always will be. It’s not even a close contest.”
“When I spoke with Isaac, I asked about Tommy. Isaac didn’t have much to say.”
“They aren’t close. Not since… Looking back, I don’t think they ever were close. Are you familiar with the Bible, Detective?”
“I know my way around it.”
“Do you know the story of how Jacob, with his mother’s help, manipulated his blind father, Isaac, into granting him the Blessing that rightfully should have been bestowed upon Esau, Jacob’s twin?”
“Yes, I know that story.”
“Then I’m sure you can appreciate the irony that in real life, in our house, Isaac was Esau and Tommy was Jacob. Isaac desperately wanted my father’s blessing and never received it. Tommy couldn’t have cared less yet it was bestowed upon him every day. The irony becomes even greater when you factor in how their lives turned out. The rejected son follows in his father’s footsteps, while the chosen son becomes a lost soul.”
Rachel turned away and blinked back tears. She withdrew a tissue from her purse and wiped her nose.
“Tommy truly was a golden boy, Detective,” she continued. “That’s not exaggeration, or baby sister idolizing big brother. Ask anyone who knew Tommy back then. They’ll agree. He was handsome, smart, personable, kind, the best athlete in school-there was simply nothing he didn’t excel at. And it all came so natural to him, so easy. Isaac studied diligently and made B’s; Tommy phoned it in and made all A’s. Isaac worked harder at sports; Tommy was the superstar. If Isaac wanted to date a beautiful girl, he had to keep his fingers crossed that Tommy didn’t ask her out first. You get the picture, Detective. Tommy was special.”
“Did Eli encourage the rivalry?”
“You aren’t listening, Detective. There was no rivalry. Didymus Thomas Whitehouse had no competitors.”
“Interesting name,” Dantzler said. “Both mean twin. Didymus is Greek, Thomas is Aramaic.”
Rachel applauded. “I am impressed, Detective. You’ve obviously studied subjects other than criminal investigation, police procedure, and tennis strategy. Am I correct?”
“Philosophy.”
“Wonderful field. Which brings me to the obvious question-how did a budding Jean Paul Sartre become Sherlock Holmes?”
“My mother was murdered when I was fourteen. Her killer was never caught. I knew the day after she was killed that being a detective was what I wanted to be.”
“Doesn’t take Dr. Freud to untangle that plot.”
Dantzler said, “Back to Tommy. You speak of him in the past tense. Is he dead?”
“The golden boy certainly is.”
“What happened to him?”
“You turned your family tragedy into something positive, Detective. That’s admirable. Unfortunately, Tommy wasn’t able to overcome our family tragedy. It devoured him, changed him completely, turned him into another person, one none of us knew or could every really get close to again. He became this dark, quiet, melancholy loner. His grades went from all A’s to far below average. Sports no longer meant anything to him; before the incident they were his passion. After high school, Tommy joined the Marines. Did eight years before the alcoholism got so out of control they had no choice but to discharge him. I can’t begin to explain the change, Detective. I don’t have the vocabulary for it. It was just… a one-hundred and eighty degree turn.”
“You’ve made it clear that Eli worshipped Tommy. Did Tommy feel the same about Eli?”
“Tommy was fifteen when it all went down. Sure, he loved Eli, but Tommy was like some solitary planet circling in his own galaxy. People gravitated to Tommy, not the other way around.”
“Does he still live around here? I will need to get in touch with him.”
“We own quite a bit of rental property, and one of the places is a duplex off Redding Road. We let him live there. I’ll get you the address and phone number before you leave.”
“Thanks. What does your brother do to earn a living?”
“Nothing of real consequence. Along with letting him live rent free, we let him manage some of our properties, pay him a small salary. He’s been clean and sober for six months now, and that’s a long stretch for him. I do think he’s trying, making some progress. But we’ve been down this road before and… he always lets us down. Always lets himself down.”
“What’s your husband’s relationship with Tommy?”
“Kirk has been more than patient with my brother, cut him miles and miles of slack. He really likes Tommy, and would love to see him get straightened out. He really would. But-”
“Does Isaac help out?”
“Prays for him, maybe, but not much else.”
“In all this time, you haven’t asked why I wanted to talk about your father,” Dantzler said. “Aren’t you curious?”
“I deal with horses and politicians, Detective. I’ve developed two things over the years-thick skin and patience. You’ll tell me when you feel like it. But, yes, I am slightly curious.”
“I think there’s a chance your father may be innocent.”
“I have maintained from the beginning that he did not kill those two young boys,” Rachel said, fighting back tears. “I have been the lone voice crying in the wilderness. There is no way my father is a cold-blooded killer. Can you prove his innocence?”
Dantzler shrugged. “Not unless I can dig up something new concerning the case. The evidence against him is fairly overwhelming. I’ve seen plenty of people convicted on a lot less.”
“Why do you think he is innocent?”
“I didn’t say he
“But there has to be some reason why you feel this way.”
“I do, but I don’t have time to get into specifics right now. What I need is to ask you a few questions.”
“Yes, yes, go ahead. Ask me anything.”
“If your father is innocent, he has spent twenty-nine years behind bars. And he’s done so without complaining, without appealing the decision, without trying to find the real killer. Why would he do that? Throw away his life like that? He should have been the loudest voice crying in the wilderness.”
“How many times do you think I’ve asked myself those very questions, Detective Dantzler? Fifty times a day, every day of my life. And I have no answer.”
“Did you ever ask Eli?”
“A million times. He never answers, just looks away.”
“This woman he had an affair with. Was she married?”
“Divorced.”
