I nodded. “Skip, how have you been?”
He took a deep breath and then breathed out. “I guess I’m all right. Yesterday was Richard’s funeral. It was tough.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “How are you doing? And how is your mom doing?”
He shook his head and glanced away. “I guess we’re doing as well as we can. Mom sure is struggling, but you know how she is. It doesn’t matter what happens to her, she always finds a way to push through.”
I nodded. “Your mother is a strong woman. When your dad died, she had a tough go of it, but she took care of you boys just the same.”
He looked at me and smiled sadly. There were tears in his eyes as he nodded. “She sure did. I guess me and Richard gave her a run for her money though.” He chuckled. “Richard certainly did.”
“Most teenage boys do give their mothers a run for their money,” I said and chuckled. “I hope you didn’t give her too tough of a time.” Jared had said that it wasn’t only Richard that had been difficult for their mother, but Skip as well. Skip appeared to be the quiet one, and I wondered what kind of trouble he had gotten into.
He nodded, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah, for a while there in high school I had a tough time making it to school. They were constantly calling my mom to tell her I was truant, but eventually, I straightened out.”
“You had your own rebellious period?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that. I think I was just mad at the world when my dad died. I was different from Richard, though. He got into drugs, and for a while, I just refused to do what I was told to do.”
“Thank goodness you never dabbled in drugs,” I said, watching his reaction.
He looked at me and shrugged. “To be honest, I tried them a couple of times. But it just wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t understand anybody wanting to take something that messed with your mind and your emotions. I just wasn’t that kind of person.”
I nodded. “I know what you mean. I’ve never been that kind of person either. It’s a shame that some people do get stuck in them, though.”
He nodded. “Yeah, Richard never got completely free. But you know, I’ve been thinking about things, and it surprises me that he died from a drug overdose, even if it was a weird prescription drug overdose.”
I looked at him. “Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “When he got fired from his job last year, he swore that he was going to change. He promised Della that he would never do drugs again and that he would be on his best behavior, so she gave him another chance. I didn’t believe he could change, but he did okay for a long time. He was starting to exercise and eat better and take care of himself.”
“Really?” I asked. “He was serious about turning his life around? I don’t mean to gossip, but I heard he was out drinking the night before he died.”
He looked puzzled now. “That’s surprising because he was trying to clean up his life. He even he got me hooked on those protein shakes from that new vitamin shop that opened up a few months back.”
“The new vitamin shop?” I asked. I had heard there was a new vitamin shop in town, but I had never been in there.
He nodded. “Yeah, you can go in there and buy a protein shake or fruit smoothie, and they’ll add shots of vitamins or supplements or whatever it is that you’re looking for. They taste pretty good. It kind of surprises me. When Richard started talking about them, I thought for sure they would be awful. But they make the protein shakes taste like a regular shake.”
My brow furrowed. “Really? They taste like an actual shake? Like the ones you get at a fast-food place?”
He smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t say they taste exactly like an ice cream shake, but they’re not bad. They’ve got smoothies, protein shakes, and all kinds of health drinks there. You should stop by. Everything I’ve tried has been pretty tasty.”
“I need to stop in there then,” I said. “It’s probably better for me to go there for something to drink rather than the coffee shop after a run.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, you probably consume a lot of sugar and caffeine from a drink at the coffee shop. I’m not that big on exercise, and I guess I’m not much of a health nut, but he kept bragging on them and telling me to go and try them out, so I did. I think someone at work told him about them.” He shrugged. “If it’s good for you and it tastes good, I don’t mind it. As long as it doesn’t have a terrible aftertaste.”
“It sounds interesting,” I said. “So you don’t think he would have been out drinking the night before he died?”
“It would surprise me if he was.”
I nodded. “Maybe they were mistaken, then.”
He was quiet for a moment, his eyes on the fountains in front of us, then he turned to me. “So Alec really thinks Richard was murdered?”
I nodded. “From everything that we know, he believes that it’s murder. Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He was getting his life back on track. Why would someone kill him? He was trying to stay away from all the people he knew when he was doing drugs. But at the same time, I can’t imagine why he would take a drug that he didn’t know anything about. If he was keeping himself clean, and I really believe he was, why would he even mess around with it?”
I shook
