Page 57 of Rebels and Roses

“Because you couldn’t work. That’s rare for you.”

“True,” he conceded. “I guess I do feel a bit guilty. Tom came to me for help, and he ended up dead.”

“That’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. He shouldn’t have even come here to ask for your help. That was strange in and of itself. You said yourself that you two weren’t all that close when you were married.”

“We weren’t, and yes, it was a shock to see him here in town. But he did come here for help.”

“He thought someone was following him,” Jane said. “The paranoia could have been because of his drug use. You said that yourself.”

“Erica swears he wasn’t using before he came here. She swears he was off cocaine. He still drank a bit, but he wasn’t partying. She said that more than once when I took her back to the inn last night.”

“Addicts hide their behavior.”

“Yes.”

“But you believe her?”

“Let’s just say she was convincing,” Cooper replied, his fingers rubbing at his stubbled jaw. “But that’s not why I was thinking about Tom all night.”

“Okay, I’ll bite. Why were you thinking about Tom all night?”

Cooper turned his body toward her as he placed his cup on the coffee table.

“After I dropped Fiona and Erica at the hotel, I stopped at the front desk. I felt bad about Tom’s death and all so I thought it would be a nice gesture to pay their hotel bills for them. Kind of a surprise. After all, neither of them planned on coming here. They were here for Tom. Anyway, I was talking to the front desk clerk, giving him my credit card, and he let something slip that caught my attention. He was sort of talking to himself as he pulled Erica’s account up on the screen. She was here the night before she showed up looking for Tom.”

“Wait, what do you mean she was here? The day before?”

“Yes, she was here a full night before she started asking about where Tom was. You don’t think that’s strange? I think it’s strange.”

“And suspicious,” Jane said, completing Cooper’s unspoken thought.

“Yes. What do you think?”

“I think I agree,” Jane replied carefully. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions though. There might be a simple explanation. But there’s more here. Do you not believe that it was an accident? Are you thinking foul play?”

“Have I been reading my own books too much?” Cooper said with a shake of his head. “I just have a funny feeling about all of this. If I were writing this story, my detective would be saying that it doesn’t all quite add up. Tom’s paranoia, and then his death. His sort-of fiancée possibly hides when she actually arrived in town. It makes me stop and want to take a second look.”

“I’m just going to say the word out loud,” Jane said. “You’re thinking that Tom might have been murdered. That it wasmurder.”

“Am I crazy?” Cooper said, his head falling back and resting on the top of the couch cushion. “Am I seeing monsters around corners?”

“Let’s look at it logically,” Jane replied. “You’re the mystery writer. We have some suspicious events. Do we have means, motive, and opportunity?”

“This is why I ended up here,” Cooper said with a crooked grin. “You wouldn’t laugh me out of your place. You’d talk it through with me. Okay, let’s take the first one - means. It wouldn’t take a genius to find drugs in a college town. That’s the easy part.”

“True, but what about motive? Why would Erica - or anyone else - kill Tom?”

If what Finn said about Tom was true, the only thing that Tom would leave behind is debt. There would be what was left in his trust fund, but that would simply go back to the parents. Jane wasn’t sure how trust funds worked, to be honest, but that seemed to make the most sense.

“What are the usual motives for murder? Love, money, and revenge.”

“Don’t forget jealousy and lust.”

“I’m grouping those under love,” he replied. “Love, lust, and jealousy are all bound up together.”

“Someone can be jealous and not in love,” Jane pointed out. “If I went to my high school reunion, and Betty Sue had married my teenage crush so I shot her in the parking lot, it would just be jealousy.”

“But you thought you were in love with him. So, it’s love-related,” Cooper argued. “Can I say that I love debating these things with you at seven forty-five in the morning?”

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