All Things Lost (52 page)

     It was someone who was important to the case, she had said. I had narrowed it down to Caleb, Finnegan and Asher. I desperately didn't want it to be Asher. I needed to go over my notes and probably talk to them again but I couldn't bear the thought of seeing Asher right now.

     I went up to my room and got out the notebook that I had kept a running account of my investigation in, such as it was. I read over everything I had written, especially what each person involved had told me. I decided that it was possible Terry and Becky had lied, and if so then maybe they were the killers. I would start with them. If that came up bust I would move on to the main players.

     I was half-way to the Haynes' house when I remembered that Caleb was staying with them and there was a good chance I'd run into him. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but decided it was too late to turn back now and besides, I'd have to talk to him sometime. I just hoped and prayed that Asher wasn't there too.

     Someone must have heard my prayers because when I pulled up Asher's car wasn't in evidence. Becky must have heard my car pull up because she was at the door as I climbed out.

     “Are you here for Caleb?” she asked as I walked up.

     “Actually I'd like to talk to you if you don't mine.”

     Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Talk to me? Why? Caleb is out of jail, isn't this all over?”

     “They still don't know who killed Ira Cohen,” I pointed out.

     “Who gives a damn? We're all better off without him. Why do we have to dredge all this up again?”

     “Because no matter how terrible a person Ira Cohen was, no one has the right to be a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner. That's murder. And besides all that, I think someone has lied to me in the course of my investigation and I don't like being lied to.”

     “Are you saying I lied to you?”

     “No, I'm not saying it was necessarily you. Was it you?”

     “I don't have to stand here and listen to this.”

     “Did you kill Ira Cohen because he was abusing Caleb?”

     “This is insane! I would never kill anyone!”

     “Mrs. Haynes, I know about your son.” I said in a softer tone. She froze and all expression left her face. I felt horrible but I forced myself to go on. “It couldn't have been easy moving in next door to an abusive father and his helpless son. I wouldn't blame you if you just couldn't take it anymore. You did it for Caleb, after all.”

     “I didn't do anything for Caleb, not enough anyway, and not when he really needed it. We gave him a home when he needed it and he always knew he was welcome here anytime. We gave him food when he was hungry. We were here for him to talk to us if he needed to. But when it came down to really doing something, we never even confronted Ira. Maybe if we had done something more none of this would have happened.”

     “There was nothing you could have done,” someone said from behind her. She turned around and I caught a glimpse of Caleb. His eyes locked on mine and I could feel the anger seething just barely below the surface. “You've done more than anyone would have ever expected you to. You come on back inside and rest. I'll talk to Killian.”

     She moved in obediently and I wondered if she was used to following orders from the men in her life. Caleb took her place in the door way, then after thinking about it, stepped out and shut the door behind him.

     “What the hell do you think you're doing?” he snarled.

     “I'm trying to find out who killed your father.”

     “The only reason I could possibly want to know that is to give them a medal. I heard that crap you told Becky, what a load of shit. Whoever killed him did the world a favor.”

     “I can understand why you would feel that way, Caleb, but we have to find out who did this.”

     “No,” he said firmly, “We don't. All Asher asked you to do was prove I didn't do it. And you did that. Thanks. Now just drop it and let us get on with our lives.”

     “Why
did
Asher ask me to clear you? Why was it so important to him? Were you dating then?”

     “He was my friend then, and that's it. He's a good friend, you would know that if you weren't so busy pushing him away. He tries to help his friends. Maybe you can't understand that because you don't know how to be a friend.”

     I bit down on my lip so hard I thought it would bleed. I struggled to control my temper and managed, somehow, to succeed. “What happened between Asher and me is none of your damn business,” I said with an almost credible calmness. “It has nothing to do with this. So instead of talking about my relationship with Asher why don't you tell me about your relationship with Finnegan Byrne?”

     “That's none of your damn business,” he echoed my words from just a moment before; whether it was accidentally or purposefully I wasn't sure.

     “Actually, it is my business. You see, I've been thinking and one thing doesn't make sense to me. If you and Finnegan were lovers then what happened? Why are you suddenly with Asher? Did you get bored?”

     “Finn told you we were lovers?” he seemed caught off guard.

     “Yeah, that was his statement to the police, wasn't it? He told them you were lovers and that's why you went to his house that night you ran away from the group home.”

     “No, he told the police we were friends.”

     Now it was my turn to be caught by surprise. I was stupid not to have checked up on that. “He told me you were lovers.”

     “Why would he tell you that?”

     “Were you?”

     He didn't answer right away. It was obvious he was weighing his options. I couldn't help but think that whatever he told me wasn't going to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Finally he seemed to make up his mind.

     “We had sex sometimes, but we weren't in love. It was just a physical release, we were horny and we were there and it just happened.”

     “Spur of the moment with no planning?”

     
“Yeah.”

     “Lucky for you then that you had condoms and lube on hand.”

     “I may not be a boy scout but I'm always prepared.”

     
“Obviously.”

     “What's that supposed to mean?”

     Instead of answering, I asked another question of my own. “How does Finn feel about your new relationship with Asher?”

