If Catfish Had Nine Lives(92)

            “I can see them flirting, but could that have been what led to Teddy getting beaten or them yelling at each other tonight?”

            “I think that tonight Vivienne was irritated when she saw your brother with Opie, and she probably said something snippy to him. He probably said something equally snippy. Perhaps Teddy led her on a little. Just perhaps, though. I can’t tell you if there was more than that going on—but I’ll work on it. None of the people attending the convention are safe from being under suspicion, for either the murder or the beating. I still don’t know if the two incidents are tied together, but we’ll get it figured out.”

            Cliff sat up and reached for the pitcher of iced tea that was behind us. It was late, but we were sitting on the steps of my small back porch, decompressing from the evening of cowboys, poets, actors, and ghosts. My conversation with Jake had been brief. I told him the details of what I’d heard and he listened. Then he excused himself, saying he was tired and wanted to go home. I offered to drive him but he declined.

            I had taken a moment to be sad that Jerome might really be gone, but I knew he’d be back again someday, and I thought that someday might be soon. I figured I could always step in front of a bus and see if he appeared to save the day, but considering that tonight he showed up after the gun was fired—well, I might not want to test my luck.

            The mysteries of Astin Reagal and Joe and his letters gnawed at me, but if I’d learned anything from Gram, it was that I should never, ever, ever count on the ghosts. Maybe their disappearance was just a lesson I needed to learn the hard way.

            Still, I didn’t like having more questions than answers.

            “Refill?” Cliff asked as the pitcher hovered above my glass.

            I nodded.

            “So, no more ideas at all about who killed Norman Bytheway?” I asked.

            “No. Jim called me earlier with a little more information about our victim, though. He was living in Kansas City. He was on his own. No wife, no ex-wife, no kids, no pets. Jim found his parents—or the police up there found them. They saw a news report and finally called. They were devastated, as expected, but apparently they hadn’t seen him in over a year. They didn’t go into detail as to the reasons why.”

            “Where are they living?”

            “In Kansas City.”

            “I can’t imagine living in the same town as my parents and not seeing them for that long. There must have been a problem.”

            Cliff nodded, and I noticed the light from the quarter moon move over his face. “There might have been. Jim got a hold of a detective in Kansas City who will work on getting the full story. Hopefully, we’ll know more soon.”

            “Does Jim think that knowing the reasons for Norman and his parents not talking might lead to his killer?” I said.

            “Anything’s possible at this point. We don’t have much else to work with right now.”

            “Norman had no past connections to anyone at the convention?” I said.

            “Not that we can find, but sometimes people don’t share the truth that easily. Unfortunately, these things don’t always move as quickly as you’d like them to move.”

            “Don’t Teddy’s beating and Norman’s murder have to be tied together somehow?”

            “No, not really. There are a lot of people in town, Betts. Lots can happen and none of it be related to anything else. We’re much more prepared for a crowd in the summer, and Jim thinks we didn’t staff up well enough for this group. None of us thought it would be this big. When you get a crowd like this you just never know. Jim admits we should have had a twenty-four-hour presence at the campsite from the beginning. We didn’t. If an officer had been around, perhaps whatever happened to Teddy wouldn’t have happened.”