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Everybody thought I murdered my father.
Red had no idea how to respond to a statement like that.
Billy Don spoke first. “Well, did you?”
“Of course not,” Garrett said. “But I guess I’d say I didn’t do it even if I did, right?”
Garrett was grinning, like he enjoyed the fact that they didn’t know for sure.
“But he was murdered, right?” Billy Don said.
“Well, of course he was,” Red said. “Would they think somebody murdered him if he wasn’t murdered?”
“Hey, it could’ve been some sort of accident that looked like murder,” Billy Don insisted.
They both looked at Garrett for confirmation.
He said, “At first they thought it was suicide, but—”
“Suicide!” Billy Don said. “See, Red? That means it coulda looked like murder when it really wasn’t.”
“But the medical examiner said it was inconclusive,” Garrett added. “So we don’t really have an answer. It could’ve been an accident.”
Red wanted to ask for more details, but only a moron would be that insensitive.
“Did he shoot himself or what?” Billy Don asked.
Like that.
“He fell off the roof of our house,” Garrett said. “Might’ve slipped, or maybe he jumped. Nobody knows for sure.”
“So you musta been up there with him, right?” Billy Don asked. “I mean, if they thought you—”
“Yeah, I was up there,” Garrett said. “That’s what made it so weird. It’s a metal roof and we were replacing some of the screws. It’s a two-story house and it backs up to a ravine, so it’s a pretty big drop from that side of the house. At least forty feet.”
“Your dad was some kind of financial guy, but he was up there on the roof, replacing screws?” Billy Don asked.
“He liked to do that sort of thing himself,” Garrett said. “He was kind of old school.”
Billy Don nodded approvingly.
“Did you see him fall?” Red asked.
“No, I was facing the other direction, driving a screw.”
Likely story, Red thought. He couldn’t wait to share all of this with Mandy, who was coming over later.
“But why would he suddenly jump off a roof while y’all are working on it?” Billy Don asked.
“That’s the thing—it wasn’t sudden. Well, I thought it was, but I didn’t know what was going on, which was that my mom was about to divorce him. In fact, when we were up there, she sent him a text saying the papers were all drawn up and she’d be getting those to him. A few minutes later, he jumped. Or slipped. Personally, I think he slipped. It’s a steep roof and you have to be careful up there.”
“Dang,” Billy Don said. “That’s rough. Did he holler?”
“Jesus, Billy Don,” Red said. “That’s morbid.”
“But I figure if he slipped, he’d holler. But if he jumped, he probably wouldn’t.”
Red couldn’t believe it, but that was actually a good point.
“Yeah, he did,” Garrett said. “He sounded surprised.”
They all sat quietly for a moment as the fire popped and hissed.
“But wait,” Billy Don said. “Why did they think you did it? Did you have a reason to kill him?”
Red realized he still had his phone in his hand, the text to Billy Don unsent. He deleted it and stuck his phone back into his pocket. He wanted to see how this played out.
“Not really, no,” Garrett said. “But what the cops said—their stupid theory—was that my dad and I started talking about the divorce, and my dad told me he’d been cheating on my mom, which is why my mom wanted the divorce, so I got mad and shoved him off the roof. It wasn’t true, though. I mean the affair part was true, but it wasn’t true about me shoving him.”
Red said nothing.
Billy Don emitted a grunt that basically meant, Damn, that’s pretty wild.
“It would’ve been really easy, to be honest,” Garrett said. “I mean, think about it. If you’re on a roof, or a cliff, or a ledge of some kind, and it’s just the two of you, what’s to stop you from shoving the other guy off? How could they prove you did it without any witnesses or cameras or a confession? Sure, they could suspect you did it, but proving it beyond a reasonable doubt? How the hell are they gonna do that?”
Now the pendulum had swung back in the other direction, and Red was more convinced than ever that Garrett wasn’t as innocent as he claimed. Red had known men who enjoyed bragging about the crimes they’d committed. This was a slightly different angle. Garrett seemed to enjoy talking about a possible crime he claimed he didn’t commit.
“Who was your daddy cheating with?” Billy Don asked.
“The mayor’s wife,” Garrett said.
“Sounds like a damn soap opera,” Billy Don said, chuckling.
“Pretty much. I can’t believe I never knew until the day he died.”
“What about your mom? When did she find out?”
“A couple of months earlier. She never told me. I wasn’t living with them, so I had no clue they were having problems. Mom said she didn’t want to make me worry, and she thought I’d try to talk her out of it—and she was right.”
“So did you ever get arrested?” Red asked.
“No, it never got that far. The case is still open. But they don’t have any other suspects, obviously, and they had no way of proving it was or wasn’t suicide, so a lot of people made up their minds that I did it. That gets old real quick—people calling me a murderer. I said it was tough for the cops to prove what really happened in a situation like that, but the reverse is true, too. How was I supposed to convince people I didn’t do it? Meanwhile, the cops didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought about me.”
“We’ve been there,” Billy Don said. “Accused of stuff we didn’t do. It’s a bitch.” Then he laughed. “But most of the time, we done it, just like they thought.”
“It gives you a whole new perspective on what happens to people who are falsely accused,” Garrett said. “A lot of gossip was flying around, and everybody was treating me differently—like I was a killer—so I decided to take off. Who needs that shit, right? That’s why I hate the cops. They screwed me around bad. Ruined my reputation. Next time I deal with a cop...” He shook his head instead of finishing his thought.
“Does your mom think you did it?” Red asked.
“Well,” Garrett said, and then he didn’t say anything for several seconds. “She said she believed me, but I could tell there was a tiny bit of doubt. I mean, come on—who could blame her? We’ve all done stupid shit in the heat of the moment.”
“That musta hurt,” Billy Don said. “Your own momma wondering if you killed your daddy.”
“Yeah, it did,” Garrett said. “It hurt a lot.”
Red pondered all of this new information, and tried to square it with the dead body at the zoo. Wasn’t it a hell of a coincidence that Garrett had been near the zoo and he also happened to be a suspect in his own father’s murder?
After he finished eating, Albert told Horace and Annie he had to go to the bathroom, and when he was done, he quickly paid his tab at the register and snuck out to the Ford Fiesta.
He drove north on 285, looking for a place to buy a prepaid phone with cash, but once again, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a cop behind him. New Mexico State Police unit in one of their marked Interceptor SUVs.
Jeez. Bad luck? Or had they been on the lookout for him?
Albert took a right on Berrendo Road. So did the cop.
Maybe it was time to give up. The cops might offer to protect him. But how would they do that? Was it even possible? Could anyone protect him?
Albert reached a stop sign and came to a complete halt. The cop was still back there. Albert took a left on North Garden Avenue, careful to use his blinker. He passed Broken Arrow and Swinging Spear and Twin Diamond and the cop stayed right behind him.
He passed Sunrise Road and Mission Arch Drive and Three Cross Drive, and by now it was obvious the cop was following him. Right? But why wasn’t he pulling Albert over? Waiting for backup?
Albert was approaching a T intersection with Tierra Berrenda Drive, and now he had a decision to make. He took a deep breath, then flipped his blinker for a left turn. Came to a stop. Made the turn.
The cop took a right.
Oh, thank God.