By the time we reached my truck I was breathing a little easier. Still, I loosened my tie and shirt the minute I was inside the truck.
We didn’t talk until she reached Holland Loop Road.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You’re all dressed up and probably wanted to extend the evening.”
“Don’t be sorry. We can do that any time. Is it your stomach?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s nothing physical. I’ll explain when we get home.” There was no way I was telling her my theory while she was driving.
“All right.” She reached over and patted my knee. “Whatever it is, we can talk it through, okay?”
“I know, baby.” I closed my eyes. Would she think I was crazy? I really hoped I was. Because if it was the state’s beloved Thom Richards who had killed Beth and Thea, then we were in deep, deep trouble.
I took off my tie and collapsed onto the couch while Carlie fetched me a glass of water from the kitchen.
“Here, drink this and then tell me all about whatever happened back there,” she said.
I took a grateful sip from the glass. Laying out my theory would be a relief, but at the same time I knew that it would affect Carlie as deeply as it did me. After I set the glass aside, I folded my hands together and turned to look at her. “This might sound insane, and it probably is, but I thought of something tonight.”
“Go ahead.”
“It’s about Beth.” I reiterated what Moonstone had said about Z’s age and that it had occurred to me tonight that Thom Richards would have been in his early twenties at the time of the murder. “He was married and certainly had access to Beth. They would have crossed paths a lot that year since she was the head cheerleader and he was the football coach.”
She brought her hands to her cheeks and took in a deep breath. “Mom and I came to this exact same conclusion this morning. Also, Moonstone called. She thinks there were others. Other girls.”
“Like Thea?” I asked. “He had her killed because she was going to tell the truth. Made even more dangerous if there were more women who might come forward.”
“It adds up that it could be him,” Carlie said. “But it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Seeing him in action tonight…I don’t know. We could be wrong.”
“There’s definite motive. He has a lot to lose. Even back then, he had a lot to lose. His career would’ve ended.”
“Unless he was sloppy with Thea, how would we ever prove it to be true?” Carlie wrung her hands. “A thirty-year-old case. The two women who could accuse him are dead. That’s what Thea was talking about the other night. She said she didn’t tell the cops something she should have. Something that would have led to the killer. Instead, she ran away from here and him too.”
“Maybe she was afraid of what he’d do,” I said. “After she saw that Beth had been killed, she must have been scared to say anything. How many more girls do you think there were? And do you think we could figure out a way to get them to talk?”
“If we could even find them,” Carlie said. “Is it odd he only taught for three years? Maybe his wife found out what he was doing and made him quit. I can remember my senior year he abruptly announced he was moving on to something else. They left town after that. Next I heard of him, he was running for a state representative spot.”
“If he had a pattern of this behavior, it wouldn’t have stopped just because he quit being a teacher. There are young aides and interns. If that’s his thing.”
“What do we do now?” Carlie got up and started to pace back and forth in front of my fireplace.
“Should we go to Ford? At least tell him our theory?”
She put up her hands in a helpless gesture. “We have no evidence. Not a bit.”
“Maybe Ford could find some.”
Carlie sat in the chair as she pressed her fingertips against her forehead. “He’s a powerful man. Without evidence, we have no leverage with Ford. He’s not going to call Richards in for questioning.”
It occurred to me then that Thea’s mom might know something. Even if she didn’t think she did at the time, looking back, the truth might come to her. “We could see if Thea’s mom will talk to us,” I said. “Maybe she knows something.”
“Ford said he was going to talk to her. If she knew something, he’d have told us.”
“Let’s go see her anyway,” I said. “We should pay our respects.”
Just maybe, Mrs. Moore would lead us to Richards. And we could all move on, once and for all.
21
Carlie
The next morning, I rang Mrs. Moore’s doorbell promptly at 9:00 a.m. When I’d called her at eight, she’d agreed to see us and said to give her an hour.
A minute or so later, the door opened. “Carlie?” Mrs. Moore asked.
“That’s right. And this is Cole Paisley.”
Her tired blue eyes flickered to him. “Come on in. Both of you.”
We stepped inside the house and followed her into the front room. She wore a cotton housedress similar to the one my grandmother had worn when cleaning or doing laundry. Overweight, she shuffled slowly across the yellow shag rug and was nearly breathless by the time she sat in a faded easy chair. The room smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, although I didn’t spot any ashtrays.
“Have a seat there.” Mrs. Moore pointed to a plaid couch. “I don’t have any coffee or I’d offer you a cup. So expensive I had to give it up.”
“No problem, we’re fine,” I said. “Thank you for agreeing to see us. I’m so sorry about Thea. I just saw her a few nights ago.”
“Thank you. She mentioned she
