Page 94 of Every Deadly Suspicion

“You should. I know it’s all old news, but Marcus tells quite a tale. He claimed that Joe planned the murders, that was why he was able to hide the bodies.”

“The confession makes no statements that could be construed as premeditation.”

Betty drank her coffee. “Thinking back to those days, there was such a big problem with meth.” She tsked. “It got a hold of Edda’s son, Bobby; it got my Sophia. Back in the 1990s meth was everywhere, and it was so addictive. Like fentanyl is today. We tried to help Sophia, for Amanda’s sake, get off the drugs, but she was hooked.”

“Probably didn’t help that my dad was her friend.”

“Before the murders, I thought Joe was cleaning up his act. There was an incident. Sophia was badly burned when a trailer with a drug lab inside exploded.”

“Did my dad have something to do with that?” Hanna asked.

Betty shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. I always blamed Blake. I never cared for him. He was a bad influence all the way around. But he was Amanda’s father, so we tried to accept him.”

“That DEA man, Gilly, he came by and asked about it. He talked to us. He hated meth as much as we did. His brother was hooked. He thought Joe was involved in the trailer explosion, but he couldn’t prove it. And after the incident, Joe tried to change, we saw that.” She nodded toward Jared. “He worked for your dad for a while.”

“Really?” Jared perked up. “Doing what?”

“Landscaping. I paid attention to what your dad was doing, Hanna, because I thought if he got off the meth, maybe Sophia and Blake would too.” Betty shook her head sadly. “It wasn’t to be. Blake would never give it up, and Sophia would never give up Blake. Even with the burns, she held on to that guy.”

“Where was Marcus when all of this was happening? Was he friends with Blake and Sophia? Part of the druggie crowd?” Jared asked.

Betty frowned. “That’s testing the memory. I vaguely remember him hanging around, always on the periphery. He was Blake’s friend more than anything. I remember Sophia didn’t like him. I was friends with his mother. I don’t believe he was a drug user. If he was, he kept it well hidden from her.” Betty paused as if trying to remember. “She thought the world of her son, spoiled him, really.”

Looking at Hanna, she said, “You were seven or eight years old when Marcus self-published his book. That was around thesame time his mother passed away. He inherited her house, but I don’t remember what year that was. He was an outsider, I think, desperately wanting to belong somewhere but not really belonging anywhere. Does that make sense?”

“Yes. The house he lives in, he inherited from his mother?” Hanna knew the beautiful Victorian house at the edge of town. Town lore said that the home was one of the first homes built in Dry Oaks in the 1850s.

“Um-hmm.” Betty tapped on her chin with an index finger. “His ancestors built that house. It’s been in his family since day one. For a time, it got a little run-down, but his parents restored it. He’s kind of let it go a bit, which is sad to see. It’s really a beautiful place.”

“I knew it was a historic home but not that it was his family’s.”

“It might have been in probate when your mother dated him.”

“All I remember about Marcus was the books. He always had a lot of books.”

“You should talk to him about that time. He probably will remember more than I do.”

Betty was right. Hanna hadn’t thought about talking to Marcus before because what happened when she was a kid made her prefer avoidance. Her mother had bad-mouthed Marcus almost as much as she bad-mouthed Joe. His book did more to blacken her father’s reputation than the actual investigation.

Betty continued. “He tries so hard, but I don’t think he’s going to achieve his goal. Will you two be going to Edda’s celebration-of-life service?

“What? Oh, I’d almost forgotten. That’s tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll be there,” Jared said.

“It was good to talk to Betty,” Hanna said as she and Jared walked back to her car.

“I’m glad that she impressed upon you how useless it is to beat yourself up over the past that you can’t change.”

“She did. I’d still like to try and clear my dad’s name.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

Hanna started the car. “First, I’m going to the library to read Marcus’s book. You want me to drop you back at your truck?”

He shook his head. “We used to spend a lot of time at the library. I’d love to join you.”

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