Page 60 of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

“Sounds like a solid alibi to me,” Rachel said, her back stiffening.

“But I still don’t understand why he ran away,” I said. “You’ve said that his father was tough on him, and he wasn’t very bright, but why would he skip town just a month or two before his high school graduation? Was he not going to graduate?”

“I have no idea about that,” she said, her irritation showing. “I didn’t have access to Chuck Petty’s report cards. I just know that he struggled with school and people gave him a hard time about it, and he beat them up when they did.”

“Rachel,” I asked, my voice stern, “do you think Chuck Petty murdered Bethany Brewer?”

Her gaze held mine, and I could see tears filling her eyes. “I wasn’t there that night,” she said. “I don’t know what happened. Everything else is pure speculation. It happened over forty years ago and it’s in the past, and that’s exactly where we need to leave it.”

Standing, she said, “I need to go feed my chickens. I hope I’ve answered all of your questions, and you two have a nice day.”

Then she walked around to the back of the house, leaving us both still sitting in our chairs.

I turned to Dixie, and she looked just as startled as I felt. One thing was for certain: Rachel knew more than she was telling us, and I had to figure out how to get her to spill it.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Summer

Dixie and I got back in my car, and I pulled onto the highway, trying to figure out what to do next.

“I want to look at the Brewer property again,” I said, turning on my blinker when I saw the entrance to their property up ahead.

“Okay,” Dixie said. “Are you looking for anything specific?”

“I want to check out the location where Bethany’s body was found. Even if we don’t know the exact spot, wedoknow she was found next to the stock pond.”

“Do you think you’re actually going to find something?” she asked. “It happened over forty years ago.”

“It’s not like I expect to find the rock that someone hit her in the head with or anything,” I said. “I just kind of want to get a feel for the land. I can’t help but think that Rachel is hiding something. I just don’t know what yet, but maybe if we look around, it’ll jog something loose.”

“It definitely can’t hurt,” Dixie said.

We parked in front of the dilapidated Brewer house and headed toward the barn. As we got closer, I realized it was in worse shape than the house and looked like it could fall down with a strong wind. We didn’t go inside, although part of mewanted to, but it wasn’t safe and I doubted we would find anything. Definitely not worth the risk.

Instead, we walked behind the barn and down a path between two overgrown fields until we found a pond several hundred feet from the house. It was about thirty feet in diameter, but there was a berm on one side, like it had once been fed by a creek and someone had blocked it off.

Dixie had brought the police report with her, so she opened it up and looked for the description of where Bethany’s body had been found.

“It says on a small hill,” she muttered, looking up, “so I’m guessing it was the berm.”

“Agreed,” I said. We both scanned the area around us, then glanced back toward the house to see the back of the barn, which obstructed the view of the house.

“So let’s say a stranger came back here and murdered Bethany,” I said. “Her parents wouldn’t have seen anything from the house, but how would the murderer have gotten back here unseen? They would have had to park a car somewhere. If they parked it on the Brewers’ land, surely the parents would have noticed.”

“By stranger,” Dixie said, “are you referring to Chuck Petty?”

“Of course the thought occurred to me,” I said. “It seems just way too coincidental that he left town around the same time she was murdered. The question is why would he murder her.”

“Good question,” Dixie said. “Are you thinking they parked somewhere else?” She gave me a pointed look. “Like Rachel’s place?”

“If the murderer parked on Rachel Swan’s property and walked over, that would mean he knew about the path, which would mean he was familiar with the land,” I said. “And, supposedly, he wasn’t friends with any of them. In fact, hetormented Lila. I highly doubt she would have invited him over and then showed him around.”

Dixie shrugged. “You’re right, but it would still be a way someone could get on the property without being seen.”

She was right, of course. Just because everything didn’t make sense right now didn’t mean it wasn’t a piece of the puzzle.

“What about the note?” I asked. “It was addressed to L from T. L would be Lila, not Bethany, but who’s T?”

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