     “How would I know, we haven't talked about it.”

     “So you just dropped Finn?”

     “What do you mean dropped him?”

     “He said you were good friends; that you confided in him. Now that you have Asher you don't need him anymore?”

     “Look, I don't know what all Finn told you and I don't know why he told you what he did, but it's not like Finn and I were best friends. He was just there. We talked sometimes, we had sex sometimes, but that was as far as it went. I haven't had time to talk to him since everything happened and he got me released. I mean I thanked him and all but that's it.”

     “So you're saying that Finn lied to me?”

     “Not lied exactly, just stretched the truth a little; blew things out of proportion.”

     I wanted to leave here and drive straight to Finn's but had a feeling that as soon as I was out of sight Caleb would be on the phone. For a second the thought actually went through my mind to cut the Haynes' phone line, but then I decided I'd watched too many movies.

     I immediately began formulating a plan in my mind. For it to work I had to throw him off course. “Ok, you're probably right. Or maybe I just misunderstood him. Look, Caleb, I want to apologize if I've come across too strong. It's been hard with you dating Asher now and all, you know? But I want Asher and me to stay friends and if that's going to happen then we need to get along too, so truce?”

     I held out my hand and he eyed it dubiously, but finally took it. We shook hands but he pulled his hand back as quickly as he could as soon as I released it.

     “I'm going to see Asher next,” I told him. “We have some stuff we need to work out. Thanks for talking with me and being honest with me.” I hoped I sounded sincere. He eyed me guardedly for a few seconds but I guess he finally decided I was being serious because he gave me a little nod and turned back towards the door.

     “See
ya
, Caleb,” I called as I started back to the car. He gave me a little wave and let himself in. I was sure he was already heading for the phone.

     I drove my car a little ways up the road until I was out of site and then quickly pulled into a dirt logging road that cut off to one site. I jumped out and made my way back to the old Cohen farm and let myself into the barn. I found a place to hide and settled in. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if my plan worked and my hunch paid off.

Chapter 30

     I was crouching in a musty corner of the barn behind a moldering pile of straw waiting to see if my plan would work. There was a very good chance I would get nothing for my efforts except a cramp in my leg. I was glad I didn't have allergies, because even without them my nose was starting to twitch. I warily watched a spider the size of a Volkswagen pick its way towards me across the ground and wondered if I was going to have to kill it and, if so, would I need a missile launcher to do so.

     I was distracted from my arachnidan thoughts by a scuffling noise from the direction of the window. I ducked down lower and peered out to see who my first arrival would be, all the while keeping an uneasy eye on my eight-legged friend.

     Caleb's head and shoulders appeared in the window frame, then a knee and soon the rest of him followed. He dropped to the floor and dusted himself off.
So far, so good.
My plan was working just the way I expected it to. I had known that my questions would rouse Caleb, and I had also figured that he wouldn't be able to talk to anyone on the phone there with Becky hovering over his shoulder. I had taken a chance that he would go to the barn for his unscheduled meeting. My biggest question now was who would be joining him here? Would it be Finn or Asher?
Or had I missed someone altogether?
I didn't think I had though. If I was a gambling kind of guy I would have laid money that it would be one of the two of them.

     Caleb settled down on an old upended bucket to wait and my mind began to drift as the spider moved off into the shadows. A lot depended on who showed up. I knew something was going on beneath the surface, beneath what everyone had been telling me. Judy had told me, and my gut
confirmed,
that someone was lying to me. All my instincts screamed that Caleb was hiding something. But who
was
he conspiring with, and what were they conspiring about? Did Asher and Caleb know who killed Ira?
Could they be working together to protect that person?
That was the best case scenario as far I was concerned. I could see Asher doing something like that if he thought it was for the best, especially if Caleb cared about this person very much.

     The other possibilities were a lot less attractive. Maybe Asher really did know who killed Ira and really was protecting them…and maybe that person was Caleb. Could Asher fall for a murderer? Maybe, if he felt the murder was justified, as I was sure he would have convinced himself this was.

     Or maybe Asher had killed Ira to protect the boy he was falling for. That was the one I liked the least. I somehow couldn't bring myself to really believe that, but the idea was still there, lurking like Novak's malevolent sofa in the back of my mind. I'd suspected him of murder one other time, of killing Seth in a jealous rage. He'd been so hurt that time. It had taken a long time for us to heal from that wound. But part of me knew that Asher could and would kill if he felt it was necessary to protect someone he loved. I, of all people, knew that potential lay inside all of us.

     But I couldn't forget about Finnegan. He still played into this somehow. I wasn't as quick at coming up with scenarios when it came to him. He could have been lying about Caleb coming to his house that night. If he was, then what did he hope to gain from that? If he and Caleb were sleeping together was it as casual as he'd led me to believe?

     Maybe Finn knew that Caleb had killed his father and he was covering for the boy he loved. Or maybe Finn had killed Ira and that's how he knew that Caleb hadn't. But why would Finn kill Ira?
To protect Caleb?
It all seemed so far fetched. Maybe I was just wasting my time. I'd just have to wait and see who showed up and what they said.