Page 65 of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

“I don’t know. He didn’t really stick around long enough to find out.”

“How long did you two fish?” Dixie asked.

His expression hardened. “Why are you asking so many questions about Chuck Petty and our fishing outing?”

“We’re tryin’ to figure out why he would have left town immediately afterward,” Dixie said. “Maybe he had such a disastrous fishing experience with you that he decided he was givin’ up on Sweet Briar altogether.”

“I don’t know,” Tim said, starting to look agitated. “He wasn’t very talkative. He just hung out with me and fished, and then left.”

“What time did he leave?” I asked.

He turned his attention to me, as though just now realizing I was there too. “Around midnight.”

“And what time did you start fishing?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, “around nine.”

“On a school night?” I asked. According to Linda and her friends, this had all happened over spring break, but I wanted to see how Tim would respond to my question. If he didn’t remember the tiny details, I might be able to catch him in a lie.

He blinked at me. “Well, why not on a school night? Neither Chuck nor I were much into school.” Then a knowing look filled his eyes. “But it wasn’t a school night. We were on break.”

“That still seems strange to me,” I said. “You were fishing at midnight in April? What was the weather like?”

“How the hell am I supposed to remember what the weather was like?” he snapped.

“I heard it was rainy and cold,” I fibbed. I didn’t know that either, but I did know the weather in Sweet Briar in April, sothere was a good chance it had been raining. “We’re just curious why you’d be out fishing on a night like that.”

“It may’ve been cold,” he said, “but it wasn’t rainin’ that night. It had rained a bunch earlier in the day.”

“The creeks would’ve been overflowing if it was raining around that time,” Dixie said, “so I’m not sure it would’ve been good fishin’.”

“I done told you we weren’t fishin’ in a creek,” he protested. “We were fishin’ in a stock pond.”

“For catfish,” Dixie said as she snapped her fingers. “That’s right. So you decided to go fishin’ at a stock pond for catfish when it was cold. And you just so happened to bring Chuck Petty with you.” She was merely stating the facts he’d agreed to, but her tone held a hint of challenge.

Tim’s face reddened, and his hands fisted at his sides. “Are you callin’ me a liar, little girl?”

“I’m doin’ no such thing,” Dixie said cheerfully. “I’m just trying to get the story straight, is all. Here’s what I think,” she added, leaning closer. “I don’t think you went fishin’ with Chuck Petty. I think that you were found at the convenience store buying a gallon of milk for your momma or a pack of cigarettes, or something so that the clerk remembered seeing you there. But when you left, you didn’t go fishin’. You went home. And then a few days later, when the police came knocking, for some reason you told them you’d been fishing with Chuck Petty. What I can’t figure out is why you’re covering for him.”

Tim was quiet for a minute, looking flustered. Then finally, he said, “Look. I’m not the person you need to be talkin’ to. If you want answers about all of this, you need to be talkin’ to Rachel Swan. She asked me to tell the police we’d gone fishin’, and she promised to make out with me if I did.” He scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks turning crimson. “So I did. I was seventeen, okay? I was stupid. Then I was afraid to tell anybody becauseI’d lied to the police. Plus, Chuck left town, so I figured it didn’t make no matter anyway.”

“Seems like it matters quite a bit. If Chuck murdered Bethany Brewer and then left town,” Dixie said, “that means he got away with it.”

Tim scoffed. “Chuck Petty may’ve been a bully, but he ain’t no murderer. There’s no way he murdered that Brewer girl.” He glanced over at a customer who was waiting next to a shelf of dog food. “I gotta get back to work, and that’s all I have to say about the matter. But if you wanna know more about it, you’ve gotta go talk to Rachel Swan.”

He didn’t waste any time hurrying over to a woman with a toddler.

I studied him for a moment before I turned to my cousin. “We need to make a call to Magnolia. We need to press Rachel Swan, and I suspect the only way we’re gonna get her to talk is if we come clean and tell her what we really want to know.”

Dixie gave me a grim look. “Then I guess we better go make that call.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Summer

Dixie and I decided to order our lunch to go and head back to the office, since we wanted to discuss the case without having to worry about anyone overhearing—especially Maybelline. I texted Luke to let him know the change of plans and asked if he wanted me to pick up some lunch for him too. He told me to order the special, whatever it was, and he’d meet us at the office in fifteen minutes.

We ended up ordering four specials before we headed back, and Bill was happy to see the containers when we walked in.

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