“Doesn’t his connection to the house’s past make you skeptical?” she asked as gently as she could. She hoped he would come to this conclusion on his own. Instead, frustration tapped his shoulder as well.
“Everyone is always so skeptical of the poor kid,” Ezra said, shaking his head. “I mean, yeah, maybe it’s odd. But his grandparents and parents are dead. It makes sense that he’d want to be here with the memories of his father, while still acknowledging this isn’t the property he should own. We can’t judge Nathaniel based off something his grandfather did.”
“I know that,” she snapped, a bit of bitterness creeping out. She sighed. “I do know that. It’s tragic he had to come from such a chaotic family, and I do only wish the best for him. That’s all got to be difficult.
“However, we must look out for ourselves too. You see, I don’t think Lyla and Richard killed their children. And their deaths… Well, we might be in danger because of the shadow their murderer has cast.”
33
It was nothing short of ominous and Ezra hated the way the chill settled over him. He was grateful that at least Clara wasn’t trying to be so careful around him anymore. At least she was talking to him, instead of trying to shield him. But it was still unsettling. He didn’t want to even consider it.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Something stuck to me when I read those police reports,” Clara explained. “I wasn’t sure what exactly it was at first, but I’ve been thinking about this further and I kind of wonder if there isn’t more to Kyle and Olivia’s deaths. The police concluded that Lyla and Richard poisoned the children, then ran off. But they have yet to find a motive that would give them reason to do so. They didn’t show any signs of this kind of behavior before the murders, and they didn’t gain anything from killing their children. In fact, if they did kill their children and flee, they lost their business, their house, everything.
“The couple wasn’t having financial problems, and by all accounts their family life was happy. No one recalled anything more than the typical complaints, and even those were far and few in between.
“Furthermore, they weren’t known to lash out in anger, and the children were slowly poisoned. Whoever killed them poisoned them over a period of days at least. There had to be a reason for it. It was thought out, brutal, vindictive. Yet nothing points to Lyla and Richard as being the kind of people who would do something like this, or who would have any reason to do it.”
“Then what do you think happened?” Ezra asked. It made sense. Too much sense. He didn’t know enough about the couple to know for sure either way, but he could see the flaw in assuming they murdered their children.
“Well, I don’t know for sure,” Clara admitted. “No one knows for sure, of course. But the children were kept home as soon as they started showing signs of being sick. This is one reason why the police assumed they killed their children, because they were the ones who cooked for them. They would be able to easily slip poison into their food. However, there was one other person in the house at the time. One other person who was known for cooking for the family occasionally.”
“Billy,” Ezra whispered, recalling what Nathaniel had said earlier about the ice cream.
“Exactly. Billy could’ve easily made poisoned treats that he only gave to the children. It seems he had full access to the house, so he could’ve set Lyla and Richard up. If he killed them too, then they wouldn’t be able to say anything in their defense. He would’ve gotten away with murder. He is the person who would have the easiest time doing so, aside from Lyla and Richard. Plus, he had a pretty good reason to.”
“Except he died too,” Ezra pointed out. “He never benefitted from it.”
“I’m sure he didn’t know his death would follow so soon after theirs,” Clara pointed out. “Unless… unless he did kill them, and the guilt was simply too much to bear. Perhaps it contributed to his death.
“I’m not going to even pretend to have all the answers. I just think it’s all a bit suspicious. Billy does have more motive than Lyla and Richard did. His parents worked hard to build the bed and breakfast, they lost their lives over it, then the bank took the only home he had ever known from them all. He lost his family, his home, and the business he likely would’ve inherited.
“If he started disagreeing with Lyla and Richard, resentment could’ve bred. He cared about the family, sure. But I’m sure he was bitter as well. And with Lyla and Richard out of the way, Billy could finally have a chance to buy back the family business. He could finally reclaim his home.”
It was a horrible, awful thought that made Ezra sick to his stomach. But it was plausible. That was the worst part. It wasn’t too extreme to fathom. In a sick way, it made sense. He still didn’t want to believe it though.
“Why kill the children though?” Ezra argued. “If there was resentment, it would’ve been towards Lyla and Richard, not the children. With Lyla and Richard gone, Billy could have the chance to buy back the bed and breakfast, so why not just kill them? Why kill the children instead?”
“Because it was the only way to get rid of them all,” Clara explained. “If Billy would’ve just killed Lyla and Richard, the children likely would’ve inherited the property. They’d outlive Billy for sure, and he’d never get his hands on the bed and breakfast.
“By killing Kyle and Olivia, he was able to make Lyla and Richard look guilty, covering his own tracks, because if he killed them, they’d
