“Do you really think they would choose not to look over something that could be such an important piece of evidence?”
“I don’t know, but you’ve read some of the same true crime stories I have. Investigators aren’t always the best at taking things seriously, and it seems they missed something huge when they decided Lyla and Richard were responsible when it seems Billy is clearly the most likely suspect.
“I’m not familiar enough with them to know for sure. So, I do think we should hand it over to be safe. Maybe it’d be even safer to look over it ourselves first though. I could spend the rest of the evening reading, and hand it over tomorrow.”
“That could be a good idea,” Ezra agreed.
The sound of the crackling fire filled the space where their words were supposed to go. Ezra was working through hefty thoughts he wasn’t sure he could carry. Living in a murder mystery was much more complicated than simply reading about one. Each step had to be calculated, but it still felt like they were making the wrong ones.
“Do you think we should talk to Nathaniel about it?” he asked. It was the question that first popped into his mind when she showed him the diary, but he suspected Clara wouldn’t react well to it.
“Nathaniel?” Clara asked. “Do you think that’s a good idea? This further proves his father probably killed them. That gives him reason to kill us.”
“I still don’t think he’d kill us though,” Ezra said.
Ezra had thought a lot about his interactions with Nathaniel, trying to puzzle out ahead of time if he’d be a danger to their family. He was trying to find something he missed. He couldn’t come up with anything, even thinking about things as critically as possible.
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I just don’t think he’s the type. He could provide us further insight into the fight though. We know what Lyla was thinking, but he could possibly help us understand where Billy’s mind was at. That information is most important anyway. We need to know if he was upset enough to kill them. We need to know if he was capable of that sort of thing.”
Clara was surprised Ezra was still even considering talking to Nathaniel, but he did have a point. The diary only gave them one side of the story, and it was one marred by frustration and anxiety. They still didn’t really know what kind of person Billy was. They didn’t know what his thoughts were outside of the interaction.
Furthermore, even Lyla admitted that Billy deserved the raise he wanted. She wasn’t entirely honest with him about it, so it made sense why he was upset at her. It didn’t necessarily mean he was a bad or irrational person. Yet being justified in his anger also served to make him more dangerous.
“I don’t know,” Clara said. “It still seems risky to talk to him. There’s got to be another way we can get into Billy’s head. Besides, how would you even approach him about this after your last conversation? It sounds like he was pretty upset. I think the last thing he’d want to do is help us figure this out.”
“Can’t blame him,” Ezra said. “If he’s innocent, I kind of accused him of something awful.”
“I still don’t think he’s so innocent,” Clara assured him. “Though he could be useful either way. Maybe you could lure him into a conversation if it comes to that, but it’s such a risk. Maybe we should read the diary first and go to the police station. If they still won’t take this seriously, then we could talk to Nathaniel.”
“If the investigators talk to him first though, he might already be on guard and less likely to talk to me if I approached him. If I approach him first, he might be more willing to talk to me than he would an investigator since he knows me.”
Clara was skeptical, though mostly she didn’t want Ezra taking that kind of risk. She needed him now more than ever. She trusted Nathaniel less than ever.
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “After the conversation you had, he’d likely be defensive around you too.”
Ezra leaned back and curled his body around Clara. He kissed her shoulder, deep in thought. This was all too stressful. It seemed there was no good way to go about this, and he was starting to doubt they’d ever be able to rid themselves of the property’s dark past.
“He still needs to pick up his last check,” Ezra said. “I’ll text him about that and try to talk to him while he’s over. Or I’ll at least see if he’s open to a conversation. If he’s still furious and super defensive, I’ll back off and leave it to the investigators. But if he’s cooled off a little, I’ll bring it up with him and see if I can fish any more information out of him.
“I’ll try to be a little more careful than last time. I’ll find a nice way to broach the topic. I just think it’d be helpful if we could get him to share more about his father, and sometimes you have to take a risk to get what you want.”
“I suppose,” Clara responded. “I just think…” Her words were cut off by her phone’s buzz. Clara glanced at the screen to see whose name had popped up. “Oh no,” she said, jumping up.
45
Are we still on for dinner tonight?
Clara and Ezra had forgotten all about their dinner plans with Brittany and Sam that night, and neither were in the mood to host guests.
“Should we cancel?” Clara asked. “We don’t
